Okay, to preface this post, I am a complete and total newbie when it comes to computer hardware. The most complicated thing I've ever done was to add some RAM sticks to a Dell machine years ago, and even that was accompanied by a whole ton of sweating on my part that I would completely destroy the system. As such, now that I've entered into a situation where it seems as though I need to start looking into new hardware, I have no idea what to do, and knowing that a lot of you guys are just about the best around, I figure I'd start asking questions here.
My current machine is a Dell Optiplex GX280 that I purchased almost four years ago when I started college. Here are the system specs right now, as far as I know them; I can go hunting for any additional info that's needed:
Pentium 4 3.0 GHz w/HT
160 GB Maxtor 6Y160M0 HD
512 MB RAM
ATI Radeon X300 64MB
Sound Blaster Live! 24-bit
Windows XP Professional SP2
Assorted DVD+RW drive, network card, etc.
I don't know what sort of RAM is in there or how exactly it's laid out (although I could easily visually check the latter), and I have no idea what kind of motherboard this is (nor what sort of ports it may or may not have available) or what power supply is in there, so those are elements I'd need help in ascertaining.
Anyways, I'm currently experiencing what I suspect is a rather severe problem. Over the past few months or so, my machine will intermittently go into a hard lockup for several seconds. It usually starts by the hard drive light staying steadily lit for a few seconds as the screen either partially or completely freezes. I'll sometimes hear what sounds like a very brief beep after that, and then my machine will start making a rather horrific series of rhythmic clicking-esque noises. These will sometimes continue for a good twenty to thirty seconds, at which point I usually turn the machine off manually. Other times, they'll stop and be followed by a short period of frantic hard drive activity, at which point everything that was frozen on-screen will rapidly un-lag itself. This phenomenon usually occurs completely at random and even if the hard drive isn't currently doing any discernible activities. It'll often repeat itself several times in a row, at which point I'll usually move to turn the thing off and on. Sometimes, this entire affair culminates in a lovely BSOD with the cryptic message \"KERNEL_STACK_INPAGE_ERROR\" at the top; Googling this didn't net me too much outside of Linux answers. (And once in a while, the BSOD won't even display any text, just a solid blue screen.) There are also a few times when the system will lock up for a second or two, make a single clicking noise, have a burst of HD activity, and then return to normal; these events are usually more spaced out than the previous ones and can go on for some time without resulting in a BSOD.
Now, the first time I noticed this occurring, I suspected it was a sign of hard drive failure, since I remembered people in this forum talking about the \"click of death\" in the past. On a few occasions, I've opened up the case (a real pain in and of itself, since it's a horrific clamshell design) and stuck my head in when the sound was occurring, and as far as I can tell it sounds like it is indeed the HD. (However, I had a friend tell me he had a similar noise that turned out to be a power supply problem, so take that as you will.) This would also fit with the fact that the machine seems to be taking longer nowadays to read and write data to/from the HD, even after it's been freshly defragged. (There was also this one occasion when, in a fit of not-so-intelligent rage, I kicked the case quite hard, and the thing immediately started making a sound that could only be described as sanding metal. I have no idea how it started up after that and managed to preserve all my data to boot.) In lieu of that suspicion, I've backed up the majority of my important data to DVDs; I really need to sit down and do the rest of it one of these days.
Now that I've described all of that, here's my central question. I've been toying with the idea of building my own almost-top-of-the-line system for a while now, and these problems I've been experiencing with this machine have made it look even more appealing. However, I won't have an actual job until I graduate from school this May at the very earliest, so gathering up the funds to build a brand-new machine could be an issue. Plus, I'm sure my family would gladly take this system after I'm done with it, if its current problem could be resolved in a simple-enough fashion. So, first-off, do you think that this problem is being caused by a failing hard drive, and if not, do you have any suggestions as to how to find out what its actual cause may be? Secondly, in either case, do you think it would be worth my while to pour a bit of money into 512MB of additional RAM, a much better yet still rather cheap video card, and whatever needs fixing? I'd be fine with a system of that level for the time being; the most graphically-intensive thing I play on here at the moment is FS2_Open, and that'd really benefit from even a moderate upgrade. It would still be useful to whomever I passed it on to, and I'd be able to build my own monster machine when money permits. Also, if I did go that route, would it be feasible to buy a new case and transfer the innards over, since the aforementioned Dell case is all kinds of awful and gets next-to-no airflow?
To anyone who made it through all of that text, thanks a lot for your time, and thanks in advance for any help you may be able to provide.
But this might give more good reasons to build your desired system.
