Is it worth having more than 4 expansion slots?

[Jesbro]

Hello!

So my uncle is upgrading an old computer to give away to a family friend. It's a Dell Inspiron 530, and its motherboard fried, along with the processor. So, out of the blue one day, he asked me how many expansion slots I have in my case (200R). I answered seven. 

And from that day, he decided to find a motherboard that has 7 expansion slots (so ATX size). HOWEVER, in my current setup here: 

 

PCPartPicker part list: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/vT7WHx
Price breakdown by merchant: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/vT7WHx/by_merchant/

CPU: Intel Core i5-750 2.66Ghz Quad-Core Processor  (Purchased For $50.00) 
Motherboard: Intel DH57DD Micro ATX LGA1156 Motherboard 
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 8GB (4 x 2GB) DDR3-1333 Memory  (Purchased For $0.00) 
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 750GB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  (Purchased For $0.00) 
Video Card: XFX Radeon R9 380 4GB Double Dissipation Video Card  (Purchased For $172.00) 
Case: Corsair 200R ATX Mid Tower Case  ($55.11 @ Mac Mall) 
Power Supply: EVGA 500W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply  (Purchased For $32.00) 
Optical Drive: Samsung SH-S223Q DVD/CD Writer 
Optical Drive: Samsung SH-S223Q DVD/CD Writer 
Monitor: HP W2371d 60Hz 23.0" Monitor 
External Storage: Western Digital My Passport Air 1TB External Hard Drive  (Purchased For $73.00) 
Total: $382.11
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-03-24 20:34 EDT-0400

 

...That's right, good ol' LGA 1156 socket. Finding one cheap online was not easy for my uncle. So, he went on eBay, though prices didn't grab the cheap line. He instead found a mobo with CPU combo, and I was like "Okay, that's not bad....OH LGA 775"! No one has LGA 775 nowadays! And that's the cheapest ATX motherboard he can find! 

His plan is to replace Inspiron's hardware WITH MY MOBO AND CPU, and GIVE ME the combo he found, instead of the other way around!

So now I'm in a time crunch. I need to find an ATX motherboard to out beat him and keep my CPU. Downside to this plan is that someone has to buy a mATX LGA 775 mobo for the combo. 

Or, alternatively, just accept my defeat and say goodbye to quad-core Pre-Haswell speeds. 

 

So should I buy a new mATX motherboard (that supports USB 3.0 at least), an ATX to prove my uncle that I will use all my slots (which I won't), or just downgrade to LGA 775? 

 

All help is appreciated! Thanks!

[PooPipeBoy]

Take his LGA775 combo and do the 771-to-775 socket hack.

Buy a quad-core Xeon for $20-30 and the sticker you need for an extra $1, and slam that bad boy in.

Destroy everything and win the game of real life.

[Zach TOm]

just tell him that lga 775 is obsolete and you won't give him the board and cpu and tell him to get a different combo

[Zach TOm]

on ebay there are many matx 775 boards

[Jesbro]

8 minutes ago, PooPipeBoy said:

Take his LGA775 combo and do the 771-to-775 socket hack.

Buy a quad-core Xeon for $20-30 and the sticker you need for an extra $1, and slam that bad boy in.

Destroy everything and win the game of real life.

Hmm...interesting plan, but aren't Xeons mainly used for servers? 

 

7 minutes ago, Zach TOm said:

just tell him that lga 775 is obsolete and you won't give him the board and cpu and tell him to get a different combo

I think he already bought it, and he couldn't find a cheap mobo to "fill up all my 7 slots". 

[Zach TOm]

Just now, Jesbro said:

Hmm...interesting plan, but aren't Xeons mainly used for servers? 

 

I think he already bought it, and he couldn't find a cheap mobo to "fill up all my 7 slots". 

Just say no

[HPWebcamAble]

4 minutes ago, Jesbro said:

Hmm...interesting plan, but aren't Xeons mainly used for servers?

Xeon's can run pretty much any modern OS too though.

They don't have an iGPU though.

[PooPipeBoy]

Just now, Jesbro said:

Hmm...interesting plan, but aren't Xeons mainly used for servers? 

Exactly, that's why they're so cheap, heaps of servers are no longer useful for company use and so they get parted out and sold.

They're actually insane value for the money, and the benefit of Xeons is you get heaps more cache (often double) in comparison to the equivalent retail processors.

[Jesbro]

1 minute ago, HPWebcamAble said:

Xeon's can run pretty much any modern OS too though.

They don't have an iGPU though.

That's a problem right there. It would be a bit easier to get a CPU that has its own graphics instead of buying a discrete, old one.

 

7 minutes ago, Zach TOm said:

on ebay there are many matx 775 boards

Though most of them don't come with IO shields/ 

[Jesbro]

14 minutes ago, PooPipeBoy said:

Exactly, that's why they're so cheap, heaps of servers are no longer useful for company use and so they get parted out and sold.

They're actually insane value for the money, and the benefit of Xeons is you get heaps more cache (often double) in comparison to the equivalent retail processors.

How does a Xeon compare to a 1st Gen Lynnfield? 

[PooPipeBoy]

2 minutes ago, Jesbro said:

How does a Xeon compare to a 1st Gen Lynnfield? 

Pretty similar, actually.

I'm getting a Xeon X5460, which is very comparable to your Core i5 750 in both multi-threaded and single-threaded performance.

[Jesbro]

Just now, PooPipeBoy said:

Pretty similar, actually.

