New Hybrid Drive

[Rhythm8503]

Hello! 

 

Recently I have been getting into upgrading my uncle's old Dell dimension e510 into a fast running gaming sleeper for myself. I wanted to ask if Hybrid Drives are built in with a form of windows. In addition to what GPU's I could add in with all the new parts in. 

 

PC Specs:

 

Intel Pentium D 945: 3.4GHZ Processor.

8GB DDR2 RAM [2 x 4GB] 800Mhz

Seagate 2TB SSHD, SATA 6gb/s, 7,200 RPM. 

 

What GPU's can I install, can I install AMD or Nvidia Graphics cards. This is my first time doing an upgrade like this so I want to make sure I'm not wasting any money. Thanks!

 

 

 

 

[dcgreen2k]

You have to install Windows yourself, if that's what you're asking. As for a graphics card, a used GTX 750Ti would do well although it will be held back by your CPU. The 750Ti is good for when you decide to upgrade the rest of the system to something more powerful as well. 

[Guest]

I think they make 1050Tis in SFF. 

[jpenguin]

16 minutes ago, Rhythm8503 said:

I wanted to ask if Hybrid Drives are built in with a form of windows.

Not sure what you mean; but if you're asking about Seagate's SSHDs- they've always worked well for me

[Rhythm8503]

Cool but is a GTX 750 TI or GTX 1050 Compatible?

 

and can I do VR? I want to make this machine powerful but over 10+ years old

 

[Rhythm8503]

with a 2.66GHZ Pentium processor, the only holding this computer back from being decent in today's standard is it's 1GB of RAM, 160GB Hard Drive and it's operating system. 

[Guest]

9 minutes ago, Rhythm8503 said:

Cool but is a GTX 750 TI or GTX 1050 Compatible?

 

and can I do VR? I want to make this machine powerful but over 10+ years old

 

I am not sure to be honest.

 

I know that some Dell models come with their own version of the GPU and only that is compatible with their mobo, because they're all custom made.

 

Check on their list for that product to make sure it is compatible before you spend money on a GPU that might not work.

 

Cheers.

 

EDIT: Probably not VR, your CPU will limit you.

[Rhythm8503]

does the CPU need to be quad-core in order for VR?

[Rhythm8503]

Plus if the Pentium I'm choosing is 3.4Ghz shouldn't it work with a GTX 1050 at best?

[kirashi]

4 minutes ago, Rhythm8503 said:

does the CPU need to be quad-core in order for VR?

The minimum required CPU for VR, at least with the HTC Vive (and Oculus Rift, I'd wager), is an Intel Core i5-4590 processor. Adding to that, you'll want at least 8GB RAM and a GTX 1070 for a smooth experience. Keep in mind these requirements are the bear minimum - ideally you'll want a top end unlocked i7 6th, 7th, or 8th gen CPU, 16GB RAM, and a GTX Titan VR 9000 (such a card does not yet exist, so a GTX 1080 will have to do) in order to achieve decently playable VR framerates.

 

I wouldn't pair a GPU higher than a GTX 750 Ti / GT 1030 with that older Pentium CPU, assuming the desktop can actually accommodate a GPU with the stock power supply and/or motherboard configuration.

[Rhythm8503]

are more CUDA cores better in the GPU? cause the GT 1030 has 384 Cores, meanwhile the GTX 750 Ti has 640 Cores.

[Guest]

8 minutes ago, Rhythm8503 said:

Plus if the Pentium I'm choosing is 3.4Ghz shouldn't it work with a GTX 1050 at best?

I mean... It's still a pentium D my dude, you have got a 10 year old CPU sitting in your machine.

 

I was about to explain the min reqs for VR but @kirashi beat me to it. 

 

And he also makes a fair point with not pairing anything higher than a 750Ti with the pentium. But if you're looking to use the GPU in another system down the road, I don't see why you can't put the 1050Ti in there. 

 

EDIT: Next time please quote me so I get a notification that you've replied.

[Rhythm8503]

1 minute ago, Netivity said:

I mean... It's still a pentium D my dude, you have got a 10 year old CPU sitting in your machine.

 

I was about to explain the min reqs for VR but @kirashi beat me to it. 

 

And he also makes a fair point with not pairing anything higher than a 750Ti with the pentium. But if you're looking to use the GPU in another system down the road, I don't see why you can't put the 1050Ti in there. 

 

EDIT: Next time please quote me so I get a notification that you've replied.

