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An old dog needs new tricks.
Posted:
An old dog needs new tricks.Posted:
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Joined: Oct 05, 20186Year Member
Posts: 14
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Status: Offline
Joined: Oct 05, 20186Year Member
Posts: 14
Reputation Power: 0
Ok, a bit of a story...
In 2012 I came across a cool looking computer in a pawn shop. Shop was asking 350. I ask to turn it on see if its worth it, when a second pawn guy comes by and makes some odd comment about the computer was some guys private build who needed some money, and he never came back for it.
We turned it on, it booted up, lights and everything, but it needed a password to get it to fully boot. So, the guy said he would take fifty off, I told him gunna cost more than that, and thats if they don't have to wipe it. Got it for 250.
At the Geeksquad (only option for me) the guy takes it back, says to come back in 20. He pages us, makes this big spiel about needing a receipt to prove we bought it then proceeds to tell us whoever built knew what they were doing. Intriguing, as I knew little of computers.
The computer ran great, took it home, played New Vegas, and the game set the settings on 'ultra'. Since then it has slowed down greatly on games, and most new stuff I can't even play. It recently started shutting down while playing online. And here is how all this starts. I opened it up and found that one of the dual fans was busted and the other was making a bad sounding noise. Same with GPU. I did my research and found out what was in it, what was needed to replace parts. The heat sink was fifty percent blocked, cleaned it out, replaced the fans with new ones. Got the thermal paste and cleaned the contact betwee heatsink and cpu. Put it all together, took out, cleaned gpu, put that back on, the computer starts.
Heres my question. Since it is fairly old, but 'custom' built, can I upgrade it and get better performance out of it? It has 4 ddr2 slots, each with 2gig. I know I can buy those ram sticks at 4gig each and my comp can run up to 16gig. Also, I'm sure it has a place for a second gpu. Would settle for simply upgrading the current gpu if thats not a good idea. It seems I can put 'newer' bits into it, but they will hardly be new. Is it still worth it to do that since the older parts are a bit cheaper do to outdatedness, or should I just save the money?
Windows 7 Enterprise 64-bit SP1
CPU - AMD Athlon II X4 630 Propus 45nm Technology
RAM - 8.00GB Dual-Channel DDR2 @ 399MHz (6-6-6-18)
Motherboard - ASUSTeK Computer INC. M4A785-M (AM2)
Graphics - DX-32L221A12 (1360x768@60Hz)
1024MB ATI Radeon HD 5700 Series (VISIONTEK
Storage - 931GB Seagate ST31000528AS ATA Device (SATA)
Optical Drives - ATAPI iHAS324 Y ATA Device
DTSOFT Virtual CdRom Device
In 2012 I came across a cool looking computer in a pawn shop. Shop was asking 350. I ask to turn it on see if its worth it, when a second pawn guy comes by and makes some odd comment about the computer was some guys private build who needed some money, and he never came back for it.
We turned it on, it booted up, lights and everything, but it needed a password to get it to fully boot. So, the guy said he would take fifty off, I told him gunna cost more than that, and thats if they don't have to wipe it. Got it for 250.
At the Geeksquad (only option for me) the guy takes it back, says to come back in 20. He pages us, makes this big spiel about needing a receipt to prove we bought it then proceeds to tell us whoever built knew what they were doing. Intriguing, as I knew little of computers.
The computer ran great, took it home, played New Vegas, and the game set the settings on 'ultra'. Since then it has slowed down greatly on games, and most new stuff I can't even play. It recently started shutting down while playing online. And here is how all this starts. I opened it up and found that one of the dual fans was busted and the other was making a bad sounding noise. Same with GPU. I did my research and found out what was in it, what was needed to replace parts. The heat sink was fifty percent blocked, cleaned it out, replaced the fans with new ones. Got the thermal paste and cleaned the contact betwee heatsink and cpu. Put it all together, took out, cleaned gpu, put that back on, the computer starts.
Heres my question. Since it is fairly old, but 'custom' built, can I upgrade it and get better performance out of it? It has 4 ddr2 slots, each with 2gig. I know I can buy those ram sticks at 4gig each and my comp can run up to 16gig. Also, I'm sure it has a place for a second gpu. Would settle for simply upgrading the current gpu if thats not a good idea. It seems I can put 'newer' bits into it, but they will hardly be new. Is it still worth it to do that since the older parts are a bit cheaper do to outdatedness, or should I just save the money?
Windows 7 Enterprise 64-bit SP1
CPU - AMD Athlon II X4 630 Propus 45nm Technology
RAM - 8.00GB Dual-Channel DDR2 @ 399MHz (6-6-6-18)
Motherboard - ASUSTeK Computer INC. M4A785-M (AM2)
Graphics - DX-32L221A12 (1360x768@60Hz)
1024MB ATI Radeon HD 5700 Series (VISIONTEK
Storage - 931GB Seagate ST31000528AS ATA Device (SATA)
Optical Drives - ATAPI iHAS324 Y ATA Device
DTSOFT Virtual CdRom Device
#2. Posted:
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Joined: Oct 05, 201311Year Member
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Motto: Me big smarts. Brainy boy do learns much
Motto: Me big smarts. Brainy boy do learns much
Status: Offline
Joined: Oct 05, 201311Year Member
Posts: 16,214
Reputation Power: 3087
Motto: Me big smarts. Brainy boy do learns much
I'd probably just build a new system at this point. Definitely don't add a 2nd GPU, if anything upgrade it but the CPU will be holding you back, probably even with modern low end GPUs.
You could re-use the case probably, and the HDD if you want. You might also be able to re-use the PSU, but if it's 6 years old it'd probably be worth replacing.
You could re-use the case probably, and the HDD if you want. You might also be able to re-use the PSU, but if it's 6 years old it'd probably be worth replacing.
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#3. Posted:
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Joined: Oct 05, 20186Year Member
Posts: 14
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Joined: Oct 05, 20186Year Member
Posts: 14
Reputation Power: 0
Thanks for that dude. Im starting to look into other things. Just didn't even want to drop a hundred more into this system if it could just go elsewhere and get more in the long run.
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#4. Posted:
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Joined: Oct 05, 20186Year Member
Posts: 14
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Status: Offline
Joined: Oct 05, 20186Year Member
Posts: 14
Reputation Power: 0
The power supply was actually replaced about 2 years ago when the old one failed. Don't need much hard drive space so, a penny a saved a penny earned. Thanks again.
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