pc What are some good bang for the buck parts? - Zotac GeForce 9300 - Mini ITX WiFi

[Bratstech]

I currently just got a bunch of parts yesterday (when I posted this) and got a some what working PC out of it. The current parts that I have are:

Zotac Mini ITX motherboard - WiFi

2gb memory - DDR2

Intel Core 2 Quad

220W Power Supply

I have a couple hard drives (1TB/160GB/120GB) but I don't have them hooked up right now because I don't have any sata cables to hook them up so I'm running chromiumOS off of a 16gb flash drive. so far it seems to work fine or at least work but I want to upgrade it but don’t know which parts are compatible with it. I want two 8G sticks of memory and a mid teir graphics card. I think I found some at microcenter that's really bang for the buck but I don't know if it's compatible.'

 

UPDATE: I figured out what the actual motherboard name is: It is a Zotac GeForce 9300-Mini ITX motherboard - Wifi

Edited November 2, 2020 by Bratstech

[Fasauceome]

10 minutes ago, Bratstech said:

I want two 8G sticks of memory and a mid teir graphics card.

mid tier from current gen? because a core 2 quad is close to 15 years old and it would be a pretty large waste of money to get anything more powerful than a GTX 1050 or 1050 ti.

 

A used GTX 950 or 750 TI are appropriate for a computer like this, maybe something like this. I also recommend 8GB at most cause 16GB probably won't go to good use. Is this a DDR2 motherboard or DDR3 motherboard? Do you know the model?

[Guest]

The NForce 9300-I supports up to a Q9650 processor and DDR2 800 memory.

You would look for 4x4 memory kits for 16GB total which is the max the board supports.

Not sure what "mid sized" card you'd look for. Something modern or something from the Core2 era??

[Bratstech]

2 hours ago, Fasauceome said:

mid tier from current gen? because a core 2 quad is close to 15 years old and it would be a pretty large waste of money to get anything more powerful than a GTX 1050 or 1050 ti.

 

A used GTX 950 or 750 TI are appropriate for a computer like this, maybe something like this. I also recommend 8GB at most cause 16GB probably won't go to good use. Is this a DDR2 motherboard or DDR3 motherboard? Do you know the model?

Tbh I'm not sure but the RAM it already has on is DDR2 so I guess lets stick with that

[Fasauceome]

11 minutes ago, Bratstech said:

Tbh I'm not sure but the RAM it already has on is DDR2 so I guess lets stick with that

since it's using DDR2 you can't use DDR3 because it won't fit in the slot anyway.

 

2x4GB of DDR2 is cheap on eBay

https://www.ebay.com/itm/2-x-4GB-PC2-6400-DDR2-800-GSKILL-Ram-Memory-F2-6400CL4D-4GBPK-G-Skill/133563320966?hash=item1f18fe8a86%3Ag%3AyqwAAOSw3L1fnw09&LH_BIN=1

 

and the cheapest graphics card that's not a GT or R7 card you can get your hands on will be a decent combination. Hopefully you are able to find a GTX 750 or better for under $50

[Orange1]

2 hours ago, Bratstech said:

Intel Core 2 Quad

An old workstation pc with 4th gen Intel would work, find a pc with 8gb of ram because they sell it for the same price as 4gb installed ram. Get the bigger case so you can install a graphics card. The i5's sell for $100.

[Bratstech]

23 hours ago, Bratstech said:

I currently just got a bunch of parts yesterday (when I posted this) and got a some what working PC out of it. The current parts that I have are:

Zotac Mini ITX motherboard - WiFi

2gb memory - DDR2

Intel Core 2 Quad

220W Power Supply

I have a couple hard drives (1TB/160GB/120GB) but I don't have them hooked up right now because I don't have any sata cables to hook them up so I'm running chromiumOS off of a 16gb flash drive. so far it seems to work fine or at least work but I want to upgrade it but don’t know which parts are compatible with it. I want two 8G sticks of memory and a mid teir graphics card. I think I found some at microcenter that's really bang for the buck but I don't know if it's compatible.'

 

UPDATE: I figured out what the actual motherboard name is: It is a Zotac GeForce 9300-Mini ITX motherboard - Wifi

So I did some research today and found the board is only compatible with 2 Four Gig sticks of DDR2 memory. Now that I know that I just need to find a compatible graphics card. I'm actually using the computer right now and It runs...ok... on ubuntu and chromiumOS. I'm going to be installing a 1T hard drive on to it but I have not done that yet because I don't have any sata cables. ubuntu is seeming to run fine on just a 16GB flash drive but gets really slow because the USB ports are only 2.0 which sucks but liveable. The fan that I currently have is too big for the case that I have right now so it interferes with the power supply but I made it work and plan on switching to a different case anyway. When this computer is complete I will post pictures and specs on to my profile so I guess if you want to follow me go for it but I guess I am mostly just posing for my self.

Edited November 2, 2020 by Bratstech
Wanted to add a few more details.