Whom is still rocking an Athlon / Phenom II (even X6), or a Core2Duo/Quad? X58 users too.

[VirtualLarry]

Just curious. I have a friend, still on Athlon II X4 that I gave him as an upgrade CPU... like years ago. (I guess he's happy with it still? Tried to upgrade him, have given him another machine, he hasn't used it yet.)

Anyone else still using something around this vintage, as their primary or as a daily-driver box? I figure I should include some X58 platform users in this too.

I still have my pair of Core2Quad PCs, assembled, and a couple of Phenom II X6 rigs, which I used a few months ago as mining GPU hosts.

Anyone still clinging to older technology? No need to give any reason.

 

[WelshBloke]

I've just stepped up from a Q6600 to a 2700X.

The Q6600 was perfectly usable for me 90% of the time!

 

[VirtualLarry]

Yeah, I have Q9300 CPUs in my Core2Quad rigs, and just slightly overclocked (2.86Ghz, or something thereabouts), I was able to download a 4K movie clip, and play it, on my R7 260X 2GB GDDR5 PCI-E video card, plugged into the Core2Quad rig. With 8GB of DDR2-800, and a primary OS SSD, and Windows 7 or Windows 10, those were actually still VERY USABLE PCs, for the most part, when I hooked one up a year or two ago, to update, and reminisce...

I mean, I'd probably prefer to even use a 2C/2T Skylake Celeron CPU, with a SATA6G (rather than SATAII) SSD, and Windows 10, but if it came down to it, I could make do with the Core2Quad again, if I had to.

(I use a 1.8Ghz Puma+ quad-core APU in my laptop, with 8GB of DDR3, and Windows 7, so the Core2Quad really can't be that bad in comparison.)

 

[WelshBloke]

It was throwing in a big arse SSD that extended its useful life I guess. That and 8gb of ram and running it at 3ghz it seemed perfectly happy doing regular desktop stuff.

I kinda regret just having it sitting in a MB on top of a cupboard not doing anything tbh.

 

[ao_ika_red]

My laptop is still OK for some paperwork and some BOINC stuff. It's C2D T8300.

 

[Insert_Nickname]

Anyone still clinging to older technology? No need to give any reason.

While not a daily driver per se, my retro system is still rocking on an Athlon X3 445. Reason for being AM3 is the platform can run everything from XP to 10 native, which is very useful. Reason for the Athlon is that BD doesn't really play nice with pre-7 Windows...

Because sometimes you just need a retro OS for certain stuff to work. WMs are just not an option for some cases.

 

[Eug]

I upgraded from an Athlon II X3 435 to a Phenom II X6 1055T last year on my primary Windows 10 machine at home. I'm very pleased. This will last me years. This was a cheap upgrade since all I needed to do was update the BIOS and drop in the new (old) CPU. I had upgraded to 8 GB and SSD years ago, and that's all I need on this machine.

Note though this is used mainly just for business applications (including Office and VPN), mail, and surfing, with rare Netflix 1080p. The Athlon II 435 could do those tasks, but was a bit laggy at times, whereas I have no such complaints with the Phenom II 1055T. Also note though my other desktop sitting right beside it is a 5K 27" Mac with an i5 7600, so I do have a bit more power available to me if need be. I actually had an i7-7700K iMac first, but it was too loud under load, so I returned it and got the i5.

My main laptop is a MacBook Core m3-7Y32. I'm extremely pleased with that too. Silence is golden.

As you can see, not all of us need so much computing power.

 

[Markfw]

I have a 920 I7 and a dual X5570 Xeon system. The Xeon is my primary gaming box for older games that won't run on a 64 bit OS

 

[DrMrLordX]

Until a few months ago, I had an X2 240 in a mining rig.

I kind of regret never getting a Thuban, since I wanted one so badly back in the day. It's hard to justify it though.

 

[Hans Gruber]

I have some T61 thinkpads with T8300 core 2 duo CPU's running @ 2.4ghz. Some Core 2 Duo T500 systems with T9600 2.8ghz processors but nothing in desktop format. I have a retired Q6600 Core 2 Quad sitting in an old case.

 

[SPBHM]

I have like 4 Core 2 Duo based PCs being used daily on my office

they are OK for MS office and Chrome

 

[DethGasp]

I'm still rocking a PII X4 975BE @ 4GHz on my media server. With a H60, 8GB DDR3 AND 15 spinners on a 880G Asrock mobo. Handbrake runs 12hr a day on it.

My daughter is rocking an Athlon X2 7750BE Kuma w/ 8GB DDR2, R9 270.

 

[scannall]

I've been putting off an upgrade for a while now. Insane RAM prices are holding me back from it. But this overclocked Xeon 5660 still does great.

 

[Herr Kutz]

Got an i3-530

 

[Captante]

I still have a system that runs an X2 6400+ (3.2ghz) on an Nvidia 590 sli that I use every few weeks for something. Amazingly for day to day stuff its not horrible.

