Windows 7 Machine

[Nat-Country]

Budget (including currency): N/A NZD

Country: New Zealand

Games, programs or workloads that it will be used for: Emulation and older PC games like Fuel. (from gameboy era up until ps2 era, wii, maybe xbox, although i have no idea how to get an xbox emulator working) I have quite a large collection of old games

Other detail: The whole idea of this project is trying to make something interesting and to have fun putting it together really! 

 

GPU: ATI HD 4870 (1GB GDDR5 version) (https://videocardz.net/msi-radeon-hd-4870-1gb) 

CPU: AMD Athlon x2 240 

CPU cooler: stock AMD heatsink

Motherboard: ASUS M4N68T-M (V1) https://www.asus.com/SupportOnly/M4N68TM/HelpDesk_CPU/ 

RAM: single 4GB stick of ddr3 1066 Mhz

PSU: cooler master 400 watt 80 plus 

case: some old no name thing (I plan on heavily modding it and making it mostly mesh just as a fun little project)

HDD: old seagate 1TB drive

Optical drive: old liteon drive (there is also a floppy drive that I ended up removing)

Mouse: Logitech G400s 

Keyboard: compaq kpq-e99ac-7 (old keyboard from the 90's i found for a dollar) 

 

I'll be running at 1600 x 900 60Hz. 

 

Questions/advice? 

- GPU: When i first fired it up I realised the fan on the gpu was scraping against the decorative metal blades that cover the fan so I bent them up and away from the fan that fixed the issue. I'm considering completely removing the blades so that the fan gets more air, but I'm not sure if that would be worth it. 

- Case fans: There were 2 80mm fans in the case (both molex fans) one of them was extremely noisy so i removed it. I'm not sure if i can repair the fan somehow to fix the noise issue? I currently have the one fan mounted as an intake in the front of the case, but I'm thinking of     mounting it on the side panel right by the gpu (since it gets extremely hot). The PSU is mounted in the top of the case, so i figured That would be my exhaust fan. 

- CPU upgrade. I'm not sure if it's worth putting a different CPU in. I wouldn't want to update the BIOS, because I really don't want to brick the motherboard. Other CPU's I have available (got them for a buck bulk) Athlon X2 4000, athlon x2 2550, athlon 785, athlon 5000, athlon x2 3600. I don't know if these are all working, which is why I don't want to risk updating the BIOS. I'm also concerned about powerdraw since I've seen online that a 450 w psu is recommended for the 4870. 

- RAM. I'm not sure if 4GB is enough for what I want to do. I think it should be fine but not 100% sure. 

- PSU. As mentioned before I'm a little concerned about the wattage, since the PSU only had one 6 pin connector and the GPU requires 2, I had to get a molex to 6 pin adapter

 

Any advice/ideas or insights would be greatly appreciated! Thanks 

 

[heli1337]

46 minutes ago, Nat-Country said:

Budget (including currency): N/A NZD

Country: New Zealand

Games, programs or workloads that it will be used for: Emulation and older PC games like Fuel. (from gameboy era up until ps2 era, wii, maybe xbox, although i have no idea how to get an xbox emulator working) I have quite a large collection of old games

Other detail: The whole idea of this project is trying to make something interesting and to have fun putting it together really! 

 

GPU: ATI HD 4870 (1GB GDDR5 version) (https://videocardz.net/msi-radeon-hd-4870-1gb) 

CPU: AMD Athlon x2 240 

CPU cooler: stock AMD heatsink

Motherboard: ASUS M4N68T-M (V1) https://www.asus.com/SupportOnly/M4N68TM/HelpDesk_CPU/ 

RAM: single 4GB stick of ddr3 1066 Mhz

PSU: cooler master 400 watt 80 plus 

case: some old no name thing (I plan on heavily modding it and making it mostly mesh just as a fun little project)

HDD: old seagate 1TB drive

Optical drive: old liteon drive (there is also a floppy drive that I ended up removing)

Mouse: Logitech G400s 

Keyboard: compaq kpq-e99ac-7 (old keyboard from the 90's i found for a dollar) 

 

I'll be running at 1600 x 900 60Hz. 

 

Questions/advice? 

- GPU: When i first fired it up I realised the fan on the gpu was scraping against the decorative metal blades that cover the fan so I bent them up and away from the fan that fixed the issue. I'm considering completely removing the blades so that the fan gets more air, but I'm not sure if that would be worth it. 

- Case fans: There were 2 80mm fans in the case (both molex fans) one of them was extremely noisy so i removed it. I'm not sure if i can repair the fan somehow to fix the noise issue? I currently have the one fan mounted as an intake in the front of the case, but I'm thinking of     mounting it on the side panel right by the gpu (since it gets extremely hot). The PSU is mounted in the top of the case, so i figured That would be my exhaust fan. 

- CPU upgrade. I'm not sure if it's worth putting a different CPU in. I wouldn't want to update the BIOS, because I really don't want to brick the motherboard. Other CPU's I have available (got them for a buck bulk) Athlon X2 4000, athlon x2 2550, athlon 785, athlon 5000, athlon x2 3600. I don't know if these are all working, which is why I don't want to risk updating the BIOS. I'm also concerned about powerdraw since I've seen online that a 450 w psu is recommended for the 4870. 

- RAM. I'm not sure if 4GB is enough for what I want to do. I think it should be fine but not 100% sure. 

- PSU. As mentioned before I'm a little concerned about the wattage, since the PSU only had one 6 pin connector and the GPU requires 2, I had to get a molex to 6 pin adapter

 

Any advice/ideas or insights would be greatly appreciated! Thanks 

 

I will suggest picking up an LGA775 platform maybe.

Q6600's are so easy to find out, and they are performing good.

 

If you want to stay on AM3 then find a Phenom X2 555 BE and get a Phenom X4 B55 from it

Find a board, that supports Core Unlocking.

 

Better get 2x2GB, HD4870 will be fine for that kind of build.

Try to get a 550W PSU for it.

 

[jaslion]

1. Leave it that barely has an impact. Do make sure you repaste that card tho that will make a MASSIVE difference.

2. Just get some cheap arctic f8 fans. Don't bother with repairing a molex fan

3. Leave it as is it's for older games anyway so this will do the trick

4. Depends on the games you will be playing but I assume this is for games pre 2009? Otherwise this system has little point as basically any game that worked on 7 still works now

5. What cooler master 400w 80 plus psu? That molex to 6pin is BEGGING FOR DISASTER.

 

I mean this system is honestly even for back then quite mediocre part from the 4870.