Garage Computer Scrapyard Build

[CTX-SLPR]

Howdy,

 

So being an evolutionary upgrader (maybe I made that up) I have stockpiles of parts that have come out of my systems over the last 15yrs of computer building plus a spare laptop with a mostly dead keyboard.  I wouldn't mind having a machine for my garage to look up car parts on or watch a YouTube video of how to take something apart.

 

I've got a spare monitor, keyboard, and mouse so I'm not really worried about that on either system.  Which combo (or subtle variation) would you pick of my scrap pile for a computer that at most does surfing and excel spreadsheets?

Paraplegic Laptop: Dell Inspiron 1545 (https://www.cnet.com/products/dell-inspiron-1545-15-6-p-t4200-vista-home-premium-3-gb-ram-250-gb-hdd-series/specs/) with a mostly dead keyboard.  It's up and running on Windows 10 but I've had to hard reset the system a few time in the past as its been a backup laptop for years.  It's got enough IO and a monitor out to work with some adapters.  Also has an optical drive.

 

Scrapyard Micro-ATX: Basically the guts of my old system since I'm going Coffee Lake with some of the original stuff I have pulled out over the years

CPU: i5-2500 with stock Intel copper core cooler

MoBo: Intel P67 with one bad DIMM slot (why I'm going Coffee Lake)

RAM: 2x4Gb DDR3

GPU, Got a choice here since P67 has no integrated graphics: GTX-260 Core 216 or a GTX-450 with a hacked together cooler after the original fan died

Case: Ancient Micro-ATX system from when I build an Athlon 64 system back in 2003, requires micro-ATX power supply which I have though it needs a new 24 pin connector

HD: I'd steal the one from the Laptop with Windows 10 already on it.

 

If I used the laptop I'd just sell the core, i.e. CPU and RAM, of the old system (doubt anyone would buy the MoBo but I'd throw it in free with the CPU which someone might buy)  for cheap on craigslist.  If I went with the Scrapyard system I'd just e-Waste what I didn't use to stop cluttering up my shed with parts that are well beyond even scrape together usage.

 

General thoughts?

[kelvinhall05]

I'd do the desktop.

[Nicnac]

definitely the desktop. and sell the broken laptop

[LienusLateTips]

Desktop, but I'd get a new case and PSU... They are pretty cheap these days as I wouldn't trust that ancient PSU.

[CTX-SLPR]

9 hours ago, JDE said:

Desktop, but I'd get a new case and PSU... They are pretty cheap these days as I wouldn't trust that ancient PSU.

Good point on the power supply.  The one I have would probably run that GTX-450 but I doubt it would handle the 260.  I have a full ATX 500W power supply that I pulled earlier this year to get an 80+ Gold unit in there.  Would just need to find a cast off case capable of handling the bigger supply.  I did check if I could cludge it into the micro-ATX case I didn't see a way I could without having to leave the side panel off for airflow to it.

 

Related question:

GTX-450 or GTX-260?

[CTX-SLPR]

Got a free ATX case from a friend which had some stuff in it but amazingly it's even older than what I have for a scapheap system.  I tossed my spare power supply in there, moved my main system over to the new Z370 Extreme4 with an 8600K and some new DDR4 and moved the old micro-ATX board over complete with RAM and tossed a working (but I forgot I hadn't registered) copy of Windows 7 in there and tossed in my passively cooled GTX-430! and it's running though windows is beating me up about making it valid and since this is a license off of the scrapped laptop, it might not like it till I get it working in the laptop and then mess with moving it over.  We'll see if I can get it working.