Hardware upgrades on 12 year old stationary PC

[MariusMM]

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[[TC] Kyle]

What motherboard have you got mate?

[MariusMM]

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[Barney [CA]]

Yay. Oldschool. My system is/was roughly the the same. Same cpu on an Asus p5q pro and a sapphire radeon 3850, all roughly 12 years old too. Still good enough for 100fps in lfs...
couple of years ago i „updated“ it aswell... just put another 2x2GB ram for a total of 8 in(10-20 euro or so?!), got a geforce 560 ti from a friend, got a intel q6600(4x2,4 ghz) for 11 bucks running smoothly at 3ghz and a 120gb ssd for windows 7 and programs/games. That combined with a clean system is good enough for lfs, rocket league and even gta v. For a minimum of expenses a rather good update. Everything else didn’t make sense to me.
If you are willing to spend more you‘d need to upgrade the mainboard too and go for an i5 or i7 and, with new ram, be at much higher costs.

€: oh well, if you r not really into hardware, overclocking probably isn’t an option. Apart from a little more ram, a ssd and a clean install theres not really much to update i think. But it’s something at least.

€2: the „faster“ quadcores don’t really make sense, as they are still slower than your current cpu, cost more and are not so good for overclocking. You‘d have an advantage when running more programs at once, but singlecore tasks as lfs run even slower... you will definitely feel the updated ram and ssd though.

[MariusMM]

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[Barney [CA]]

You can not mix ddr2 and 3, and most likely your board doesn’t even support ddr3. Look what you got inside and buy roughly the same on ebay. But be aware, theres always the possibility of two different sticks not properly working with each other. Best chances if you buy exactly the same.

The best cpu for socket 775 is the Intel® Core™2 Quad Processor Q9650 with 4x3ghz i think. Might get it on ebay for 30-50ish euros.

Personally i prefer samsung evo ssds. Always have good reviews but im not much into that.

€: actually, to not have the risk of not matching ram, i‘d just buy 2x4 of the same brand on ebay. Should be around 20-30 euro. If i did that few years ago it might even have my old 4gb flying around somewhere...

[MariusMM]

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[[TC]►Dizzle◄]

I fully support what you are trying to do. Upgrading old PC's used to be something I did for fun.

Just FYI - You can catch some businesses or schools and such getting rid of good computers when updating their systems. The last one I bought was an I5 system for $100 USD. I popped in an ssd and a 7 series gpu and its super capable for barely any money spent.

[Brendon]

It's always nice to read something, what I exactly have done in the past months (since August 2018)

I had the same case as you, I upgraded an old Fujitsu Esprimo P5600 from "scratch", I had no GPU, and I had 4GB DDR2 and an Intel Q6600 to work with. As soon as I assembled the system and installed Windows, I realised, it runs games with a very low framerate (LFS on Low 10FPS). Next day I went and bought a 9600GT which I used for the next 4 months (until new year).

In these 4 months I overclocked the CPU (original 4 x 2.4GHz) to 3.0GHz and also overclocked the GPU slightly. I could run LFS maxed out and the FPS stayed stable over 100. It was an excellent experience for the money (20€ in total).

For christmas, I got a 16:9 1920x1080 monitor and realised that I can't really run games over 30-40 FPS, which have good graphics on high e.g. ETS2, so I searched for a new graphics card.

Begin of January I went and bought a GTX 550 Ti for 15€, which also got overclocked already. I got problems with the Power Supply afterwards, PC turning off when under load. it was a 230W PSU inside so I went for a 450W PSU for 15€. So here I am, with a 40€ budget PC, it can run even some "new" games well, for my shock, it can even run GTA 5 (only on normal settings tho) 1080p around 50FPS. ETS 2 stays over 50 FPS 70% of the time, settings on high, scaling on 100%.

So I think, if you don't want to spend a lot of money, just go and get a decent GPU, and, if you want, another CPU (I only have experience with Core 2 Quad Q6600, really stable CPU and very capable of overclocking), get a new Power Supply and enjoy.

Specs:
Motherboard: MSI-MS7379VP ver4.0 G31M
CPU: Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 @ 3.0 GHz
RAM: Hynix 4GB DDR2
GPU: Zotac GTX 550 Ti (OC 950-> 1000Mhz ; 2000-> 2100Mhz)
PSU: chieftec??? 450W PSU (no clue, it was cheap)

Good luck and don't give up

[Barney [CA]]

(2019-01-14 00:00)MariusMM Wrote:  I found a Intel Core 2 Quad Q9550 + cooler for about 35 pounds, will that work on my motherboard, and will it make a difference from my current CPU?

That will work. All socket 775 cpus will work and i think the Q9550 is the second "best" with 4x2.8ghz. just slightly less ghz than your current, but more cache and more cores. The only better with 4x3ghz is the Q9650.
As mentioned above and confirmed by Swift, the Q6600 is better for overclocking and slightly cheaper, but if you cba to get into that, go for the 9550 or, if you find a cheap one, a Q9650. Both definately an upgrade compared to your current cpu.