Ok, so which is better for gaming? The GTX 750 Ti or GT 1030

[Guest]

Just now, Rhythm8503 said:

Ok, so which is better for gaming? The GTX 750 Ti or GT 1030

I have never used the GT 1030, but I always had pleasant experiences with the 750Ti. Back when it was popular and games were optimized for it.

[kirashi]

Just now, Rhythm8503 said:

Ok, so which is better for gaming? The GTX 750 Ti or GT 1030

The GTX 750 Ti performs better than a GT 1030, but may or may not be priced better depending on what's available in your area. It is an older series card too, so it won't be supported by nVidia GeForce Experience for as long. Still, if I had to choose, that's what I'd go with between the 2 cards.

[Rhythm8503]

Does the GTX 750 Ti receive power from the power supply or from the PCIe lane?

[Rhythm8503]

I checked doesn't seem like it needs any power supply. Now for final verification will this all work.

 

Dell Dimension E510: 

 

MotherBoard: RD203

CPU: Intel Pentium D 945 ( 3.4GHZ Dual Core, 2 Thread, 800Mhz Bus Speed )

RAM: 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) 2Rx4 240-Pin 1.8V ECC FBDIMM Fully Buffered Memory by NEMIX RAM

Storage: Seagate Barracuda 2 TB Internal HDD - 3.5" - ST2000DM006 - SATA 6Gb/s - 7,200 rpm

Case: Dell Dimension E510 

Power Supply: 305W

 

Now as a first-timer, will all of this stuff together work and make an old but decently powerful gaming PC?

[Rhythm8503]

14 minutes ago, kirashi said:

The GTX 750 Ti performs better than a GT 1030, but may or may not be priced better depending on what's available in your area. It is an older series card too, so it won't be supported by nVidia GeForce Experience for as long. Still, if I had to choose, that's what I'd go with between the 2 cards.

 

16 minutes ago, Rhythm8503 said:

Ok, so which is better for gaming? The GTX 750 Ti or GT 1030

This is just to notify you guys

42 minutes ago, jpenguin said:

Not sure what you mean; but if you're asking about Seagate's SSHDs- they've always worked well for me

 

59 minutes ago, thegreengamers said:

You have to install Windows yourself, if that's what you're asking. As for a graphics card, a used GTX 750Ti would do well although it will be held back by your CPU. The 750Ti is good for when you decide to upgrade the rest of the system to something more powerful as well. 

 

48 minutes ago, vinyldash303 said:

They do. I have a zotac 1050 Ti. Its better than the MSI one. Cooler is larger and louder but its also cooling the VRM and some of the memory.

 

[Rhythm8503]

The topic has moved to Compatibility in CPU, Motherboards and RAM.

[kirashi]

14 minutes ago, Rhythm8503 said:

I checked doesn't seem like it needs any power supply. Now for final verification will this all work.

 

Dell Dimension E510: 

 

MotherBoard: RD203

CPU: Intel Pentium D 945 ( 3.4GHZ Dual Core, 2 Thread, 800Mhz Bus Speed )

RAM: 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) 2Rx4 240-Pin 1.8V ECC FBDIMM Fully Buffered Memory by NEMIX RAM

Storage: Seagate Barracuda 2 TB Internal HDD - 3.5" - ST2000DM006 - SATA 6Gb/s - 7,200 rpm

Case: Dell Dimension E510 

Power Supply: 305W

 

Now as a first-timer, will all of this stuff together work and make an old but decently powerful gaming PC?

Depends on the GTX 750 Ti you get - some do require a 6 PIN PCIe power connector, while newer or "non-gaming" versions don't. Just be sure to check the actual model of 750 Ti you're looking at buying first, and keep in mind that the stock 305 watt power supply may no have enough power to run it.

 

As for this being a "powerful" gaming PC - no, that Pentium D is a potato. As seen at the benchmark link below (couldn't find the Pentium D 945, so the 940 is close enough), my old HP tm2-2050ca touchscreen laptop had an i3-330UM that outperforms your Dell desktop (not by much, but still), and the AMD Athlon II X4 620 CPU currently in the family / brother's PC offers triple the performance despite also being from 2009/2010 or thereabouts.

 

Since even the CPU in my family / brother's PC struggles to keep up with games today, your Pentium D is not going to fair well, but you can certainly try it out if you want. Just don't expect it to do a very good job when it comes to loading things or playing games that rely heavily on the CPU for multi-threaded workloads, such as Civ or Cities: Skylines. (Single thread performance is OK, but still quite lacking by today's standards.)

 

 

https://www.cpubenchmark.net/compare/Intel-Pentium-D-940-vs-Intel-i3-330UM-vs-AMD-Athlon-II-X4-620/1128vs747vs166

[Rhythm8503]

Hmm what processor should I get instead I'm currently checking the internet with the same Socket as an LGA775. Where do you recommend to search? 

