CPU upgrade to goodwill find

[ahenkel]

Trying to put together a new tower for as cheap as possible found this for 30 bucks at goodwill.

Antec sonata W 450w PSU
Gigabyte 965p-ds3 motherboard
Pentium D extreme 965
8800gt
4gb of ddr2
150gb original raptor drive
ide dvd drive

All in all a decent machine it needed a new cooler (push pins shot) dropped in a stock spare. it posts everything looks good.

I added a 60gb SSD

The biggest glaring issue is the CPU. I'd like to put something in a little more powerful and modern for 775 in it and I'd like recommendations. I've got a maximum budget of 50.00. I figure this is more than enough for a 775 CPU with more oomph.

 

[AViking]

It's a 7.5 year old CPU that at best might be able to be upgraded to a 6.5 year old CPU. Just keep that in mind. Not sure what you're going to use the PC for or the revision of your MB but look at what prices for a Core 2 Extreme QX6800 (which is probably the best you can put in there) are and see if your motherboard is the latest one or can be updated. For $50 I don't think you're going to get very far. A Q6600 is around $100 but maybe you can score one cheaper on ebay.

 

[ahenkel]

PC is just a gift for my brother he's been rocking a single core athlon 64 with 512mb of ram and onboard video. One of those dear lord how can you keep using this machines.

I know he'll use it for light gaming the fallout series and the old AVP series he'll play on 720p tv or an old 18.5" 1366x768 monitor I gave him.

I did check the rev its 3.3 and the bios is updated. So any cpu will work

 

[AViking]

I honestly can't remember the performance difference as a percent between each of those CPU's. If I were you I would look at a few old charts and see if it's worth the $50. What you're giving him might be fine as a decent upgrade. Let him be the judge. You can always give him the CPU upgrade later if it's needed.

 

[mfenn]

I think I'd look for something really common like a Q6600 or Q8400 rather than trying to get something "extreme". Actually, a fast dual core like the E8400 would probably be a better match and cost you less.

 

[ahenkel]

I was bouncing between a q6600 and an e8400. I've seen e8400's for under 50 at star micro. The quad would take me out of budget.

 

[LOUISSSSS]

Trying to put together a new tower for as cheap as possible found this for 30 bucks at goodwill.

Antec sonata W 450w PSU
Gigabyte 965p-ds3 motherboard
Pentium D extreme 965
8800gt
4gb of ddr2
150gb original raptor drive
ide dvd drive

All in all a decent machine it needed a new cooler (push pins shot) dropped in a stock spare. it posts everything looks good.

I added a 60gb SSD

The biggest glaring issue is the CPU. I'd like to put something in a little more powerful and modern for 775 in it and I'd like recommendations. I've got a maximum budget of 50.00. I figure this is more than enough for a 775 CPU with more oomph.

Hey Pal, I just upgraded to a new computer. I had an old Q6600 that i haven't used in the last 2 years. It booted up fine the last time i used it. I actually have a full MB + 4gb Ram. I had the Q6600 OC'd to 3.6ghz stable. The CPU is 100% unmodified and passes all stress test




You cannot sell outside of the FS/T forum.


esquared
Anandtech Forum Director

 

[sm625]

Yeah go with the E8400. He'll just have to make sure there arent any parasitic processes running in the background chewing up entire cpu cores.

 

[Throckmorton]

Is that 450W PSU enough for a quad core with that 8800GT??

 

[DaveSimmons]

A faster 3+ GHz core 2 duo might be better than a slower quad (6600 = 2.4 GHz), since older games are less heavily threaded.

 

[VirtualLarry]

that's pretty noble of you to "rescue" a PC like that, and save it from a landfill.

The E8400 is cheap enough, and you could probably even OC some.

 

[dbcooper1]

Since he's been getting by with a single core CPU, he'll probably get a better performance difference from a higher clocked dual core than a quad that's clocked a bit lower.

 

[escrow4]

You added a SSD to a system that should have remained at the tip? There is zero reason to use something that primitive - a G1610 + B75 board + Corsair CX PSU will suck way less power and be as fast as an E8400 plus you get modern SATA 3 + USB 3. If price is a problem then save up and use a system worth using. Standard smartphones are faster than that box.