Of course you can try a cheap SSD, but i'd always go for Samsung(850 EVO or seagate). Never let me down...

I'd suggest to not buy 2x2GB ram. Always the risk of them being not compatible. I bought some used 2x4GB so i would suggest the same, but i think my old 2x2GB could fit into your system so you could try them and if that fails buy used 2x4.

ram (Click to View)

check your current sticks, they might be the same. i could send these to you. feel free to pm.

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€: oh, just recognized i got 4x2GB kingston. you get those on ebay from china for under 20 euros

[MariusMM]

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[Barney [CA]]

CPU Central Processing Unit. GPU (Graphics Processor Unit), yes, thats your graphics card. if you really only play lfs, not much need to upgrade that too. but as swift and i did, a decent old GTX 560 / 580 or above is rather cheap and a good upgrade to your current card.

One thing we totally forgot is your operating system. To be able to use more than 4GB ram you need 64bit Windows.

Im not too sure if it makes sense to go for more than 8GB ram and i think the prices are way higher for the 4GB sticks.

[MariusMM]

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[Barney [CA]]

You currently have a 32bit windows, but for more than 4GB ram you’ll need and are able to use 64bit windows.

There is some ram that only works with amd, although some still work with intel better pick ones that are explicitly for intel or check you mainboard manual for verified sticks.

[Brendon]

Hey there,

About the RAM, I have only 2x DDR2 RAM sockets on my motherboard and therefore I was also searching for 4GB DDR2 RAM sticks, but I only found 4GB sticks for AMD chipsets? I don't exactly know, but I thought max. capacity of a DDR2 stick is 2GBs. Just saying this to make sure, it will actually work with your motherboard and if it does, then I'm also interested in those 4GB sticks. Would be awesome..

Barney already explained what CPU and GPU is, and yes you DO have a GPU, it's your 9800 GTX, which should actually be more powerful than my old 9600 GT, I think it's not your main problem.

Not being able to play Youtube 1080p videos can also refer to lack of RAM or a lazy CPU, which, I think is in your case, because 2 core CPUs are nowadays as good as extinct. As you said, it's a good idea to go with a Q94xx or a Q6600, I don't know about the Q94xxs, as I said, the Q6600 is a cheaper alternative, which likes to go into overclocking.

But I think, a 9800 GTX should be more than enough for a game like LFS, but yeah as we said, if you want to play some better looking games, go for a GTX 5XX / Ti and you will have a lot of fun.

Not to forget, your new GPU will most likely need to eat a lot of power, so don't forget to upgrade your Power Supply, or it can cause serious issues. I'm lucky, because mine detected the lack of power and turned itself off, but in worse scenarios it can destroy your motherboard too by giving it too much power.

A cheap Power Supply I bought is a Chieftec (something) which has 450W and is more than enough for a GTX 550 Ti (seems like).

@Barney I would also ask you something, how high could I go with the GPU before bottlenecking it by the Q6600? Don't get me wrong, I'm also very new to this whole PC thing, I'm doing it since August 2018. So is the 550 Ti the absolute limit ? I was thinking about getting a GTX 660 Ti next and as last, since its PSU limit is exactly 450W, has 2x 6 pin connector, would be ideal for me, but the question is, if my GPU will hate it. What do you think? thanks.

[SO•Audiojack]

(2019-01-14 17:53)Swift Wrote:  But I think, a 9800 GTX should be more than enough for a game like LFS, but yeah as we said, if you want to play some better looking games, go for a GTX 5XX / Ti and you will have a lot of fun.

Not to forget, your new GPU will most likely need to eat a lot of power, so don't forget to upgrade your Power Supply, or it can cause serious issues. I'm lucky, because mine detected the lack of power and turned itself off, but in worse scenarios it can destroy your motherboard too by giving it too much power.

A cheap Power Supply I bought is a Chieftec (something) which has 450W and is more than enough for a GTX 550 Ti (seems like).

Man, that GTX550Ti is a right power hog considering the lack of processing power... My laptops external GPU setup has a GTX750Ti and it packs twice the punch for half the watts. "Cheap" is always relative of course but you can most likely get one for less than 50€ at this point.

https://www.videocardbenchmark.net/compa...i/16vs2815

[Brendon]

(2019-01-14 18:33)Audiojack Wrote:  Man, that GTX550Ti is a right power hog considering the lack of processing power... My laptops external GPU setup has a GTX750Ti and it packs twice the punch for half the watts. "Cheap" is always relative of course but you can most likely get one for less than 50€ at this point.

https://www.videocardbenchmark.net/compa...i/16vs2815

I don't know as I said, I'm also new to this
So the GTX 750Ti would be a better choice than the GTX 550 Ti if I got it right? Thought the 750Ti prices are in the sky lol

[MariusMM]

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[Brendon]

RAM is plug n play, but if you use 32 Bit Windows OS, then it will only use 4GB out of 8GB. And no you don't really have to worry about anything.

[MariusMM]

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