[Rhythm8503]

26 minutes ago, kirashi said:

Depends on the GTX 750 Ti you get - some do require a 6 PIN PCIe power connector, while newer or "non-gaming" versions don't. Just be sure to check the actual model of 750 Ti you're looking at buying first, and keep in mind that the stock 305 watt power supply may no have enough power to run it.

 

As for this being a "powerful" gaming PC - no, that Pentium D is a potato. As seen at the benchmark link below (couldn't find the Pentium D 945, so the 940 is close enough), my old HP tm2-2050ca touchscreen laptop had an i3-330UM that outperforms your Dell desktop (not by much, but still), and the AMD Athlon II X4 620 CPU currently in the family / brother's PC offers triple the performance despite also being from 2009/2010 or thereabouts.

 

Since even the CPU in my family / brother's PC struggles to keep up with games today, your Pentium D is not going to fair well, but you can certainly try it out if you want. Just don't expect it to do a very good job when it comes to loading things or playing games that rely heavily on the CPU for multi-threaded workloads, such as Civ or Cities: Skylines. (Single thread performance is OK, but still quite lacking by today's standards.)

 

 

https://www.cpubenchmark.net/compare/Intel-Pentium-D-940-vs-Intel-i3-330UM-vs-AMD-Athlon-II-X4-620/1128vs747vs166

Will this do better? 

 

Intel Core 2 Extreme QX9770 Quad-Core Processor, 3.2 GHz, 12M L2 Cache, 1600MHz FSB, LGA775?

[Rhythm8503]

28 minutes ago, kirashi said:

Depends on the GTX 750 Ti you get - some do require a 6 PIN PCIe power connector, while newer or "non-gaming" versions don't. Just be sure to check the actual model of 750 Ti you're looking at buying first, and keep in mind that the stock 305 watt power supply may no have enough power to run it.

 

As for this being a "powerful" gaming PC - no, that Pentium D is a potato. As seen at the benchmark link below (couldn't find the Pentium D 945, so the 940 is close enough), my old HP tm2-2050ca touchscreen laptop had an i3-330UM that outperforms your Dell desktop (not by much, but still), and the AMD Athlon II X4 620 CPU currently in the family / brother's PC offers triple the performance despite also being from 2009/2010 or thereabouts.

 

Since even the CPU in my family / brother's PC struggles to keep up with games today, your Pentium D is not going to fair well, but you can certainly try it out if you want. Just don't expect it to do a very good job when it comes to loading things or playing games that rely heavily on the CPU for multi-threaded workloads, such as Civ or Cities: Skylines. (Single thread performance is OK, but still quite lacking by today's standards.)

 

 

https://www.cpubenchmark.net/compare/Intel-Pentium-D-940-vs-Intel-i3-330UM-vs-AMD-Athlon-II-X4-620/1128vs747vs166

Will this work as well too? Can it run the GTX 750 ti?

 

Intel Core 2 Extreme QX6700 2.66 GHz Quad-Core Processor - 8 MB 

[kirashi]

2 minutes ago, Rhythm8503 said:

Will this work as well too? Can it run the GTX 750 ti?

 

Intel Core 2 Extreme QX6700 2.66 GHz Quad-Core Processor - 8 MB 

If you can get that CPU running in the system, I'd expect you to see much better performance, yes.

 

https://www.cpubenchmark.net/compare/Intel-Core2-Quad-Q6700-vs-Intel-Pentium-D-940-vs-AMD-Athlon-II-X4-620/1039vs1128vs166

[Rhythm8503]

4 minutes ago, kirashi said:

If you can get that CPU running in the system, I'd expect you to see much better performance, yes.

 

https://www.cpubenchmark.net/compare/Intel-Core2-Quad-Q6700-vs-Intel-Pentium-D-940-vs-AMD-Athlon-II-X4-620/1039vs1128vs166

 

Will this work?

 

Dell Dimension E510: 

 

MotherBoard: RD203

CPU: Intel Core 2 Extreme QX6700 2.66 GHz Quad-Core Processor - 8 MB - LGA775 Socket

RAM: 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) 2Rx4 240-Pin 1.8V ECC FBDIMM Fully Buffered Memory by NEMIX RAM

Storage: Seagate Barracuda 2 TB Internal HDD - 3.5" - ST2000DM006 - SATA 6Gb/s - 7,200 rpm

Case: Dell Dimension E510 

Power Supply: 305W