Upgrading my old crappy computer [super low budget]

[qzyxya]

Wow, I can't believe you people are recommending keeping that powersupply... then once it fries and takes the mobo or gpu with it, there will be the influx of 'you should've used a better powersupply' responses.

My thoughts... Your powersupply is the backbone of your system. If you go with a crap, 3rd tier brand name powersupply, you should expect the potential problems that come with it (as well as the financial risk tied to it). Good luck op, but I wouldn't want my house foundation built out of mud rather than concrete (if you catch my drift).

If I were to but a new one (i have absolutely NO problem with buying a $25 cs430 or even a $80 seasonic) would it fit in the case? I remember hearing that the dell cases use non standard parts, right? Maybe I could take the psu out and take a pic of the case to see if it'd fit. Couldn't I technically just put it in anywhere even if it doesn't fit the case exactly? Like I could just have it sitting on the side of the case instead of indie, lol if that would work that way.

 

[skipsneeky2]

Be glad the chip isn't a first generation phenom,those are god awful and deserve to be called crappy.

When i first moved out here by my gfs family back last august,i bought a cheap hold me over "gamer" which had a 9500gt,6gb of ram and a x4 9150e,that processor was so awful even games as old as BF2 had frame rate dips into the 40s.....i swear it was the card and even slapping in a 6770 gave me the same framerate and this was at 1280x1024 LOL.

x4 830 is years ahead of the 9150e....far from crappy.:thumbsup:

 

[qzyxya]

Be glad the chip isn't a first generation phenom,those are god awful and deserve to be called crappy.

When i first moved out here by my gfs family back last august,i bought a cheap hold me over "gamer" which had a 9500gt,6gb of ram and a x4 9150e,that processor was so awful even games as old as BF2 had frame rate dips into the 40s.....i swear it was the card and even slapping in a 6770 gave me the same framerate and this was at 1280x1024 LOL.

x4 830 is years ahead of the 9150e....far from crappy.:thumbsup:

Ok, but do you think the new psu will fit in? Or should I just get a new gpu (And ssd and ram) and just put it in and risk it?

 

[skipsneeky2]

Ok, but do you think the new psu will fit in? Or should I just get a new gpu (And ssd and ram) and just put it in and risk it?

Having replaced the psu in that tower i talked about which was a gateway dx series as well as the card,i came across no issues in my situation.

Awesome part was how upgrade friendly the case was,the front panel header connectors also were independent like on a after market case,so slapping in a microatx h61 motherboard and a i5 2500 was hassle free,hell the case had enough room for my gtx670 and after modding a side 120mm fan,it was peachy.

Maybe my awesome experience with oem towers might be different from what you might experience but i have upgraded several oem towers with new power supplies,video cards over the years with no incidents.

 

[qzyxya]

Alright i think ill just jump on the $25, if it doesnt fit i can always use it in another build or something.

 

[Torn Mind]

The issue with Dell's proprietary PSUs was that the 20 or 24 pin connector were electrically different but had identical dimensions and headers to that of standard ATX PSUs. The risk was that someone not in the know plugging a regular PSU and toasting the mobo somewhere.

You shouldn't have to worry about "fit". Only cable length, but a lot of PSUs have longer cables than what ships with an OEM system if the maker thinks it'll be paired up with an ATX mobo.

 

[Insomniator]

People are so nervous and harsh on PSU's around here. I've worked on hundreds of dell optiplexes over the years and have had maybe 3 PSU's die... none of which fried anything but themselves. I have 9600GSO's running in two optiplex 745's from maybe 2009? Meanwhile my corsair 650tx died and the one I got back got flaky as well. Neither fried anything that time either.

That PSU is fine as long as it handles the load.

 

[qzyxya]

People are so nervous and harsh on PSU's around here. I've worked on hundreds of dell optiplexes over the years and have had maybe 3 PSU's die... none of which fried anything but themselves. I have 9600GSO's running in two optiplex 745's from maybe 2009? Meanwhile my corsair 650tx died and the one I got back got flaky as well. Neither fried anything that time either.

That PSU is fine as long as it handles the load.

alright im gonna order the cx430 just incase but il try it with the oem/stock one first. I mean with a gtx560 (or if i get a 660, 140w vs 150 i believe) it will still be nowhere near the max capacity.

 

[qzyxya]

The issue with Dell's proprietary PSUs was that the 20 or 24 pin connector were electrically different but had identical dimensions and headers to that of standard ATX PSUs. The risk was that someone not in the know plugging a regular PSU and toasting the mobo somewhere.

You shouldn't have to worry about "fit". Only cable length, but a lot of PSUs have longer cables than what ships with an OEM system if the maker thinks it'll be paired up with an ATX mobo.

Wait, so how do i tell which type of motherboard I have? Is it a micro atx? Regular atx? I'm kind of confused at what you need.

 

[Torn Mind]

Wait, so how do i tell which type of motherboard I have? Is it a micro atx? Regular atx? I'm kind of confused at what you need.