 

[VirtualLarry]

You added a SSD to a system that should have remained at the tip? There is zero reason to use something that primitive - a G1610 + B75 board + Corsair CX PSU will suck way less power and be as fast as an E8400 plus you get modern SATA 3 + USB 3. If price is a problem then save up and use a system worth using. Standard smartphones are faster than that box.

I don't think it's quite that bad. Plus, upgrades are relative. If his bro is using a slow single-core, then the move to dual-core (esp. with SSD!) should be a night and day difference.

Assuming that he goes ahead and orders the E8400 from ebay (thinking about a couple of them myself for that price), then that rig would be comparable to a G1610 rig. Granted, power consumption might be twice what a G1610 rig would draw, but it's not a huge deal.

 

[Throckmorton]

Doesn't Windows XP have issues with SSDs?

 

[ahenkel]

You added a SSD to a system that should have remained at the tip? There is zero reason to use something that primitive - a G1610 + B75 board + Corsair CX PSU will suck way less power and be as fast as an E8400 plus you get modern SATA 3 + USB 3. If price is a problem then save up and use a system worth using. Standard smartphones are faster than that box.

Where can I get all that for around 85 dollars?

 

[escrow4]

Where can I get all that for around 85 dollars?

The second part, save up more:

- G1610 - $35 at Microcentre

- 4GB RAM stick - $30

- B75 mobo - $55 or so

- Corsair CX 430, $20 AR

 

[ahenkel]

Doesn't Windows XP have issues with SSDs?

Not running XP

 

[DominionSeraph]

The second part, save up more:

- G1610 - $35 at Microcentre

- 4GB RAM stick - $30

- B75 mobo - $55 or so

- Corsair CX 430, $20 AR

Case - $30
Hard drive - $40
8800GT - $30
DVD-R - $15

This when a e8400 is faster than a g1610.

 

[Hubb1e]

You added a SSD to a system that should have remained at the tip? There is zero reason to use something that primitive - a G1610 + B75 board + Corsair CX PSU will suck way less power and be as fast as an E8400 plus you get modern SATA 3 + USB 3. If price is a problem then save up and use a system worth using. Standard smartphones are faster than that box.

Smartphones aren't faster than a Pentium D yet. I did a recent test on my single core Athlon 64 at 2.4ghz and 1.5GB of ram and this CPU posted scores on Kraken that were 2X what my quad core Snapdragon 600 at 1.9ghz could do. With a fast dual core near 3ghz he would be doing very nice for basic web browsing and could even play some older games.

I'd go for the dual core with higher clocks. It will be faster in the workloads he'll likely use it for, is cheaper, and I expect that machine to last him another 5 years as a basic internet machine if it doesn't crap out or run out of ram before that.

 

[escrow4]

Smartphones aren't faster than a Pentium D yet. I did a recent test on my single core Athlon 64 at 2.4ghz and 1.5GB of ram and this CPU posted scores on Kraken that were 2X what my quad core Snapdragon 600 at 1.9ghz could do. With a fast dual core near 3ghz he would be doing very nice for basic web browsing and could even play some older games.

I'd go for the dual core with higher clocks. It will be faster in the workloads he'll likely use it for, is cheaper, and I expect that machine to last him another 5 years as a basic internet machine if it doesn't crap out or run out of ram before that.

Snapdragon 800+, not the older 600. And that single core would struggle with 8, assuming it even has the CPU extensions to support 8.

 

[Hubb1e]

Very few phones are running an 800 class CPU in them and it's still not 2X faster than my 600. And the single core feels just fine running Windows 7. It's not a multitasking powerhouse but with Chrome running it loads webpages about as quickly as any other machine I've used since it's still mostly network limited.

 

[VirtualLarry]

OP, there's someone in the CPU forum looking for an EE Pentium D CPU.

 

[mfenn]

Case - $30
Hard drive - $40
8800GT - $30
DVD-R - $15

This when a e8400 is faster than a g1610.

Yeah, that build would work out to $255. That's greater than $30 + $26 = $56 last time I checked.

 

[ahenkel]

OP, there's someone in the CPU forum looking for an EE Pentium D CPU.

Thanks I'll check it out