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What should I do with dis?

Caeden
By Caeden
in New Builds and Planning
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Hi LTT Community,

 

First of all, a little background. If you don't care, skip to paragraph 3. I recently posted about building my first PC from scratch. And I am going ahead with that, I've already bought half the parts, so I'm invested in it now and I'm looking forward to the build. But just recently, my boss gave me a new job to do in the lab I'm working in as an intern. And to do that job he gave me exclusive access to a PC so I could use it for my experiments.

 

Thing is, this PC, a HP Compaq dc7700 CMT, is from 2005 and has such a full HDD that it can barely start. We tried to install new software for my work and found that there was only 3GB was left availlable. My boss said "Damn. Well, I'll get you a new PC then." So he did, and I've been using that since, all to myself. But this now redundant HP has been left sitting there for almost a month with no purpose, and all of the files on it have been backed up on my boss's archive, so I suggested that I buy it for a few dozen euros and refurbish it for myself. He agreed.

 

So immediately, I opened her up and took a look at her, even though it's technically not yet mine. The specs as they are, are as follows:

CPU: Intel Core i2, didn't even check the rest of the model number after I saw that.

PSU: 365W, non-modular (what?? how?)

HDD: Western Digital 250GB drive

RAM: Elpida 1GB DDR2 - Single channel in case that needed clarification.

And a fairly decent LG DVD/CD reader/burner!

I attached some phots as well, if you're interested.

 

This case has toolless drive bays and 5.25" slots. The side panel comes off toollessly as well. The CPU coler is a fanless heatsink, the only fan in the case is the rear exhaust fan, pulling air from directly over the heatsink. The PCI slots are beyond my knowledge, so I won't guess what they are. I'm inexperienced with a lot of this hardware. I've already wiped the hard drive to the best of my abilities, and intend on replacing Windows XP with a newer version that actually still has support. Or I might just install a Linux based operating system to go easy on the system instead. I'm not sure yet.

 

But I'm getting ahead of myself, the reason I posted this, is because I want your opinions on what I should do with this fairly nice little case. Should I scrap it, replace the older parts with newer ones? Take them out and build a new small form factor super-low-budget PC? It would be far from difficult to find parts for this, and at very good prices as well.

 

Thanks for reading,

 

Caeden.

(The MSI in the HDD image is my GE620DX notebook.... don't judge :-P )

post-268319-0-21822600-1445365278.jpg

post-268319-0-99308500-1445365284.jpeg

post-268319-0-70716300-1445365287.jpg

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Core i2?

 

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i2? What?  Well, I'd say it's not worth keeping except the PSU, case, and optical drive.  Not sure what I'd do though.

Join the Appleitionist cause! See spoiler below for answers to common questions that shouldn't be common!

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Give em' to me and you'll get the newest nothing in return. For 30% off. Nothing is right now 29.99.

|Intel Core i5-4670K| |Gigabyte Z97P-D3| |Seagate 1TB SSHD| |Fractal Design Define S| |Corsair CS650M| |Asus PB278Q| |Cooler Master CM Storm Devastator Bundle|

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you sure it wasnt a core 2 Duo or a core 2 quad?

Different PCPartPickers for different countries:

UK-----Italy----Canada-----Spain-----Germany-----Austrailia-----New Zealand-----'Murica-----France-----India

 

10 minutes ago, Stardar1 said:

Well, with an i7, GTX 1080, Full tower and flashy lights, it can obviously only be for one thing:

Solitaire. 

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i2? What?  Well, I'd say it's not worth keeping except the PSU, case, and optical drive.  Not sure what I'd do though.

Pshhh low. I got an i9-99990k

|Intel Core i5-4670K| |Gigabyte Z97P-D3| |Seagate 1TB SSHD| |Fractal Design Define S| |Corsair CS650M| |Asus PB278Q| |Cooler Master CM Storm Devastator Bundle|

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Before there was PIC-E there was PCI....pssst those are the white ones....

Current: R2600X@4.0GHz\\ Corsair Air 280x \\ RTX 2070 \\ 16GB DDR3 2666 \\ 1KW EVGA Supernova\\ Asus B450 TUF

Old Systems: A6 5200 APU -- A10 7800K + HD6670 -- FX 9370 + 2X R9 290 -- G3258 + R9 280 -- 4690K + RX480

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Pshhh low. I got an i9-99990k

at more gigahertz than digits in that name?

Join the Appleitionist cause! See spoiler below for answers to common questions that shouldn't be common!

Spoiler

Q: Do I have a virus?!
A: If you didn't click a sketchy email, haven't left your computer physically open to attack, haven't downloaded anything sketchy/free, know that your software hasn't been exploited in a new hack, then the answer is: probably not.

 

Q: What email/VPN should I use?
A: Proton mail and VPN are the best for email and VPNs respectively. (They're free in a good way)

 

Q: How can I stay anonymous on the (deep/dark) webzz???....

A: By learning how to de-anonymize everyone else; if you can do that, then you know what to do for yourself.