Micro ATX is simply shorter and sometimes less wide than regular ATX. Regular ATX is 12" x 9.6". Micro ATX is 9.6" x 9.6" maximum, and sometimes is smaller, like 9.6" x 8.9"

 

[Pedroc1999]

Micro is more shaped like a square while atx is more rectangualish. Microatx has less expansions slots

 

[frozentundra123456]

If you can live with the performance of a non-ti GTX 650, you'd have a much better chance of success. It is only a 60 watt card whereas the ti version uses twice as much power.

How about a hd7770? That only uses 80 watts max. It is faster than the 650 non-ti and somewhat slower but generally cheaper than the 650-ti. The only reservation I personally would have about the power supply with that card is that it might be aged prematurely from running hot in a case with all that dirt.

The 7770 can be had for around 100.00 if you shop carefully. I also don't think you need anything faster with a Phenom II at less than 3 ghz. With that card and CPU you should have a decent gaming rig.

Edit- I reread some of your earlier posts. I would not buy a new case and bother transferring the parts from this system. If I were going to do that I would make a new build.

 

[frozentundra123456]

Micro is more shaped like a square while atx is more rectangualish. Microatx has less expansions slots

Don't most OEM systems use micro-atx? I have a newer XPS and I know it is micro because I was playing around with some diag utility and it said that specifically.

 

[Austin8868]

You will probably need a new psu if you upgrade the gpu

 

[mfenn]

The issue with Dell's proprietary PSUs was that the 20 or 24 pin connector were electrically different but had identical dimensions and headers to that of standard ATX PSUs. The risk was that someone not in the know plugging a regular PSU and toasting the mobo somewhere.

They stopped doing that in the P4 days though.

 

[mfenn]

People are so nervous and harsh on PSU's around here. I've worked on hundreds of dell optiplexes over the years and have had maybe 3 PSU's die... none of which fried anything but themselves. I have 9600GSO's running in two optiplex 745's from maybe 2009? Meanwhile my corsair 650tx died and the one I got back got flaky as well. Neither fried anything that time either.

That PSU is fine as long as it handles the load.

Thank you, a voice of reason!

There are certainly truly crap PSUs out there that should be avoided at all costs, but the big OEMs don't put those in their machines. Why? Because it would simply cost them more in the long run due to warranty costs.

Are Dell PSUs spectacular? No.
Would I choose one if I was building a new PC with complete freedom in terms of parts selection? No.
Would I use one if that's what I had on-hand or in the system? Yes.

 

[qzyxya]

How about a hd7770? That only uses 80 watts max. It is faster than the 650 non-ti and somewhat slower but generally cheaper than the 650-ti. The only reservation I personally would have about the power supply with that card is that it might be aged prematurely from running hot in a case with all that dirt.

The 7770 can be had for around 100.00 if you shop carefully. I also don't think you need anything faster with a Phenom II at less than 3 ghz. With that card and CPU you should have a decent gaming rig.

Edit- I reread some of your earlier posts. I would not buy a new case and bother transferring the parts from this system. If I were going to do that I would make a new build.

I would totally do that if it werent for NVIDIA and their damn contract with adobe. Their mercury playback engine (basically just gpu acceleration) uses cuda (because nvidia payed them i assume) so the nvidia gpus are the only ones that work with it. Hopefully by CS7 or something it will work on opencl on other computers than just the macbook pros. Or I can hope so at least...

My final plan is basically to buy
a. the $90 160gb intel ssd
b. $140 gtx 560 asus dcii twin (cheapest of the 560s) or a gtx660 If I can find the money.
c. More ram, 2x2gb 1333, or possibly 4x4gb for 16gb, but I'm not sure if my moterboard supports 4gb chips (does it? I think they make 1gb, 2gb, 4gb, 8gb and maybe 16gb. Mine cam preinstalled with 2x2gb)
d. the $25 psu in case the dell one gets messed up, or to just save for another build or give to a friend. cant pass up that deal

 

[OlafSicky]

I don't know if anyone mention this already but since you have a pre build check if there is a bios update.

1. Clean out with compressed air.
2. Update bios
3. Update to 8 gigs ram
4 . add ssd
5. add gpu
6. re install windows

 

[Eureka]

I would totally do that if it werent for NVIDIA and their damn contract with adobe. Their mercury playback engine (basically just gpu acceleration) uses cuda (because nvidia payed them i assume) so the nvidia gpus are the only ones that work with it. Hopefully by CS7 or something it will work on opencl on other computers than just the macbook pros. Or I can hope so at least...

