Ancient Acer Aspire build.

[Aaron4456]

Budget (including currency): 400

Country: usa

Games, programs or workloads that it will be used for: gta sa, oblivion, nfsu, etc. Games of that Era. 

Other details (existing parts lists, whether any peripherals are needed, what you're upgrading from, when you're going to buy, what resolution and refresh rate you want to play at, etc): I have had this acer aspire for over 15 years, it has a ht2000 motherboard, 512 mb of ram, and a single core athlon 3500+. I never use it anymore but it has sentimental value as it belonged to my grandfather originally. I recently had the idea to just dress it up in the best components of its own Era, just to play some old games on it. Whether it's good by today's standards is irrelevant, it's more of a pet project. The issue I want to address before I buy anything for it is compatibility for the motherboard, it is an am2 board, but being relatively new to computers in general really I'm just unsure of whether any am2 processor will do or not, nor am I particularly familiar with parts of that Era. Any input on the matter would be very much appreciated. 

 

[aisle9]

What model of Acer Aspire is it? There's usually a sticker on the side. You can probably handle Athlon 64 x2 CPUs. If you search "Acer (model) CPU support", you'll find something that tells you what you can use.

 

Assume compatibility with 4GB of DDR2 via 2x2GB sticks. 4GB sticks are out there, but they don't work with all mobos and they all cost a fortune. Best components of its era would be something along the lines of a Radeon...2000 series? 3000 series? Or a GeForce 6800-ish thing? TBQH, I had a Radeon HD 6570 a while back that was single slot and didn't need additional PCI-E power. It's newer than what you have, but in terms of overall graphics power it's comparable to what was out there, and you can get them for $15 or less on eBay. Something like a GTX 260 or Radeon 4870 would be a good fit too if you wanted to shoot high-end, assuming you replaced the PSU to accommodate the higher power draw and connector requirements.

[Aaron4456]

11 minutes ago, aisle9 said:

What model of Acer Aspire is it? There's usually a sticker on the side. You can probably handle Athlon 64 x2 CPUs. If you search "Acer (model) CPU support", you'll find something that tells you what you can use.

 

Assume compatibility with 4GB of DDR2 via 2x2GB sticks. 4GB sticks are out there, but they don't work with all mobos and they all cost a fortune. Best components of its era would be something along the lines of a Radeon...2000 series? 3000 series? Or a GeForce 6800-ish thing? TBQH, I had a Radeon HD 6570 a while back that was single slot and didn't need additional PCI-E power. It's newer than what you have, but in terms of overall graphics power it's comparable to what was out there, and you can get them for $15 or less on eBay. Something like a GTX 260 or Radeon 4870 would be a good fit too if you wanted to shoot high-end, assuming you replaced the PSU to accommodate the higher power draw and connector requirements.

Thank you, I really appreciate the help, I've already found compatible components, apparently a x2 4200+ is the fastest compatible cpu and a Radeon hd 4670 is the best gpu for it, thanks a bunch. 

[aoxomoxoa]

38 minutes ago, Aaron4456 said:

Budget (including currency): 400

Country: usa

Games, programs or workloads that it will be used for: gta sa, oblivion, nfsu, etc. Games of that Era. 

Other details (existing parts lists, whether any peripherals are needed, what you're upgrading from, when you're going to buy, what resolution and refresh rate you want to play at, etc): I have had this acer aspire for over 15 years, it has a ht2000 motherboard, 512 mb of ram, and a single core athlon 3500+. I never use it anymore but it has sentimental value as it belonged to my grandfather originally. I recently had the idea to just dress it up in the best components of its own Era, just to play some old games on it. Whether it's good by today's standards is irrelevant, it's more of a pet project. The issue I want to address before I buy anything for it is compatibility for the motherboard, it is an am2 board, but being relatively new to computers in general really I'm just unsure of whether any am2 processor will do or not, nor am I particularly familiar with parts of that Era. Any input on the matter would be very much appreciated. 

 

Would you be open to upgrading the system to maybe a Core 2 Duo / compatible and use Windows XP? Those games probably won't utilize more than 4GB ram and you will be able to maintain that DDR2 platform. Just get 2x2GB DDR2 sticks from your local computer shop / eBay for cheapo prices.

 

[aisle9]

Just now, Aaron4456 said:

Thank you, I really appreciate the help, I've already found compatible components, apparently a x2 4200+ is the fastest compatible cpu and a Radeon hd 4670 is the best gpu for it, thanks a bunch. 

Anytime, and have fun. My 32-bit XP gaming rig is probably my favorite PC, if I'm honest about it. There's just something about an OS that can handle games from 1990 as well as it handles games from 2008.

[aoxomoxoa]

4 minutes ago, aisle9 said:

Anytime, and have fun. My 32-bit XP gaming rig is probably my favorite PC, if I'm honest about it. There's just something about an OS that can handle games from 1990 as well as it handles games from 2008.

What are the specs to your XP build? I love seeing XP builds still being used today. I was able to get a Ryzen 5 5600 and an Asrock X370M motherboard to play nicely with it with very little driver incompatibilities. Hell, sound, LAN and USB 3 all work! Pasted HWInfo pics.

 

[aisle9]

9 minutes ago, aoxomoxoa said:

What are the specs to your XP build? I love seeing XP builds still being used today. I was able to get a Ryzen 5 5600 and an Asrock X370M motherboard to play nicely with it with very little driver incompatibilities. Hell, sound, LAN and USB 3 all work! Pasted HWInfo pics.

 

G3258 & a 750 Ti. Wouldn’t trade it for the world