Edit: Forgot to mention boots off Samsung 256gb 830 ssd which obviously helps a lot

 

[heymrdj]

Still rocking a Phenom II X6 1090T as my only desktop, with a Radeon 5850. The graphics card is what is really holding me back with its legacy drivers, the X6 still does most things without sweating.

 

[GagHalfrunt]

I'm so far out of the hardware loop I have no idea how bad my rig is. I'm not really a gamer, so I generally make do with lower priced, lower powered machines because we're long past the point where anything other than gaming is going to stress a cheap machine. I'm using an AMD A6-3670 with integrated HD6530 graphics. And I just looked it up and holy crap, I bought this in October 2012 and it wasn't even a high end unit back then. CPU, Biostar A75 FM1 motherboard and 8GB of Patriot DDR3 for under $150 six years ago. Guess I got my moneys worth, huh? Still using a 320GB Maxtor 7200rpm hdd as a boot drive and that's WAYYYYY older than the CPU/MB/RAM combo. I've been wanting to upgrade, buy a new CPU/MB and get an ssd, but have been holding off because RAM and SSD prices have been so bad. Maybe do it on Black Friday.

 

[VirtualLarry]

I'm using an AMD A6-3670 with integrated HD6530 graphics. And I just looked it up and holy crap, I bought this in October 2012 and it wasn't even a high end unit back then. CPU, Biostar A75 FM1 motherboard and 8GB of Patriot DDR3 for under $150 six years ago. Guess I got my moneys worth, huh?

Yeah, I have a relative and a friend still rocking the FM1 platform too. In fact, I could stomach using it, if I had too, the FM1 APUs, at least the quad-cores, aren't half bad.

I still have a stockpile of cheap, brand-new (supposedly) parts, mobos and CPUs and RAM kits, to throw together a few more of those boxes. Pretty sweet little rigs, if a bit entry-level these days. You can build an entire FM1 PC with SSD, for like $200-225. (hardware cost only)

 

[tarmc]

Still using a c2q for a media system and a x5650 as a second gaming rig with a rx 480 in it.
Still running great and serving their purposes many years later

 

[GagHalfrunt]

Yeah, I have a relative and a friend still rocking the FM1 platform too. In fact, I could stomach using it, if I had too, the FM1 APUs, at least the quad-cores, aren't half bad.

I still have a stockpile of cheap, brand-new (supposedly) parts, mobos and CPUs and RAM kits, to throw together a few more of those boxes. Pretty sweet little rigs, if a bit entry-level these days. You can build an entire FM1 PC with SSD, for like $200-225.

Yeah, I'm not hungering for more speed or power. Would not mind better integrated graphics, but the CPU is plenty strong enough for how I use it. The MB is showing signs of maybe starting to give out and I've been considering replacing it with something else from that era just to keep the current RAM and save a lot of cash. A better CPU/MB based on FM2/FM2+, new SSD and $200 is doable.

 

[Ranulf]

Phenom II? FX? Core2Duo or Quad? Those are trash CPUs Larry. TRASH!

Get yourself an 8600k bro.

 

[Insert_Nickname]

Yeah, I'm not hungering for more speed or power. Would not mind better integrated graphics, but the CPU is plenty strong enough for how I use it. The MB is showing signs of maybe starting to give out and I've been considering replacing it with something else from that era just to keep the current RAM and save a lot of cash. A better CPU/MB based on FM2/FM2+, new SSD and $200 is doable.

Just add an SSD and perhaps a GT1030 (heck, if you don't game, go for the el cheapo DDR4 option) for modern video decoding, and you should be set for a few more years. Unless the mainboard goes out. I'd look into replacing the PSU too, just in case that's the source of your troubles. No need to go overboard on that, just something modern.

That old Maxtor drive is seriously holding you back. I don't think you'll recognise your system after an SSD upgrade. Those K10.5 cores are still potent.

 

[Shmee]

X58 is viable still due to the large amount of cheap hexcore Xeons. X5660's can be had for around $20. I got a Gigabyte UD5 off ebay with one which my sister is using, and an Asus P6X58D-Premium from e-waste at work, which I also put a X5660 in.

The only drawback really is the lack of good modern IO, such as native SATA 3 and USB 3. Also, though the CPUs are cheap, the motherboards are not and are hard to find.

 

[Tup3x]

I do have working Athlon XP 2800+ machine but I never use it. Athlon 64 4000+ machine too.

 

[PliotronX]

My LAN gaming box is still a Q6600 G0 @ 3600, does well with my old 120GB Q-series and 1TB drives! Since I don't care about power consumption at other peoples locations, it works out fine I have a Thuban X6 1040T at 3GHz in a 2U chassis and two dual NICs serving as my VM lab and "super router" with pfSense going to Sophos UTM in bridge mode. Power consumption is a concern there but at idle the entire system pulls just 68W which is what it spends most of its time doing.