Modern celeron or pentium faster than an amd x4?

[slackerinabox]

My dad has an ancient desktop that I built for him maybe 9 years ago that has been randomly shutting down. I no longer do the computer fixing for the family thing so I don't really want to get into troubleshooting (I think it's the psu, but who knows)- since he's cheap what cpu is a good baseline? His current system is an Athlon II x4, and he doesn't complain about performance

 

[hojnikb]

pentium G4400 would be a good replacement.
Much more power efficient, iGPU and socket ready for beefier cpus.
I would slap an SSD in there, just for the extra wow factor.

 

[coercitiv]

His current system is an Athlon II x4, and he doesn't complain about performance

Put together a G4400 and see where it leads you budget wise. Try to add a SSD, it does wonders.

If I had to choose a desktop system for my father, I would go for a Intel NUC or Gigabyte Brix with i3 6100. It will be a bit more expensive than a clasic G4400 build, but it's tiny, silent, and sips power. Both vendors have models that can also accommodate a 2.5" drive besides an M2 SSD.

 

[dave_the_nerd]

Yes, they are faster, but only if they are the "Big Core" versions like the dual-core G4400, not the "J" series or similar Atom derivatives.

 

[Leyawiin]

If you're going to build a new system with a new power supply why not buy that part first, stick it in the old PC and see if that stops the random shutdowns as you think it might. If he's happy with the old thing and that might be all it takes why not try it? That is unless you just want to spend his/your money and build a new one for the enjoyment of doing so.

 

[dark zero]

Buy a new poder supply and a SSD.

That helps a lot to that X4 and also the power supply might solve the shutdown issue.

 

[Denithor]

Dell i3 with 4GB for $100:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Dell-OptiPl...602629?hash=item3d146b9fc5:g:td8AAOSwHaBWl9Ip

Add this 240GB SSD for $64.
http://www.amazon.com/SanDisk-Plus-240GB-2-5-Inch-SDSSDA-240G-G25/dp/B00S9Q9VS4

Install Windows 10 (just download ISO, burn to disc, it pulls Windows key from BIOS).
Done.
Enjoy!

 

[Yuriman]

I second the NUC idea, if you're going to replace most everything. You can get a low-end NUC for little more than the cost of an entry-level desktop PC.

 

[JimKiler]

I just upgraded my Athlon X2 7750 to a Phenom I X4 and it still works great with an entry level GPU and an SSD. I can even play Torchlight 2 on it. But it works for desktop apps and the internet.

 

[myocardia]

AMD CPUs of that era had no ability to throttle. Clean his heatsink for him. He's still most likely going to need a new PSU, if only because of the massive amounts of dust inside of it, after 9 years.

 

[VirtualLarry]

If you're going to build a new system with a new power supply why not buy that part first, stick it in the old PC and see if that stops the random shutdowns as you think it might. If he's happy with the old thing and that might be all it takes why not try it? That is unless you just want to spend his/your money and build a new one for the enjoyment of doing so.

This. Get a new PSU, try it out and see if the old PC stop crashing. Clean out the fan, and put on fresh thermal paste. If you can, put in an SSD. Maybe keep the HDD for data, and do a fresh install on the SSD.

I have a client, that I sold a S775 E3300 2.5Ghz C2D to five years ago. It was powering off on them suddenly, under high load. I sold them a replacement PC that had twice the RAM, was newer and faster, for half of the price they originally paid.

I told them, that I would transfer all their personal files off the old PC for them too.

So, I cleaned the dust out of the PSU and CPU fan, and now I can't get it to shut down running OCCT.

Guess that they just need a cleaning, and not just a whole new PC. But maybe it's better this way, their old HDD is five years old, and they moved up from C2D with GMA, to a SB Pentium with an NV GT430.

 

[slackerinabox]

Thanks guys! I don't plan on building him a system, I was thinking a dell refurb and I personally don't own another psu to test (I went 100% Mac 5 years ago). Cleaning the cpu heatsink is doable, thanks for that suggestion! Not to thread jack, the shutdowns are truly random - sometimes it's during load, other times he's playing solitaire.

Otherwise an i3 or that sky lake pentium seems like a good bet!

 

[MiddleOfTheRoad]

AMD CPUs of that era had no ability to throttle. Clean his heatsink for him. He's still most likely going to need a new PSU, if only because of the massive amounts of dust inside of it, after 9 years.

What?
Athlon II's had Cool N' Quiet. It was primitive, but it throttled down all the time under light processing to save power.

 

[VirtualLarry]

I've got a friend with an Athlon II X4 640, 3.0Ghz quad-core, on an ASRock AM2+ board, with DDR2. I recently hooked him up with 16GB of RAM, and I've had him on an SSD for like 3, maybe 4 years. (Started with a 30GB, barely enough for Win7, and moved to a 120GB a year or so ago, when the 30GB started showing performance issues and "pausing".)

I want to hook him up with my Skylake i3-6100 rig, but he doesn't have any spare money right now.

Edit: The Athlon II X4 is kind of like C2Q-era performance. Not bad, but not the greatest these days. It's competent, though, for browsing.

 

[TeknoBug]

I second the NUC idea, if you're going to replace most everything. You can get a low-end NUC for little more than the cost of an entry-level desktop PC.

3rd for NUC.

AMD CPUs of that era had no ability to throttle. Clean his heatsink for him. He's still most likely going to need a new PSU, if only because of the massive amounts of dust inside of it, after 9 years.

AMD Cool'N'Quiet has been around for a while.

 

[myocardia]

What?
Athlon II's had Cool N' Quiet. It was primitive, but it throttled down all the time under light processing to save power.

