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Is my 2005 'beast' PC even worth giving away?

S

SkyBum

Senior member
My new i7 2600k rig is almost complete / Meanwhile my brothers 2001 HP prebuilt (heh) just died. I offered to give him whats left of my old components but now I'm wondering if he would be better off building from scratch. He would prefer to just chuck a few components into my old one and hope for the best. Kind of a quandry here, I think a new rig makes more sense, he just wants to keep the cost down.

2 options: (keep in mind he need only a VERY basic machine: internet/email/spreadsheets, no gaming at all)

Option 1: Give him what's left of my old rig:
Thermaltake Tsunami
ASUS A8N-SLI Deluxe
FX-60
2 GB PC 4000

And buy:
1TB HD
PSU
Basic GPU
DVD RW
Win7 (is win 7 even viable on this build or am I gonna have to try and find 4GB PC4000? as well?)
Guessing around $280 here unless ram is also needed.

Option 2:
Build from scratch using only my old case. Two thoughts here, one is just build it cheap as possible. The other is get him into a basic Z68 board so he could take my future CPU "hand me downs" through at least Ivy bridge...

Any suggestions on builds? it's gonna have to be cheap to compete with that first option.
 
That system is perfectly capable for basic web browsing. I wouldn't bother upgrading to Win7; while it is of course viable, I see no point in spending money on a new OS on an old system.
 
Since your friend is doing only very basic tasks I think your old "beast" of a rig should get the job done. I use a single core 1.6 ghz atom netbook for internet, emails and word processing and I find it OK. Having said that if you want to give your friend something better you could build him a cheap althon II rig. I'm not really sure how much faster the athlon II is than your FX-60 clock for clock, mb someone else knows and can chime in. I can't see him needing ivy bridge for his basic tasks so I wouldn't splash out on sandybridge.

Edit: having thought about it I would just give him your old rig and as for needing more ram 2gb is fine for basic tasks (my netbook only has 1gb).
 
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Does your old system work or does it need work? If it's fully functional, I see no reason why it wouldn't be a good fit for his needs.
 
You are going to need all this stuff anyway if you do a new build
1TB HD
PSU
Basic GPU
DVD RW
Win7 (is win 7 even viable on this build or am I gonna have to try and find 4GB PC4000? as well?)

Might as well just give him the other stuff and let him use it for awhile to see.

Honestly I think that setup is plenty powerful for basic tasks. Throw a decent GPU in there and he would be fine on WOW and D3 also. Its really not a bad system. You could pick up one of the cheap SSD deals kicking around the last few weeks and make it feel alot faster also (You would need Win7 then- explore student editions if you are a student).
 
RiDE said:
FX-60s still sell for ~$175-200 on ebay. 😀
Click to expand...

Heh, I really wish you hadn't told me that.... 😉

Max, I'm not worried about the old rig being powerful enough, I'm worried about the CPU or mobo dying on him 6 months from now...
 
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Well, for what it's worth, I've still got my socket 939 box running OK. My mom has my socket 754 box running ok, and My cousin has one of my old Barton boxes running OK. All of them are used regularly. I have a P4 box that I boot from time to time as well, these days I just use it as a file backup dump ...

So, IMO, the CPU should "last", the mobo should "last", the Ram should last.....


If you can get over $100 for the CPU, it might be a smarter decision to sell the parts, and use the proceeds towards a Llano based box ... something that uses significantly less power might save $5-10 a month on the electric bill, which over years and years... will add up ...
 
You mentioned wanting a Z68 motherboard. Well, the cheapest replacement for your existing parts with that is:

ASRock mATX Z68: $103 with shipping (Has onboard graphics that'll be just fine.)
G530: $57
1 stick 2GB DDR3: $11
Total: ~$171 with shipping

But for general computing, aside from maybe NetFlix HD, I can't think of a reason for a CPU even that powerful. Which leads to a Llano box or Dell as above.
 
BurnItDwn said:
Well, for what it's worth, I've still got my socket 939 box running OK. My mom has my socket 754 box running ok, and My cousin has one of my old Barton boxes running OK. All of them are used regularly. I have a P4 box that I boot from time to time as well, these days I just use it as a file backup dump ...

So, IMO, the CPU should "last", the mobo should "last", the Ram should last.....


If you can get over $100 for the CPU, it might be a smarter decision to sell the parts, and use the proceeds towards a Llano based box ... something that uses significantly less power might save $5-10 a month on the electric bill, which over years and years... will add up ...
Click to expand...
:thumbsup:
 
SkyBum said:
Heh, I really wish you hadn't told me that.... 😉

Max, I'm not worried about the old rig being powerful enough, I'm worried about the CPU or mobo dying on him 6 months from now...
Click to expand...

Well, getting to use a free computer for 6 months is better than no computer in my book. :awe:
 
deluxe mb...quality component should last a while longer, so yea dual core for web is good enough. wouldn't be hard to build a faster machine even with lower end mb/cpu but its still extra money..especially cuz of the ram.
 
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