$10 Garage Sale PC Build log!

[chrispy747]

Hello LTT community,

I got a used pc at a garage sale for $10USD a little while back.

It has an i7 950 cooled by a masterliquid 120 lite with and an ati radeon 5750.

The motherboard is an asus p6t6 with 12GB of ram at 1333MHz.

 

I wanted to get the max performance out of this as possible without spending anything.

So, I decided to overclock it.

To test the performance, I used UserBenchmark and Firestrike.

 

The stock clocks of the gpu are 700MHz core and 1250MHz memory.

The stock i7 950 clock is 3.06GHz and it boosts to 3.2GHz

 

First, I ran some stock benchmarks. 

UserBenchmark- https://www.userbenchmark.com/UserRun/13685480

Firestrike- 

 

 

I thought, Not bad for such a cheap pc.

So, I decided that I would Overclock the gpu first, mainly so i didn't have to reboot my pc.

I was able to lock the gpu to 890MHz core and 1300MHz memory.

 

I ran the benchmarks again to see the difference...

UserBenchmark- https://www.userbenchmark.com/UserRun/13686021

Firestike- 

 

That is a pretty sizable increase from just overclocking the gpu.

So, i went onto overclock the cpu and DRAM to get the most of this system.

I was able to Get the cpu stable at 3.8GHz. I got the ram to 1600MHz.

 

 

I ran the Benchmarks again and hoped for the best.

But of course, Steam needed to update before i could open 3d Mark. XD

UserBenchmark- https://www.userbenchmark.com/UserRun/13686558

Firestrike- 

 

It was pretty happy with the result. And thought I could do better.

But, I couldn't make my pc stable beyond these clocks, so i settled with this.

I will update with fps of some of my favorite games.

 

Eventually when i save up the money, I want to get an x5675 and overclock that to over 4GHz and get something like a rx580.

I think that would really make this an awesome pc.

[UncleMax]

Nice Score

[chrispy747]

Just upgraded my graphics to a gtx650 ti boost. I spent $50 at a local computer shop near me.

I ran new benchmarks...

UserBenchmark: https://www.userbenchmark.com/UserRun/14227048

FireStrike:

That was a huge improvement.

This card is still decent at 1080p. 

It got 30-40fps in Need for speed (2015) 1080p high settings with full anti-aliasing.

It got 60fps in project cars at 1080p high settings with 2x anti-aliasing.

 

 

[dgsddfgdfhgs]

for an old system, you just want to be in Working condition. avoid OC for a bit longer lifespan for mobo 

[SkilledRebuilds]

2 hours ago, chrispy747 said:

Just upgraded my graphics to a gtx650 ti boost. I spent $50 at a local computer shop near me.

I ran new benchmarks...

UserBenchmark: https://www.userbenchmark.com/UserRun/14227048

That was a huge improvement.

This card is still decent at 1080p. 

 

Can't wait to see the next GPU on the cheap for this machine.

 

HD7950 /7970

GTX 680/770

 

Or greater?

 

[aisle9]

Dude, what the hell?! Don't overclock that, sell it! An X58 system for $10 is incredible by itself, but that motherboard is worth north of $120!

[chrispy747]

On 1/31/2019 at 8:25 PM, dgsddfgdfhgs said:

for an old system, you just want to be in Working condition. avoid OC for a bit longer lifespan for mobo 

That is a good idea, I just wanted to see what I could get out of this pc.

On 1/31/2019 at 8:26 PM, SkilledRebuilds said:

Can't wait to see the next GPU on the cheap for this machine.

 

HD7950 /7970

GTX 680/770

 

Or greater?

I'm thinking a room 290x. They usually go for around $100. If I were to get one of those. Also, I want to get a Xeon x5660 for this. After I get those, I think that would complete this build.

On 1/31/2019 at 10:39 PM, aisle9 said:

Don't overclock that, sell it!

This is the most powerful PC I've ever had. If I take care of it i think it will last another 5-10 years. So I think I'll keep it.

[XeonKyle]

16 hours ago, chrispy747 said:

That is a good idea, I just wanted to see what I could get out of this pc.

I'm thinking a room 290x. They usually go for around $100. If I were to get one of those. Also, I want to get a Xeon x5660 for this. After I get those, I think that would complete this build.

This is the most powerful PC I've ever had. If I take care of it i think it will last another 5-10 years. So I think I'll keep it.

I just finished a similar build to what you’re trying to do, with a W3690(same as X5690) @4.133GHz and an RX480. If I were you I’d skip the R9 290 and go for a newer RX480 or 580, that 290 sucks power and spews tons of heat into your case. 

[chrispy747]

Just upgraded my graphics again. I got an msi twin frozr r9 290x for $105. 

I was expecting this card to me much better and it did not disappoint

UserBenchmark-https://www.userbenchmark.com/UserRun/14505496

FireStrike-

I was very satisfied with this result.

Although i was having some issues booting into windows when i first installed it. I thought it was the cpu overclock so i reset it. But now i can't get any overclock to stick on it, so i'm stuck with stock clocks. But it doesn't seem to be bottle necking anything.

This new card does great at 1080p in games.

The worst result i got was project cars. Settings were ultra, 4x msaa, 4x texture filtering. It only got 45 fps average. Which I consider to still be very playable.

Need for speed (2015) with ultra settings got 55 fps average.

Dirt 4 ultra, 4x aa, 4x anisotropic filtering got a smooth 60 fps.

The crew at ultra got 60 fps.

Forza horizon ultra got 55 fps average.

This card and this cpu make a good pair. 

The card does run hot though. This card gets to 85-90C. That is a little too hot for comfort. So i usually turn the fan speed up to 60-70% and that keeps it in the 70s.

Next i want to upgrade my case, power supply, and my processor to a x5660. I will try to hunt for good deals and will update when i upgrade.

Thanks!