You can use IDE on some 1155 boards, and even an adapter SATA -> IDE would be cheaper than a new HDD or a simple PCI controller, and if he wants to play games, money for the CPU/Graphics card is more important than a new HDD. He can always get a faster one later, that's no problem, but starting without graphics card or a crappy one is a problem. Or maybe he even wants to get an AMD CPU (due to lack of money maybe, since Intel is better), IDE would not be a problem at all then. And as I said, some boards support IDE + Intel anyway.Penguin wrote:PSU definitely won't be any good, case will be terrible as well (it's clearly a pre-built). DVD drive / HDD may be IDE - incompatible with Sandybridge setups.
A pre-built PC case would suck, but I also had a pre-built PC 6 years ago but I've put it in another case with a new PSU so I could use both when I bought new hardware 3 years ago - how can you know he did not do the same? That's why I ask him. So unless he told us what exactly he has, we should not say "it's (im)possible". We just do not know it. And some pre built cases would also support new hardware. If fully depends on the case, and I doubt that you've seen it, that's why I asked. And we do not even know wether it was pre-built anyway.
So just wait until he told us some facts, until then stop saying "bla bla thats not possible", I just post ideas for the case they can be needed later, so far you can't say no to that. :)