My final plan is basically to buy
a. the $90 160gb intel ssd
b. $140 gtx 560 asus dcii twin (cheapest of the 560s) or a gtx660 If I can find the money.
c. More ram, 2x2gb 1333, or possibly 4x4gb for 16gb, but I'm not sure if my moterboard supports 4gb chips (does it? I think they make 1gb, 2gb, 4gb, 8gb and maybe 16gb. Mine cam preinstalled with 2x2gb)
d. the $25 psu in case the dell one gets messed up, or to just save for another build or give to a friend. cant pass up that deal

a. Good idea
b. Good idea, honestly if you are short on money, pass up the PSU and get cheaper RAM to get the GTX 660, it is a big jump from the 560
c. Unless you find yourself running out of RAM, skip this for now. RAM is at a high after the xmas sales and it isn't necessary to keep your system running. Check using Task Manager (CTRL+ALT+DEL) and you'll see your RAM usage under Performance tab.
d. Not a bad idea, but if you're short on funds, skip it. There's quite a few people here who would spend the money for peace of mind, but it's not quite as bad as it sounds to go with a Dell PSU. I have a Dell PSU going on 10 years, and an Apevia PSU going on 7.

 

[qzyxya]

a. Good idea
b. Good idea, honestly if you are short on money, pass up the PSU and get cheaper RAM to get the GTX 660, it is a big jump from the 560
c. Unless you find yourself running out of RAM, skip this for now. RAM is at a high after the xmas sales and it isn't necessary to keep your system running. Check using Task Manager (CTRL+ALT+DEL) and you'll see your RAM usage under Performance tab.
d. Not a bad idea, but if you're short on funds, skip it. There's quite a few people here who would spend the money for peace of mind, but it's not quite as bad as it sounds to go with a Dell PSU. I have a Dell PSU going on 10 years, and an Apevia PSU going on 7.

Alright, if its that big of an increase then I'll go with the 660, plus I can always SLI it in the future (on another build obviously, lol) if I need to. I am constantly using all 4gb when I'm working on big projects and ram previewing long clips in after effects, but in premiere its fine. I can also buy more ram later.

 

[qzyxya]

I don't know if anyone mention this already but since you have a pre build check if there is a bios update.

1. Clean out with compressed air.
2. Update bios
3. Update to 8 gigs ram
4 . add ssd
5. add gpu
6. re install windows

Where would I check for a bios update/how? And what would a bios update even do? Do I need to clean it out with compressed air? :O
I mean the computer only has like 2 crappy fans so i dont think its going to get much airflow anyways. I think i'll do the $300 for the gtx 660 ($195, the $90 ssd, and then use the rest for more ram. It says the max ram is 16gb, would taht have to be 4x4gb or could I get 2 8gb sticks (cheaper, $65 on newegg)

 

[Eureka]

Alright, if its that big of an increase then I'll go with the 660, plus I can always SLI it in the future (on another build obviously, lol) if I need to. I am constantly using all 4gb when I'm working on big projects and ram previewing long clips in after effects, but in premiere its fine. I can also buy more ram later.

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/543?vs=660 if you want to see the comparison. If you are maxing out RAM, then get more. You should be able to find 8GB for around $30 or 16GB around $60. Just keep an eye out.

1 stick of 8GB: http://www.amazon.com/Patriot-PSD38G...g=hardfocom-20

Not the greatest price, but you get the idea

Also, 600 series > 500 series when you have power and temperature limitations. Newer chips are leaner.

 

[qzyxya]

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/543?vs=660 if you want to see the comparison. If you are maxing out RAM, then get more. You should be able to find 8GB for around $30 or 16GB around $60. Just keep an eye out.

1 stick of 8GB: http://www.amazon.com/Patriot-PSD38G...g=hardfocom-20

Not the greatest price, but you get the idea

Also, 600 series > 500 series when you have power and temperature limitations. Newer chips are leaner.

And the 8gb stick would work with it? I'm kinda worried that its too old or sometign and needs 2 4gb sticks.

 

[futurefields]

OP, no offense, but you sound like a spoiled brat.

You are dismissive about a machine which, in many respects, has a potential you haven't even (literally) touched. Your computer is filthy; you say it hasn't been used for six months; yet, you're sure that it's "old" and "crappy"???

"Old and "Crappy" as it may be, it's still got a powerful quad-core CPU. I doubt that your CS6 "work" really needs more power. What you have in that computer, in terms of processing power, is still better than what two thirds of the planet uses on an everyday basis. Heck, "Avatar" was probably made on computers with less powerful CPUs!

Wanna spend money? Fine. The videocard - as other have already told you - is not attached to the motherboard. It's quite replaceable with whatever you want to boost your internet ego with. And you could probably use a better PSU. Or add more RAM.

Now, if you think this is unduly harsh, I apologize. But your dismissive talk about technology (while it's obvious you really don't know much about it to begin with) unnerves me. I know many people (some in North America, some in other, less fortunate parts of the world) who would be ecstatic to use the equipment you deem as "crappy". Show some respect, boy.

If you want to go help poor people, go help poor people. Else, there's no need for this crap. You actually made yourself look bad by replying like this, AnitaPeterson.

Good day everybody, and please, don't fight.

 

[qzyxya]

If you want to go help poor people, go help poor people. Else, there's no need for this crap. You actually made yourself look bad by replying like this, AnitaPeterson.

Good day everybody, and please, don't fight.

Way to reply to something like 2 pages ago instead of answering my question. jk, but actually, will 1 8gb stick fit in?