Seeking Opinions on Upgrades - Good/Bad Idea, Alternatives

[BobH]

Although I'm a bit embarrassed to admit it, we have no fewer than 8 personal computers - for just the 2 of us. (I think they might clone themselves at night, but I've never discovered on actually doing so.) We each have a desktop, laptop, iPad, and iPhone. The least used are the 2 desktops, but I just can't bring myself to get rid of them. I guess I'm a 'hoarder.'

I've been thinking about upgrading one of the desktops that started life as a Dell Dimension 1.8GHz system. I replaced the tower case long ago with a full ATX tower. I've also increased the power supply to 1000W and installed a floppy disk drive/card reader drive. I got frustrated with the original internal cabling and replaced it with the new stuff. I changed the video card out a couple of years ago, too, replacing the original with an NVIDIA PCIe card (but there are faster/better ones on the market these days). And, just to show that I never stop tinkering, I replaced all the fans with super quiet high velocity fans. This old Dell has 2 internal HDs and 2 external USB HDs giving me over a terabyte of storage. I also have 2 LCD monitors on this system one of which can be used with CATV or the computer.

What I'm contemplating is replacing the mobo with an Intel ATX that supports USB 3 and faster processing architecture plus adding and Intel i7Core quad processor. This will include 8GB (4GBx2)of DDR3 RAM. (Does anyone know if RAM types can be mixed? ie, would it be worthwhile to add the existing ram to the remaining available slots on the new mobo?)

This will give me a fat and fast machine, one that I can put Win7 on. With a new mobo and processor, the old Dell will be no more.

My goal would be to use the upgraded system as a TV server - much like a TIVO for time shifting programming - and as a video library from which I could call up movies to watch from its HD or from streaming video like Netflix. I would also use this as the core machine in a home wifi network (another subject about which I know almost nothing) allowing any machine that can log into the network the capability of writing/archiving to server storage and retrieving from server storage. Eventually, I would even add a small RAID array to grow the storage capacity and improve reliability. (Yeah! I know! Its a howitzer to kill mosquitoes and a hotel instead of a bedroom, but I like to tinker and learn new things.)

I can do the hardware upgrades - except adding a RAID array housing - for less than $500US. Because I don't need new HDs, CD/DVDs, case, fans, power supply, et al, I haven't really looked at just buying a new barebones system to get the processor and mobo I want; however, if I could get one without the peripherals (maybe just the one small HD) but with the RAM and Win7 license, that might be an option (I'd have to do some price and function comparisons which I've not done yet).

SO . . . .
I would appreciate feedback from all of you who like to get inside the covers. Is my strategy flawed? How? What would you do? Any suggestions for improving my strategy?

Tear into it guys and give me the good advice I always get here. Please.

[viking33]

Regarding RAM mix.
Generally you can't mix and match sets of RAM but the easiest way is to go to http://www.crucial.com" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; and use their excellent compatibility tool. Just enter in the name of your new mobo and it will give you options for that board. If you luck out and your old RAM is compatible, you win the hero of the day award but I wouldn't count on it.
I've always built my own systems and have found that with some research, you can come up with a great system at minimal bucks.
Another site located somewhere in your backyard in Texas is http://www.directron.com" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; where you can build systems in VR and do changes and different mixes without committing to anything.

[BobH]

Thanks, Bob!

I had seen specs on some mobos claiming that they could handle anything from DDR to DDR3 but I didn't know if that meant the types could be mixed. I rather suspected that they could not; so you answer is not a disappointment at all.

Thanks again for the response.