Old Gamer Looking for new Mobo Tips

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A Casual Fitz

A Casual Fitz

Diamond Member
May 16, 2005
4,649
1,018
136
I have a halfway decent 2009 rig with an LGA775 Core2Quad with a Gigabyte motherboard. I recently bought the Nvidia Shield and was pretty impressed to see the GameStream function. Turns out my GeForce video card isn't a GTX. I bought a 1050 ti GTX card on ebay to use the GameStream and I thought about upgrading a little bit more. I'm fine with my processor, but my Gigabyte mobo only goes up to 4GB of RAM and I'm thinking I could use more if I want to try out some new games on medium settings.

So, any advice? It looks like the 775 is old now, but I don't really feel the need to upgrade my CPU as well. I guess I'm just looking for some thoughts.
 
VirtualLarry

VirtualLarry

No Lifer
Aug 25, 2001
56,572
10,207
126
Uhh, yeah, time for a platform upgrade.

Core2Quad is fine for ... uhm, web browsing (and requires a RECENT dGPU for watching 4K YT), but other than that... kinda scrap-heap material. No longer useful for gaming, post 2015 games.
 
DrMrLordX

DrMrLordX

Lifer
Apr 27, 2000
22,705
12,658
136
That's a very old CPU. Don't knock it. It's just . . . old.

If all you want to do is buy today, um hmm. And all you're looking at is board + CPU + RAM? Nothing else? Also, what PSU do you have? That thing's gotta be ancient. Even the best ones need to be retired after 10+ years of service.

Here's an AMD-based option:

https://pcpartpicker.com/list/QrBZvn

Only possible downside is that you may have to hand-tune your RAM timings, vDIMM, and vSoC to get decent performance out of the RAM. Also the PSU is a bit overkill. It does leave a little room to grow.

A possible Intel alternative:

https://pcpartpicker.com/list/PkrVgw

More expensive, and fewer OC options. But the XMP settings should work out-of-the-box and . . . you won't necessarily need to overclock it. Had to skimp on the board to get the 8400 under budget. 8600k was about $10 too much . . .

In either case, you could pay less for a cheaper PSU to get cost down, but not by much. Most you would save going with (for example) a reputable Gold+ rated 550W PSU would be around $30. Still you could get an 8600k under budget by dropping PSU price a bit.
 
Last edited:
T

Timmyotule

Member
Aug 31, 2002
64
3
71
You really don't need to spend $100 on a power supply. Newegg has the Corsair RM550x and RM750x for $70 which are top PSUs that don't even run the fan until they are heavily loaded. The RM550x will be more than enough power but you could get the 750W version for the same price if you don't mind dealing with a mail in rebate. Or you could wait for a rebate on the 550W model. They happen with some regularity.

There are cheaper options as well that would work fine but they'll be noisier and less efficient.
 
M

mdram

Golden Member
Jan 2, 2014
1,512
208
106
is it the mobo that only does 4gb? or windows? make sure you have a 64bit OS
 
DrMrLordX

DrMrLordX

Lifer
Apr 27, 2000
22,705
12,658
136
Timmyotule said:
You really don't need to spend $100 on a power supply. Newegg has the Corsair RM550x and RM750x for $70 which are top PSUs that don't even run the fan until they are heavily loaded. The RM550x will be more than enough power but you could get the 750W version for the same price if you don't mind dealing with a mail in rebate. Or you could wait for a rebate on the 550W model. They happen with some regularity.

There are cheaper options as well that would work fine but they'll be noisier and less efficient.
Click to expand...

I am not a huge fan of Corsair's RM power supplies. Or rather, I'm a huge fanboy of the G2 and P2 supplies from EVGA. If he wants to save a few bucks, he can push off on the P2 and get a G2 instead, same difference in price, better PSU.
 
W

whm1974

Diamond Member
Jul 24, 2016
9,436
1,569
126
Since the OP already has a 1050Ti card, a basic Ryzen 2600 box can built for ~$500 or under.
 
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