Rebuild drama - go for the safe bet or the cheaper gamble?

[swbsam]

Here's the scenario:

1) I want a media playing/hook up to my 1080p LCD TV deal
2) I don't want to spend a lot of money

I originally started this as a project to rebuild my dad's old Pentium D system - old school, agp and DDR 1 memory sorta beast

I already ordered a cheapy (350w rosewill) case and power supply and finally just opened up my dad's old computer, to start the transplant.

His CPU fan is obviously broken (broken fins) and another purchase awaits me.

What would you do?

1) Buy the $21 fan, and hope that nothing else is broken

or
2) Screw it and just salvage the hard drive and dvdrom, purchasing $10 ram, $40 cpu, and a $45 motherboard (whatever I can buy at that level, there are options)...


I have a pci-e video card lying around, if that changes anything..

 

[dbk]

fan costs $21? You don't have a frys or a microcenter nearby?

 

[swbsam]

Originally posted by: dbk
fan costs $21? You don't have a frys or a microcenter nearby?

nope, unfortunately. there's circuit city/best buy and that sort around

 

[dbk]

I say if that old computer can handle your needs then just buy a fan and hook it up. You could probably find a heatsink cheaper in the For Sale section

 

[LordMorpheus]

Also, you can check to see if everything is OK by powering it all up with the bad fan for a short period of time.

 

[DVad3r]

I will not support you in downloading a massive amount of torrents illegally and watching them on your TV sir. Throw your PC off the nearest freeway bridge immedietely.

 

[FDF12389]

Originally posted by: DVad3r
I will not support you in downloading a massive amount of torrents illegally and watching them on your TV sir. Throw your PC off the nearest freeway bridge immediately.

Fixed.

 

[PieIsAwesome]

$21? What kind of fan is it? Take a look in FS/FT and maybe pick one up for much, much less. If mounting it is a problem just take any reasonably-sized fan for the heatsink and tape it on.

 

[Black88GTA]

Run it with the case open, ordinary household fan turned on high, aimed straight at the heatsink? Should provide plenty of cooling, plus give you an idea if the PC works or not. If so, buy cheap PC fan and reassemble. If not, do the second thing.