Fixing a P4 build for a family friend. Need cheap graphics card used.

[TurtleCrusher]

Here's another idea. ASRock J3455B-ITX Intel Quad-Core Processor J3455 Mini ITX Motherboard/CPU Combo

J3455 Quad Core 1.5Ghz-2.3Ghz Boost
2x laptop DDR3 slots (2x2gb $20, 2x4GB $35 on ebay)
Intel HD 500 (12 Exec units @ 750mhz, complete modern feature set)
Full size PCI-E slot
2x SATA 6gb
3x USB 3.0, 1 USB 2.0, 2xPS2
We're talking 15w total board power.

J3455 Passmark - 2138
Pentium 4 HT Passmark - 358

$63.

 

[Hans Gruber]

Ok, computer finished and returned to customer the other day. I removed the PCI-E card because there were issues with latency. Ran stock SATA I 140MB read/write to SSD.

My new project PC is an old Dell Optiplex 790 with i3 CPU. Similar to what Scholzpdx suggested on page 1 of this thread but with a better (i3 vs. Pentium dual core) CPU. This will go in my garage. I have a 8800GT in my spare parts bin. I will put in a 120GB SSD and one of my legendary Samsung F3 1TB spinner drives. Will upgrade the power supply to a EVGA 450w bronze or 500w or 550w power supply. Whatever I get cheap. Win 7 or Windows 10 probably both. I needed a cheap box for my Blu Ray burner drive again parts bin. My current rigs are without optical storage.

So far my cost for this new project $63 with shipping. I will get this up and running and then add parts piece by piece.

Thanks for all the feedback on my thread.

 

[Hans Gruber]

Ok, final update. My project Dell Optiplex 790 was upgraded to an I5 2400. It arrived today. swapped out the DVD burner for my LG blu-ray burner that had no home. Ordered 4GB of additional DDR3 1333mhz 2GB x 2. So 8GB will be the amount of ram on 2GB x 4. Will re-paste the CPU with AR 5 and clean the dust off the heatsink. Pulled one of my 128GB Toshiba SSD's from one of my legacy thinkpad T500's. That one has a T9900 CD2 @ 3.06ghz. Put in one of my Samsung F3's 1TB drives. The F3 has two 500GB platters.

Will put in the additional 4GB of ram when it arrives. This is a garage PC so I have an old ViewSonic 19" 4:3 1280x1024 monitor. It has DVI connectors. I will be putting in my old nvidia 8800GT, it's all I have that is decent in PCI-E in the parts bin. The other plan is to put in a 450w power supply and upgrade the graphics card down the road. This will be my server type PC with all the ISO files and testing software. I was using a thinkpad for this purpose for years.

Flashed the bios to latest bios installed Win7 Pro 64bit. Still contemplating if I should upgrade it to Windows 10.