Hand-me-down PC - salvageable?

[Murray_H]

Hello,

My brother moved to Canada and he gave me his old PC:

Athlon 64 X2 processor (clocked at 2400 mhz) - no idea on the exact model, that's all I could get from the BIOS
1 gig of Kingston Value RAM
MSI K9AGM2 motherboard (can take up to 4GB of RAM)
400W PSU
No graphics card - the onboard VGA is a Radeon X1250
No hard drive

I didn't get the spec before the PC arrived, so I had hoped to use it for some gaming (mid-level graphic details) and some DTP work...

I don't know if it's worth spending some moolah on a new HDD, graphics card and RAM - are the processor and MB worth holding on to? Or would it be wise just to scrap the whole thing and start again? The only saving grace is that the monitor he gave me is actually pretty nice.

Thanks in advance if you've got any words of wisdom!

 

[Acepilotf14]

The PSU looks like it could be reused. Rest looks pretty crappy.

 

[VirusType2]

I would just leave it how it is. It could be very useful without costing anything.

EDIT: Obviously, you will need a hard drive - don't you have an old one?

 

[MRG]

Download a small, yet powerful program called "CPU-Z". It will tell you everything you need to know about the processor / Motherboard / RAM. From the L2 cache to it's model name. Download the program, run it & then take a screenshot of the results & post it here. It'll/I'll/we'll tell you all you need to know about the processor.

CPU-Z Processor / Mainboard / RAM ID Tool
http://www.cpuid.com/cpuz.php

-MRG

 

[Krynn72]

Add another gig of ram and a geforce 8800 and it should be a decent enough pc to play games from two or so years ago. You could probably play newer games that were well optimized too. I think it would even meet specs for Mass Effect 2.

 

[Dynasty]

I'd throw out the existing RAM and get two new sticks making it 2GB. Just check what type of RAM the board can take (you'll be looking for speed in Hz and what slots they use - DDR? DDR2? SD? Its like buying a lense for a camera - only some lenses fit certain cameras, its a sort of limited universal connection).

Grab an 8800GT card, mainly because theyre damn powerful considering the low price. I bought mine new 2 years ago for £110. Cant even imagine how low they must be these days, and its still a peach in my machine back home. Never had any problems with DX9, yet to try it on max settings in DX10 on Vista or 7 though.

That PSU SHOULD be good enough.

I'd say if you threw about £150 at that PC, it would be pretty awesome.

Just browse around ebuyer.co.uk or novatech.co.uk once you know the slot types of the board and set yourself a realistic budget.

 

[VirusType2]

For some reason I assumed his current computer was better.

 

[Murray_H]

Hello again...I think I'm going to give it a slight upgrade - it's much better than my shithouse laptop for doing InDesign work (even in its current state) at the very least.

I managed to get a hard drive for the computer, so I've found out that the processor is an Athlon 64 X2 4600+ and the motherboard supports DDR2 RAM (400-800MHz). I've been out of the hardware loop for about 6 years and I can't actually remember how you find out which RAM frequency to use for a particular processor - is it something to do with the FSB? I think I'll go for two new 1GB sticks, as was suggested.

As for graphics cards: I'd like to spend less than £100 on a graphics card, so should I be looking in the nVidia or ATI camp? I had a look for 8800GTs, but they seem to be rarer than rocking horse shite. 9800GTs, on the other hand, are quite easy to come across (and cheaper than 8800GTs for the most part).

 

[No Limit]

Add another gig of ram and a geforce 8800 and it should be a decent enough pc to play games from two or so years ago. You could probably play newer games that were well optimized too. I think it would even meet specs for Mass Effect 2.

I dont know about mass effect since I dont even know what that game is (sue me) but I would totally agree with this. I wish you posted this 2 weeks back, I would have bought it off you if you didnt want it. Would also make a great HTPC with almost no modification.

 

[Asus]

As for graphics cards: I'd like to spend less than £100 on a graphics card, so should I be looking in the nVidia or ATI camp? I had a look for 8800GTs, but they seem to be rarer than rocking horse shite. 9800GTs, on the other hand, are quite easy to come across (and cheaper than 8800GTs for the most part).

That would be good.

 

[Quixoticism]

A gig of ram would be useful and a Radeon HD 4650 should be able to balance well with the processor. You won't be able to game on high settings but it should get you through pretty well.

 

[VirusType2]

^2GB RAM

I think I'll go for two new 1GB sticks

 

[Murray_H]

I think I might go for this graphics card (unless someone can convince me to go for a 1GB card rather than a 512MB one...)

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/152179

And this memory:

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/116755

My motherboard will support up to DDR2 800Mhz, and I'm pretty sure that's my processor's maximum

Coupled with a 120GB HDD, 1 DVD burner and an Athlon 64 X2, do you think my 400W PSU would cope with the new additions?

 

[VirusType2]

Murray, Barney Fife brought up the PSU calculator recently, and these online calculators are extremely helpful in situations such as this.