Throttling and Cool N Quiet have nothing to do with one another. Zero. Throttling is when the bios tells the CPU to start running lower speeds because of either the CPUs temp, or because of the amperage being drawn, and has nothing at all to do with amount of load on the CPU. Cool N Quiet never, ever, ever happens unless there is close to zero load on the CPU. CnQ is designed not to be able to use the lower multiplier that it uses, if the OS is requesting CPU cycles. Throttling is for one thing only, to keep you from destroying your CPU. Cool N Quiet exists only to let your CPU fan run at lower speeds, when the CPU is idling, and also to save a few watts of power usage.

 

[frozentundra123456]

Yea, that old athlon is not bad actually. It is close to the G4400 in multi threaded passmark, but of course trails badly in single threaded. My son is still using one and has no problems or complaints that I know of. Just shows to me the advantage in longevity of a desktop. His desktop is still going strong, while nearly everyone I know with a laptop from that era has had to replace it at least once or twice.

 

[slackerinabox]

Yea, that old athlon is not bad actually. It is close to the G4400 in multi threaded passmark, but of course trails badly in single threaded. My son is still using one and has no problems or complaints that I know of. Just shows to me the advantage in longevity of a desktop. His desktop is still going strong, while nearly everyone I know with a laptop from that era has had to replace it at least once or twice.

Yes - this is the problem, ha! It's too adequate - photoshop, windows 10 (buggy drivers aside), and of course office buzzed along on the ssd I added, so I'm worried he's marching into an upgrade that he won't notice. I'm actually trying to get him to go with a chromebox, I have 2 kids now and just don't have the time to troubleshoot the mess that windows 10 seems to be. It's currently at least 2 hours every time I visit, smack into dinner time with my own kids. He's in his 80s, "old dog, new tricks." He HATES windows 10 and is confused by it. My mom loves her chromebook but he's a photoshop guy and will need his local files, I'm confused myself. Maybe a cheap macmini?

This is why i'm confused about it being a psu issue - I booted using a chrome usb launcher and ran the system without random reboot for hours. Also, safe mode works just fine. I spent 4 hours the other day tracking down background tasks and updating drivers to no avail, I'd suggest a clean install but he doesn't know how to backup and restore, or even how to install windows so it's a 10 hour+ task relying on slow usb 2.0 (maybe even 1.0, sheesh) external hard drives.

 

[Denithor]

Thanks guys! I don't plan on building him a system, I was thinking a dell refurb and I personally don't own another psu to test (I went 100% Mac 5 years ago). Cleaning the cpu heatsink is doable, thanks for that suggestion! Not to thread jack, the shutdowns are truly random - sometimes it's during load, other times he's playing solitaire.

Otherwise an i3 or that sky lake pentium seems like a good bet!

LOL. That's exactly what I recommended above. With an SSD and Windows 10 he'll be set for years. Total cost like $165, minimal time invested (Windows 10 install on SSD takes like 30 minutes including setting up features & stuff).

 

[bhtooefr]

http://www.amd.com/en-us/products/processors/desktop/athlon-ii#

Multi-Point Thermal Control helps reduce speed and heat when temperature exceeds predefined limits, enabling a cool and quiet PC experience

An Athlon II X4 can throttle. (For that matter, AFAIK, the last AMD CPUs that COULDN'T throttle were Athlon XPs.) Random shutdowns regardless of load are likely either a failing power supply or motherboard, I'd say, in that case.

 

[ShintaiDK]

Get an i3 NUC and be done with it.

Forget fixing anything on a ~10 year old system. And a NUC is so tiny and silent, add an SSD and memory and he is set for the next 10 years.

 

[bhtooefr]

The only thing that would give me pause for a 10 year general computing build on a NUC is the fact that you'd have a 15 watt SKU AFAIK, and the lower base clocks that come along with it. Could be a problem with increasing JavaScript usage on the web.

However, one of the smallest form factor business desktops with a 35 watt Core i3 or even Pentium G-series would also work quite well - something like the ThinkCentre M700 Tiny, OptiPlex 3040 Micro (disclaimer: I work for Dell), or ProDesk 400 G2 Desktop Mini. Apply SSD, and you're set.

 

[VirtualLarry]

And a NUC is so tiny and silent, add an SSD and memory and he is set for the next 10 years.

The only thing that would give me pause for a 10 year general computing build on a NUC is the fact that you'd have a 15 watt SKU AFAIK, and the lower base clocks that come along with it. Could be a problem with increasing JavaScript usage on the web.

Kind of funny to hear you both talk about "10 year builds" now, like this is something commonplace.

I think I was the first to mention that idea, a year or two ago in this forum, in a couple of threads of mine. You all acted like I was crazy.

Now with Intel's CPU performance stagnation becoming more apparent, it's less and less crazy every day.

 

[NTMBK]

Kind of funny to hear you both talk about "10 year builds" now, like this is something commonplace.

I think I was the first to mention that idea, a year or two ago in this forum, in a couple of threads of mine. You all acted like I was crazy.

Now with Intel's CPU performance stagnation becoming more apparent, it's less and less crazy every day.

Hopefully Zen spices things up again!

 

[ShintaiDK]

Kind of funny to hear you both talk about "10 year builds" now, like this is something commonplace.

I think I was the first to mention that idea, a year or two ago in this forum, in a couple of threads of mine. You all acted like I was crazy.

Now with Intel's CPU performance stagnation becoming more apparent, it's less and less crazy every day.

If there is no gaming the target is much more stagnant. And the current one already lasted 9 years.