 

Q: What Linux distro is best for x y z?

A: Lubuntu for things with little processing power, Ubuntu for normal PCs, and if you need to do anything else then it's best if you do the research yourself.

 

Q: Why is my Linux giving me x y z error?

A: Have you not googled it? Are you sure StackOverflow doesn't have an answer? Does the error tell you what's wrong? If the answer is no to all of those, message me.

 

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Yep :-/ i2

Pretty sure that does not now nor ever existed. And you've never seen a non modular PSU? You should really expect it on most machines like that.

Solve your own audio issues  |  First Steps with RPi 3  |  Humidity & Condensation  |  Sleep & Hibernation  |  Overclocking RAM  |  Making Backups  |  Displays  |  4K / 8K / 16K / etc.  |  Do I need 80+ Platinum?

If you can read this you're using the wrong theme.  You can change it at the bottom.

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you sure it wasnt a core 2 Duo or a core 2 quad?

 

Yeah, I checked again. It says Core 2, my mistake.

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Pretty sure that does not now nor ever existed. And you've never seen a non modular PSU? You should really expect it on most machines like that.

 

I know, it's just not the done thing at the moment for gaming PCs, that's all. I'm well aware of non-modular PSUs

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I know, it's just not the done thing at the moment for gaming PCs, that's all. I'm well aware of non-modular PSUs

 

Yeah, I checked again. It says Core 2, my mistake.

with DDR2 it has to be a core 2 Pentium, you must have read it wrong

Different PCPartPickers for different countries:

UK-----Italy----Canada-----Spain-----Germany-----Austrailia-----New Zealand-----'Murica-----France-----India

 

10 minutes ago, Stardar1 said:

Well, with an i7, GTX 1080, Full tower and flashy lights, it can obviously only be for one thing:

Solitaire. 

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Yeah, I checked again. It says Core 2, my mistake.

Now I wonder if its a real processor or just a lump of clay from an unreputable back alley :)

Update: nvm you changed it

Solve your own audio issues  |  First Steps with RPi 3  |  Humidity & Condensation  |  Sleep & Hibernation  |  Overclocking RAM  |  Making Backups  |  Displays  |  4K / 8K / 16K / etc.  |  Do I need 80+ Platinum?

If you can read this you're using the wrong theme.  You can change it at the bottom.

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with DDR2 it has to be a core 2 Pentium, you must have read it wrong

 

Yeah I did. But as for DDR2, what kind of performance can be expected there? Should I just scrap that and get a new mobo and cpu??

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Yeah I did. But as for DDR2, what kind of performance can be expected there? Should I just scrap that and get a new mobo and cpu??

the jump is more dependent on the CPU than the RAM

 

but for that CPU, yeah, go for something new

Different PCPartPickers for different countries:

UK-----Italy----Canada-----Spain-----Germany-----Austrailia-----New Zealand-----'Murica-----France-----India

 

10 minutes ago, Stardar1 said:

Well, with an i7, GTX 1080, Full tower and flashy lights, it can obviously only be for one thing:

Solitaire. 

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i2? What?  Well, I'd say it's not worth keeping except the PSU, case, and optical drive.  Not sure what I'd do though.

 

I was thinking of taking some of my extensive DIY skills to it and making it, you know better...

 

But really, I had in mind to remove the CPU and mobo, and replace the PSU with maybe a used 450W instead. I think it's a Mini-ATX form factor, not sure to be honest, maybe you guys could clue me in.

But I could upgrade to a medium range i5, with a mid range GPU and game on it. 

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I was thinking of taking some of my extensive DIY skills to it and making it, you know better...

 

But really, I had in mind to remove the CPU and mobo, and replace the PSU with maybe a used 450W instead. I think it's a Mini-ATX form factor, not sure to be honest, maybe you guys could clue me in.

But I could upgrade to a medium range i5, with a mid range GPU and game on it.

About mini-ITX... Which? The motherboard or the case? I wouldn't attempt any gaming on that mobo or anything it will work with :)

Solve your own audio issues  |  First Steps with RPi 3  |  Humidity & Condensation  |  Sleep & Hibernation  |  Overclocking RAM  |  Making Backups  |  Displays  |  4K / 8K / 16K / etc.  |  Do I need 80+ Platinum?

If you can read this you're using the wrong theme.  You can change it at the bottom.

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About mini-ITX... Which? The motherboard or the case? :)

The case. I was asking what it can hold.

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The case. I was asking what it can hold.

Looks like a lot actually. What is that, 7 pcie slot covers? But cooling anything good could be an issue...

Solve your own audio issues  |  First Steps with RPi 3  |  Humidity & Condensation  |  Sleep & Hibernation  |  Overclocking RAM  |  Making Backups  |  Displays  |  4K / 8K / 16K / etc.  |  Do I need 80+ Platinum?

If you can read this you're using the wrong theme.  You can change it at the bottom.

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Yeah, seven quick-open slots actually. There is a decent amount of space in the bottom, though there is only one fan mount, stock anyway

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