I'm getting a Xeon X5460, which is very comparable to your Core i5 750 in both multi-threaded and single-threaded performance.

 

Hmmm. I could take risk in your LGA 771 hack and buy that processor for $30.

 

Btw this is the combo my uncle bought:

 

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Intel-DG33FB-SKT-775-G33-Express-ATX-Desktop-Motherboard-E8200-2-66-I-O-/381569489973?hash=item58d7505c35:g:p8gAAOSwh-1W5rbY

[PooPipeBoy]

1 minute ago, Jesbro said:

 

Hmmm. I could take risk in your LGA 771 hack and buy that processor for $30.

 

Btw this is the combo my uncle bought:

 

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Intel-DG33FB-SKT-775-G33-Express-ATX-Desktop-Motherboard-E8200-2-66-I-O-/381569489973?hash=item58d7505c35:g:p8gAAOSwh-1W5rbY

Interesting, yeah the motherboard seems pretty good as long as you're not overclocking.

The Xeon mod can get a bit fiddly with BIOS updates and stuff, keep in mind that if you don't feel like doing that then you could get a nice 3.0GHz Core 2 Duo E8400 for around $10 and call it a day.

[Zach TOm]

like i said just say no and tell him to get a matx 775 motherboard

[Jesbro]

12 minutes ago, PooPipeBoy said:

Interesting, yeah the motherboard seems pretty good as long as you're not overclocking.

The Xeon mod can get a bit fiddly with BIOS updates and stuff, keep in mind that if you don't feel like doing that then you could get a nice 3.0GHz Core 2 Duo E8400 for around $10 and call it a day.

Ha, isn't a E8400 the same as a E8200, only with hyperthreading? 

 

8 minutes ago, Zach TOm said:

like i said just say no and tell him to get a matx 775 motherboard

Does it matter which model to get? And what about the IO shield? 

[PooPipeBoy]

7 minutes ago, Jesbro said:

Ha, isn't a E8400 the same as a E8200, only with hyperthreading?

The E8400 is a 3.0GHz version of the E8200, and is still a true dual-core processor without hyperthreading.

It will still be more powerful than the Dell Inspiron your uncle had, so it should be just fine for basic computing on a modern operating system.

EDIT: Sorry for spamming you with ideas, but if you'd prefer an LGA775-compatible quad-core processor that doesn't require a socket hack, you can always upgrade to a Core 2 Quad Q6600 later.

[Jesbro]

21 minutes ago, PooPipeBoy said:

The E8400 is a 3.0GHz version of the E8200, and is still a true dual-core processor without hyperthreading.

It will still be more powerful than the Dell Inspiron your uncle had, so it should be just fine for basic computing on a modern operating system.

EDIT: Sorry for spamming you with ideas, but if you'd prefer an LGA775-compatible quad-core processor that doesn't require a socket hack, you can always upgrade to a Core 2 Quad Q6600 later.

 

A Core 2 Quad Q6600 eh? Would that work with a R9 380 and 500W PSU? Cause I mainly video edit and play light games (such as TF2 and CSGO). 

[PooPipeBoy]

3 minutes ago, Jesbro said:

 

A Core 2 Quad Q6600 eh? Would that work with a R9 380 and 500W PSU? Cause I mainly video edit and play light games (such as TF2 and CSGO). 

Sure, for light gaming that would be a pretty good setup actually.

The Q6600 isn't a blazing fireball of speed, but it's a true quad core so it'll do 1080p gaming no problems.

[Jesbro]

1 hour ago, PooPipeBoy said:

Sure, for light gaming that would be a pretty good setup actually.

The Q6600 isn't a blazing fireball of speed, but it's a true quad core so it'll do 1080p gaming no problems.

Hmm...And is it faster than my i5-750? Would i notice a difference in performance? 

[PooPipeBoy]

2 hours ago, Jesbro said:

Hmm...And is it faster than my i5-750? Would i notice a difference in performance? 

Oh, no it wouldn't be faster than the i5 750, I was just thinking you could replace the E8200 with a Q6600.

Probably best to stick with the i5 750 for your current system because upgrades for the LGA1156 socket are fairly limited.

That being said though, there's plenty of great quad core processors that you can swap into the LGA775 motherboard and get performance that's very comparable to your Core i5.

[NumLock21]

Tell him to get something newer than 775 and you will not give him your old parts. 1156 to 775, thats a major downgrade.

 

[typographie]

12 hours ago, Jesbro said:

How does a Xeon compare to a 1st Gen Lynnfield? 

Any Xeon you buy that's compatible with LGA-1156 is Lynnfield. You've got two choices in Xeons on LGA-1156: the Xeon L3426 is low-power and low-clocked and are probably slower in many tasks than an i5-750. The Xeon X3xx's look like rebranded Lynnfield i7's—same clock speed, same core counts, and Hyperthreading. That's what you'd want. They would be as fast or faster than your i5-750, possibly much faster when you're getting use out of Hyperthreading.

 

Though that means the i7-860 or i7-870 are probably just as good, if you can find one of those cheaper. Those can also definitely be overclocked, whereas I'm unsure if Lynnfield Xeons can be.

 

10 hours ago, Jesbro said:

Hmm...And is it faster than my i5-750? Would i notice a difference in performance? 

The Core i5-750 is much faster and considerably newer than the Q6600. Benchmarks: http://www.anandtech.com/show/2832