Frankenstein's desktop story

JoeyT1000 · June 18, 2018

A while back i was working at a retail shop where the employees weren't too knowledgable on computers in general, and while working with them they had an old desktop lying around. When i asked them about it they just told me it didn't work. Not much help there as you can tell . So i asked if i can take a look at it to see how bad the damage was to it. I was happy to hear that they would give me the entire desktop if i fixed it as long as the information was given back to them that they had on it. So i delightfully agreed. So i took it home, and started taking it apart. It had been accumulating dust and mold and what not on the case and insides.

After i cleaned it up and putting it back together, i decided to try and turn it on. It started, but for only about 5 seconds before it starting shooting out errors so i turned it off. When i tried again, it didnt even decide to boot at all. I tried replacing the battery thingy after a friend suggested it to me.but it still didnt. Other signs of why it didnt work were the ram, signs of what looked like water damage, and a broken sata cable. apparently the culprit for the desktop not starting was a broken resistor on the motherboard. So i bend it back thinking this could possibly not be the only thing weong with it.Then i heard it.

The beep of life! I was overjoyed, not because i got myself a deskop but because i actually fixed it. Fast forward a bit, i reinstalled windows 7, got a 2gb ram stick and a new hdd, it is functioning well.

Now i am currently looking for a graphics card that is compatible with it so as to do some low end gaming. but i dont know what to look for in one. A 1gb graphics card would be just fine with the setup i have. I currently have a limited budget but eventually i will be able to. For now the info would be greatly appreciated.

P.s. sorry i wrote alot. My friends arent too much into pc as i am so i just decided to tell you guys my story. It was exciting aswell because this is my first pc i am giving this most attention. Before it was just laptop for school.

also, my first forum/post

The specs for the desktop is very low

Dell optiplex 580

AMD Athlon II X2 250 / 3 GHz
2gb ram and 4 gb ram ddr3 (the 4gb ram is not installed in the pictures)

PSU gives 255 watts

An hdd of 500gb

RenaKry · June 18, 2018

The low-end spectrum of graphics cards in the current generation of AMD and Nvidia GPUs sips on power and should complement the aging Athlon CPU. Up to a GTX 1050, you can easily find cards that don't require auxiliary power that draws all the power it needs through the motherboard, though I wouldn't bother paying anything above $140 for said 1050. GT 1030 cards go for $90 for half the performance, but it is perfectly capable for 720p gaming, so get whatever your budget allows.

Edit: I didn't mention bidding on used cards on eBay because while the older generation of cards can yield better performance per dollar, you will definitely run into power limitations with the current power supply in your system.

Edit, again: if you can, get a cheap SSD. it will make that old Athlon feel like a Phenom. when I say cheap, I meant dirt cheap. Micro Center's Inland SSDs are a good choice but prioritize graphics first.