Reviving old hardware

[MorbidNature]

So I found an old PC buried under some junk at my parents house.

And I was wondering if I could maybe use it as a "Media PC" for her- mainly for running you tube/Netflix off Firefox and maybe play some movies

I linked it so you wouldn't have to google it

 

CPU:  Intel Pentium Dual-Core  G630

MB: P8H61-M LX REV 3.0

And I might get a GTX 750TI for free from a friend

 

 

[Fasauceome]

for high res video decoding, maybe consider a cheap i5, as with some demanding browsing tasks an old pentium might actually chug. Any 2nd gen quad core would be a solid pick, and the 750 ti you may not find to be necessary.

[emosun]

it'll be enough for 1080 playback locally but might have issues trying to run hd within a browser these days

[Otto_iii]

I had similar situation, got given a computer full of cobwebs but it had a Pentium g645 instead of g630, similar processor, same intigrated graphics i believe, but with hyper threading.  If you can plug current rig into a display you are hoping to use via HDMI or VGA etc, then there is no point for GPU upgrade, get a cheap SSD for boot drive instead. If you need a nice budget IPS monitor to go along with it for your sis get a refurbished Acer SB220q for 65$(refurbished) 80$(new) on newegg, i purchased one for said rig and couldn't be happier with it. 

My experience may be different with the G645 then using a G630 but ill assume they are similar enough. The G645 can run stuff like youtube and netflix absolutely fine at 1080p 60hz, no stuttering etc, but will take some time loading occasionally, with the G630 you should be fine so long as you dont multi-task too much or leave too many backround programs open while watching at same time.  Like i said before, seriously consider a fresh install of windows on a SSD as it will make the rig 10x nicer to use and shouldn't cost much (20-40$), just get a cheap 120-240gb, spend your money on that, not a GPU.

Finally, and this of most importantance if you want a decent experience on one of these old rigs, besides giving system fresh install on a SSD, avoid extra anti-virus programs like Avast, Norton or McAfee etc at all costs (newer builds of CCLeaner and Speccy will auto install Avast so dont use them), if you have Win10 just use Windows Defender.   Any of these old outdated anti-virus programs can completely KILL the capabilities of these older CPUs, these old duel cores are already pegged at like 40-50% usage while browsing, with a add-on anti virus you'll be seeing 100% just trying to perform a basic google search and stuttering/locking up like crazy.  For bonus points disable as many windows backround processes as possible, its not a big deal on modern systems but makes huge difference on these older ones. 

[MorbidNature]

On 12/5/2019 at 1:04 AM, Otto_iii said:

I had similar situation, got given a computer full of cobwebs but it had a Pentium g645 instead of g630, similar processor, same intigrated graphics i believe, but with hyper threading.  If you can plug current rig into a display you are hoping to use via HDMI or VGA etc, then there is no point for GPU upgrade, get a cheap SSD for boot drive instead. If you need a nice budget IPS monitor to go along with it for your sis get a refurbished Acer SB220q for 65$(refurbished) 80$(new) on newegg, i purchased one for said rig and couldn't be happier with it. 

My experience may be different with the G645 then using a G630 but ill assume they are similar enough. The G645 can run stuff like youtube and netflix absolutely fine at 1080p 60hz, no stuttering etc, but will take some time loading occasionally, with the G630 you should be fine so long as you dont multi-task too much or leave too many backround programs open while watching at same time.  Like i said before, seriously consider a fresh install of windows on a SSD as it will make the rig 10x nicer to use and shouldn't cost much (20-40$), just get a cheap 120-240gb, spend your money on that, not a GPU.

Finally, and this of most importantance if you want a decent experience on one of these old rigs, besides giving system fresh install on a SSD, avoid extra anti-virus programs like Avast, Norton or McAfee etc at all costs (newer builds of CCLeaner and Speccy will auto install Avast so dont use them), if you have Win10 just use Windows Defender.   Any of these old outdated anti-virus programs can completely KILL the capabilities of these older CPUs, these old duel cores are already pegged at like 40-50% usage while browsing, with a add-on anti virus you'll be seeing 100% just trying to perform a basic google search and stuttering/locking up like crazy.  For bonus points disable as many windows backround processes as possible, its not a big deal on modern systems but makes huge difference on these older ones. 

Well i Manged to get my hand on a I5 3470 for about 40 bucks (with a cooler) now i just gotta think what do I do with a G630

[Tristerin]

2 minutes ago, MorbidNature said:

Well i Manged to get my hand on a I5 3470 for about 40 bucks (with a cooler) now i just gotta think what do I do with a G630

I use an i5 3470 in one of my media centers - quite potent for what you need it for so its not lacking

[Otto_iii]

i had a 3570, tiny bit higher clocks but very similar to 3470, in games that use DX11 you should be more then good enough with the 3470 with decent graphics card (970,1060, 1070, 1650, rx480, rx570,rx580 etc etc), if you want to game.  DX12 only games like PUBG can stutter a bit but are still definitely playable 

[MorbidNature]

Probably will only use it for storage Kinda of a makeshift NAS + media PC

I just found out back-ass-backwared windows sharing is but ill bare through it...

[MorbidNature]

Only thing that sucks about it is that the MB only support 3GB sata so SSDs dont really get the full speed (i think regular HDD should still function at full speed)