The Mighty Radeon-Powered Dell

[oskarha]

The Mighty Radeon-Powered Dell

Powered by a low-power Radeon and a cheap LGA 771 Xeon

Aim:

To build a computer capable of running GTA 5 and other demanding games for a low price.

 

Do you prefer watching videos? Watch my video about this system here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s2JtjN2MEd8

Original Specs:

Intel Pentium E6500 @2.93GHz

NVidia GeForce GT 310

No RAM

No HDD

New Parts list:

Dell Vostro 230

The backbone of this build. I got this machine for free, with a Pentium E6500, no RAM, an NVidia GeForce GT 310 and no hard drive. The Vostro 230 with its compact chassis is powered by the G41 chipset, and features Gigabit Ethernet, 6 USB 2.0 ports, 5.1 Surround audio, a DVD drive and a SD-Card reader. You can pick these up for about 60-100 USD used, although the price heavily depends on the condition and the specs of the system.

 

Intel Xeon E5420

The minimum CPU for GTA 5 is the Core 2 Quad Q6600. Our E5420 is one generation newer, and 100MHz faster, so it should have no problems playing the game. The CPUs 80W TDP should be no problem to cool for the stock 95W cooler. This CPU has been sitting on my desk for way to long, so it was about time for it to be installed in a system. You can get LGA 771 CPUs like this for around 25 USD.

 

8GB DDR3 1333MHz

Although the minimum requirement for most games these days is 4GB or less, having 8GB is a nice luxury, especially if you want to have more than two tabs open in Google Chrome. 8GB was what I had in my RAM bag, and it happens to be the maximum amount of ram supported by the Vostro 230. You can get used OEM ram like this for around 20-30 USD.

 

Gigabyte AMD Radeon HD 7750 2GB DDR3

I picked up this GPU at the local hardware store. The Radeon HD 7750 is based off a cut down version of the Cape Verde core. Unlike the fully unlocked Radeon R7 250X with its 640 shaders, the Radeon HD 7750 has 512 shaders, so we can expect performance not to be too far behind the Radeon R7 250X. In addition, the Radeon HD 7750 draws all of its power from the PCIE slot, allowing us to use the stock PSU that came with the Vostro to save some money. I payed 600kr (approx. 70 USD) for this card new, but you could probably get a better deal on the used market.

 

WD Blue 1TB

This drive is nothing special, but it does its job of being the main storage device in this machine well, and I already had this drive lying around. Drives like this go for around 20-30 USD used.

 

Total price (estimate):

 

System: 60 USD

CPU: 25 USD

RAM: 25 USD

GPU: 70 USD

HDD: 20 USD

Total: 200 USD

I only purchased the GPU for this build, the other components were components I either got for free or already owned.

 

Build:

The build process was fairy straight forward, with the only major hiccup being the enormous amount of dust in the system, but after some dusting this was a non-issue and the building process could continue.

 

LGA 771:

If you want to know more about the LGA771 mod, see this brilliant post by @harrynowl:

https://linustechtips.com/main/topic/365998-mod-lga771-to-lga775-cpu-modification-tutorial/

For BIOS modifications, I have made a guide for the Vostro 220. Do NOT use a 220 BIOS in a 230, but the basic steps remain the same for both models.

https://linustechtips.com/main/topic/555957-guide-lga-771-mod-for-dell-vostro-220/

 

Overclocking:

The Radeon had no problems with overclocking the core. The cooler was more than adequate, with temperatures never exceeding 55c during my testing, while staying very quiet. I was able to overclock the Radeon HD 7750s core to 950MHz with the power limit on +20 for good measure using MSI Afterburner but the memory on the other hand did not want to be overclocked at all.

 

Pictures:

Spoiler

Disgusting.

That’s why the old GT 310 was so loud, the fan was hitting the dust on the heatsink.

 

The Final Product:

Pictures:

Spoiler

Benchmarks:

Spoiler

 

[RGProductions]

32 minutes ago, oskarha said:

 

Why does this sound like Green Ham gaming?

[oskarha]

Just now, RGProductions said:

Why does this sound like Green Ham gaming?

Maby because he also upgrades old dells?

[RGProductions]

Just now, oskarha said:

Maby because he also upgrades old dells?

yeah, but also the wording and the title just makes it easy to read this in his voice!

[oskarha]

Just now, RGProductions said:

yeah, but also the wording and the title just makes it easy to read this in his voice!

Ill take that as a compliment

[RGProductions]

Just now, oskarha said:

Ill take that as a compliment

that was how it was intended

[TheRandomness]

7 minutes ago, RGProductions said:

Why does this sound like Green Ham gaming?

Maybe snip the images from your quote?

@oskarha Cut down version of the core.. I wonder if a BIOS flash can unlock the rest of the shaders

[RGProductions]

22 minutes ago, TheRandomness said:

Maybe snip the images from your quote?

@oskarha Cut down version of the core.. I wonder if a BIOS flash can unlock the rest of the shaders

yeah, probably should have. will do that

[oskarha]

21 minutes ago, TheRandomness said:

Maybe snip the images from your quote?

@oskarha Cut down version of the core.. I wonder if a BIOS flash can unlock the rest of the shaders

Its seems like a shader unlock is impossible because the connections are laser cut

https://www.techpowerup.com/forums/threads/flash-hd-7750-7770-bios-to-hd-7730.198010/

Oh well, i guess AMD learned their lesson with the 6950  

[TheRandomness]

2 minutes ago, oskarha said:

Its seems like a shader unlock is impossible because the connections are laser cut

https://www.techpowerup.com/forums/threads/flash-hd-7750-7770-bios-to-hd-7730.198010/

Oh well, i guess AMD learned their lesson with the 6950  

Except you could BIOS unlock the 7870 LE > 7950/70~, the 290 > 290X and the Fury > Fury X.

[oskarha]

Just now, TheRandomness said:

Except you could BIOS unlock the 7870 LE > 7950/70~, the 290 > 290X and the Fury > Fury X.

I guess they forgot about their higher-end cards and only fixed the low end.

Anyway, the HD 7750s performance is more than good enough my needs from this rig.

[oskarha]

The video is up