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TwinsenTacquito

TwinsenTacquito

Senior member
Apr 1, 2010
821
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Hey guys, I have a cousin of a friend that bought a Dell a couple years back after being told it was a bad idea. So we got a pile of parts laying around to start with, and I think they can be of use. This actually shocked me. Most of them I haven't seen, but here's the info.


  • Use of the new system: Gaming, COD4 mainly
  • Budget: Probably under $400, depends on the CPU reuse or not
  • Country: US

What we got:
~6 1GB RAM sticks, 2 are 5-5-5...15? 800mhz. He's gonna be rocking whatever ends up being faster when I get to actually see them. Probably the old 5-5-5-15 sticks and 2 of the Dell sticks. I'm guessing they're 800mhz or worse and not identifiable as they're OEM Dell. I'm just gonna look at the settings in BIOS and decide from there.
~Intel Core2Duo E6700, it's a 1066mhz FSB with 4mb cache at 2.66ghz (probably going to be the bottleneck, but he's muy pobre)
~An old ATX case
~I assume his Dell is all SATA drives, so he probably has some SATA HDD and SATA DVD-RW most likely, gonna throw in a IDE DVD-RW for shits and giggles, his cousin is giving the poor kid some parts
~XP 32bit, already is limited at 3.5 or 3.3GB of RAM or whatever it is, I told him that at some point Vista x64 would be best for him. It'll be more compatible with his older stuff than Windows 7, and it'll give him DX-10 and that full 4GB of RAM.

What I was figuring is that everything else is junk. He sent a pic of his motherboard and it looks like a microATX with absolutely no room at all for a vid card.

Here's what I've put together as a guess for parts.
~$130 Mobo - 775 socket with PCI-X 2.0, there's probably a cheaper option out there
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813131377
~$170 GPU - 5770
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...-363-_-Product
~$75 PSU - 500 watt Antec
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817371007
I've become an ASUS fanboy. Wanna fight about it it?! :D I like to think I'm up on this stuff now... but man I know I should ask you guys.

Thanks for any help you can give! It looks like a $375 system upgrade, but I bet it could come down $30 on the mobo.
 
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MisterDonut

MisterDonut

Senior member
Dec 8, 2009
920
0
0
Get Win7. Re-use that CPU, and the rest you picked is perfectly fine. Of course a quad will be faster, but it looks like you're not gonna be able to fit it into your budget, and the GPU is gonna make a bigger impact than the CPU would.

If you live near a Fry's, you can look into getting one of their AMD CPU + mobo combo deals, snagging a used 5770, and picking up that PSU. 4G of RAM should be enough (though 4x1 is a little odd). If not, you might still be able to scrap a Propus + motherboard together if you can find a cheap deal on the 5770.
 
HumblePie

HumblePie

Lifer
Oct 30, 2000
14,665
440
126
One thing you can try if you are a gambling man is to unlock an AMD proc. Also, if you plan on keeping the dell case, chances are you are going to need a micro ATX board. Dell rarely does full ATX computers unless you buy a higher end system from them.

AMD Athlon X2 5000+ (deneb based core) for $40 ish (sometimes there is a $5 coupon)
http://www.ewiz.com/detail.php?name=AD5000OGJ

Good Asus max board for $70 to unlock the CPU
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813131595

You'll need a decent heatsink and one that probably isn't too tall for a Dell case. For the price this should work at $20.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16835103064

Keep 4GB of the memory he has for the system and sell the other 2 sticks for about $30-$40.

For a power supply, you don't need fancy for a single GPU setup at all. This HEC brand is one of the best for the price at about $30 shipped from newegg (sometimes $20 shipped with a promo code)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817339009

There are better power supplies though and some real good deals for some refurbished ones out there. If you aren't comfortable with a $30 PSU, and want to spend a bit more, make sure you are getting your money's worth.

Now you have enough power and enough money to upgrade to a good video card. Personally I would go with a 5850 with the budget you have left if you go with my previous suggestions. Right now ewiz has the powercooler brand 5850 for $270 after $30 promo code bite30 is used
https://www.ewiz.com/detail.php?name=PC-5850PCS

However, if you must save some money, a 5770 is still a great card. For $135 it's a tough card to beat
http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/Produc...rodlist=search


So lets see, if you were to order now that's
$40 cpu
$20 heatsink
$70 mobo
$30 PSU
$280 video
-----------
$ 440

Sell off the 2 sticks of DDR2 for $15 each to get $30 back and you are just about at your budget with a great system! Especially great if you get all 4 cores unlocked and overclocked.

Now if you must stick to under the $400 rule, the switch to the 5770 will drop the price $140 and that leaves you a little bit to play with if you want a decent hard drive or optical drive or something.

It really just depends.


Also, you can reuse the CPU you have and get an OK motherboard but the unlocked quad AMD will blow the current CPU he has out of the water.
 
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TwinsenTacquito

TwinsenTacquito

Senior member
Apr 1, 2010
821
0
0
I'm not overclocking or unlocking on this computer, thanks for the write up on it. I haven't read it, but I'm about to for my own information right after I post this. The person using this computer is about as computarded as they come. You know, the kind of person that wouldn't drive a used car because they can't change a tire. Different strokes, right? I got an old AMD Athlon x64 4X00+ laying around here. I'll probably just give it away though. Might as well do it here on this forum.

I figured somebody would see a deal to save this kid a few bucks, so thanks for that as well. Me and my friend (his cousin) think he's still making payments on the Dell and a dirtbike. He just can't play any of his games because of the $1,500 Dell that's set up to post good bench running Spider Solitaire. I'm gonna request to keep his old case and motherboard. They're fun to blow up.


Saving the kid $30 is a big help. Thanks for your time again, guys!


Oh, reading your post, he does have a Micro-ATX case, but my friend (his cousin) has an old one I'll be using for the build. I even have a 380watt PSU new in it's box sitting here. But I got no build to use it. Looks like one more thing to give away.

Ok, good stuff. Here's the build as it is now. Because of course, after doing all this the kid says, "Oh, I don't knowwwww..." even though when my friend told me to step in and give him advice, he had planned on buying a 5750 that wouldn't fit in his case (micro-ATX) or on his motherboard (CPU in the way) and his mobo doesn't even have a PCI-X 2.0 slot. SIGH! So because of him "not knowing", I'm not gonna rely on combo deals to piece it together. Because it might take him a month to decide. Hopefully we can talk him into it so he can be running a decent setup.

$27 PSU
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...zrat3-_-Power+Supplies-_-Compucase-_-17339009
$162 GPU
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...mmc=OTC-C173T-_-Video+Cards-_-ASUS-_-14121363
$124 MOBO
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...rat3-_-Motherboards+-+Intel-_-ASUS-_-13131377
$313 upgrade before shipping. $5.99 shipping.
$319 total. That should be easy news to break to him.

So how bad is this stock clocked Core2Duo going to hold him back? Right now he says he's going to be playing COD4, so for that application it should be overkill. But I gotta install Crysis and find out, right? 2Cliche2Handle.
 
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