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The Business PC Resurrection

Mainewha
By Mainewha
in New Builds and Planning
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Posted

(Provided I got the right place here)

 

For starters, blame Scrapyard Wars for even thinking about this project.

 

Awhile back I decided to help a friend out and make him a computer because the one he had was just abysmally slow that he could walk away for ten minutes and come back to find his web browser is finally open. During this process I ended up with his old machine and I decided to see if I could maybe revive it and make something of it. Most matters with regards to upgradable parts is pretty straight-forward and simple, though with a power budget of all things to deal with, that means that one item needs a shade more consideration, mainly what kind of graphics card to stick in this machine.I was wondering if I could get some opinions on the matter, especially since there's very few low-profile options of any decency to make note of.

 

Prospective cards:GT730, RX460, GTX1050, another GTX1050, and a GTX1050 TI

 

Machine in question: HP dc7900

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Ha, Ironic I have a Dell Optiplex 960 (Business PC as well) and trying to do the same thing with it. Except i'm turning it into a small server for a challenge.

 

I would say go for the GTX 1050/1050 TI but... I'm not sure if airflow to the card would be a problem

Wow this was old as heck, Need to update this signature!
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I would have to think the 1050ti, as it will be the fastest card. I don't think I would consider anything outside the 10 series, however. As far as the AMD side, I think the 1050ti still has the advantage over the RX460.

My Rig: https://pcpartpicker.com/b/6p29TW

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15 minutes ago, Mainewha said:

(Provided I got the right place here)

 

For starters, blame Scrapyard Wars for even thinking about this project.

 

Awhile back I decided to help a friend out and make him a computer because the one he had was just abysmally slow that he could walk away for ten minutes and come back to find his web browser is finally open. During this process I ended up with his old machine and I decided to see if I could maybe revive it and make something of it. Most matters with regards to upgradable parts is pretty straight-forward and simple, though with a power budget of all things to deal with, that means that one item needs a shade more consideration, mainly what kind of graphics card to stick in this machine.I was wondering if I could get some opinions on the matter, especially since there's very few low-profile options of any decency to make note of.

 

Prospective cards:GT730, RX460, GTX1050, another GTX1050, and a GTX1050 TI

 

Machine in question: HP dc7900

Dude I have 5 of those PC's and they are only good as a media server

The geek himself.

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1050 or 1050 Ti is going to be the way to go. I doubt the CPU would be able to keep up with any other GPU (besides AMDs RX460) anyway.

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11 minutes ago, RAM555789 said:

1050 or 1050 Ti is going to be the way to go. I doubt the CPU would be able to keep up with any other GPU (besides AMDs RX460) anyway.

Don't worry, I plan on changing out the one in there for a better one

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  • 3 weeks later...
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UPDATE:
Managed to find some matching RAM to what was inside the case (KHX6400D2K2/4G kit from the UK to go with the ones inside. the two slower MHz 1gb sticks KTH-XW4300/1G, will be removed outright and bagged). This will bring it all up to a nice 8GB of DDR2 memory. (That stuff is a pain to find new, and what few there are that's non-server, is RIDICULOUSLY expensive in some cases)  EBay is a good resource on this build.

Looking into that new CPU; Intel Core 2 Quad Q9650 to replace the Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 that's inside it. EBay once again has some nice options to look into at reasonable prices.

 

I do plan on doing a (assumedly standard) Boot SSD/Storage HDD setup, using a WD Blue 1TB, and a SSD off of this list

 

For the moment the 1050 TI is still the front-runner graphics card for this project (when they're made for SFF applications they're not as powerful as their normal full-sized and fully-powered big brothers), though a check through Ebay is in order.

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Gotta be honest, not really worth to build up this pc. I only use them for streaming movies and thats pretty much it.

The geek himself.

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7 hours ago, Being Delirious said:

Gotta be honest, not really worth to build up this pc. I only use them for streaming movies and thats pretty much it.

Ah but from all of what you were saying, you didn't even bother to try and make it better than when you got it. Gotta think more creatively man, otherwise you'd just never do anything worthwhile with your time.

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4 hours ago, Mainewha said:

Ah but from all of what you were saying, you didn't even bother to try and make it better than when you got it. Gotta think more creatively man, otherwise you'd just never do anything worthwhile with your time.

it's a waste of money is my point. Look for video cards on a used selling site. Like eBay

The geek himself.

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  • 5 weeks later...
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After waiting for parts to arrive (and a few extra cables since the existing ones were SATA II), the time has finally come to assemble everything together and generally ensure that everything works. And after several tests to ensure that the new RAM, drives, an graphics card would indeed work within the system, but that the system would POST and allow me to enter BIOS to verify. I am very happy to announce that not only did the system accept the new CPU, RAM, and drives, but even with the graphics card, everything s working together quite nicely. Now comes the time to start installing the OS, and getting things moving on some simple benchmarks.

 

For those interested in seeing some pictures, go ahead and look at this set of photos.

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So everything's been installed, updated and is running. Now its time to get some lovely benchmark and real-world numbers in and see what I am managing with all of this.

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  • 3 weeks later...
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Alrighty, well good news, I am done with this build. Better news: It's going off to it's new owner so at this point it's time for some conclusions!

 

Ebay is a good resource when your looking for parts that are either hard to get ahold of new, or are no longer available new anymore like what I ended up doing for the CPU and RAM. Otherwise new parts sites like Newegg and Amazon are good options though its always important to check between them for the best pricing.

 

Your probably wondering 'What the bloody hell are you going to do with that thing now that your done? Take it apart and use the parts elsewhere?'

 

Nope! Already sent it to someone who could make good use of it elsewhere.

 

So in conclusion, if you have the time and patience, its worth it.

 

 

And now I can move onto the next project, a pair of OptiPlex 740's

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