What have I got?

mikester

mikester

mikester

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Joined
18 Oct 2002
Posts
1,006
Location
Edinburgh
My re-born interest in overclocking has piqued, and since I don't have any money at the moment I am forced to work with what I have.

Here is what I have:

Intel E210882 D865GLC/D865PESO Motherboard
- 1x AGP Slot
- 3x PCI Slots
- 4x RAM Slots, currently housing 2x 512MB Samsung DDR PC3200 CL3
Coolermaster 12V Fan, covering an unknown Pentium 4 (information is scratched off, and the system was a gift from a friend over a year ago)
Astec 250W Power Supply
Maxtor N256 40GB ATA/133 HDD
Etc.

The main problem is that since this was a gift, and that I haven't used it in nine months since I moved I don't know the exact specs are. Nor do I have any cables, accessories, monitor, or the like. The lone tower has been sitting in my closet until I took it out a few days ago. I'm hoping someone can tell me whether the motherboard is fit to keep, and whether it can handle PCI-E cards.

I have very little money to use for upgrades, so I'd like to keep it simple. I already own a laptop so I was wondering if there was a way to connect the laptop screen and peripherals to the tower. Ideally, I'd like to find a way to clock the CPU, install a far larger HDD, increase and overclock the RAM, and install a decent GFX card. The purpose of the system would be: 1) Data storage, 2) Folding/Crunching, and 3) Light gaming. I already have a 250GB external drive that I will add to it, but it's getting old and I'm concerned about it's reliability.

The budget restraints are severe, so the less I spend the better. But if the price difference between a quality part and a mediocre part are slight, I'll concede. I already have all the necessary software, and there are some small used parts stores in the area from whom I can purchase the necessary cables and accessories if need be.

I've been scanning the Clearance Lines and B-grade stock for items, and have found these items:

Radeon X1650 Pro

Hitachi Deskstar 7K160 160GB SATA-II or the Western Digital Caviar Blue 500GB B-Grade

Antec Earthware 430W Power Supply B-Grade

I am unsure as to whether I need to replace, upgrade or increase the current memory since I don't know what the standards are today.

If anyone has items such as these for sale, please PM me.

Any help, advice or suggestions are welcome and appreciated.
 
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This is your motherboard above. It doesn't have PCI-e only PCI or AGP. So unfortunately no PCI-e will fit that board. It also appears it only does IDE and not SATA-II. You are pretty limited unfortunately mate. It's fairly old tech on that board.
 
Your mobo has no pci-e, so all of the newest graphics cards are out, including the one you linked to. Your RAM is DDR not DDR2/3 so getting RAM is expensive, and the RAM isn't very good.

Run cpu-z to find out what processor you have.

As it stands, that pc is fine for things like web browsingm, word processing, but not for gaming or anything else.
 
Aye, find out the CPU. Depending on what it is you could find a nice AGP card to slot onto the board - X1950 would be nice :) But first find out what you have to see if it would bottleneck.
 
Seems I have no use for these parts, then. Beyond using the case to house a new system, is any of what I just posted worth selling? I've already got a laptop for browsing, word processing and the like so I don't want a tower taking up desk space unless it has it's own purpose.

Suppose I am able to sell a few parts, and set a strict maximum budget of £200 would I be able to build a system that satisfies 1), 2) and 3)?
 
You'll need at minimum a keyboard and mouse if you use the TV out capability of your AGP graphics card, provided it has one (your onboard doesn't). If you cant connect it to your TV you'll need a monitor too.

Like others have said PCI-E cards and SATA HDs are no good to you. Since you have onboard graphics you could delay the purchase of a graphics card until you know the system is working/up to scratch if you wanted to. edit: you'd need a monitor though

Your processor settings will be in the BIOS, that should give you all the info you need to overclock it. Not sure if P4s have a temperature sensor though, or if they throttle instead of frying if they overheat.

1 GB of RAM is probably ok for older games, but newer ones may benefit from a bit more. Sadly DDR RAM (what you need) is quite a bit more expensive than DDR2, but at least you've got 2 spare slots instead of having to replace your current RAM.
 
mikester said:
Seems I have no use for these parts, then. Beyond using the case to house a new system, is any of what I just posted worth selling? I've already got a laptop for browsing, word processing and the like so I don't want a tower taking up desk space unless it has it's own purpose.

Suppose I am able to sell a few parts, and set a strict maximum budget of £200 would I be able to build a system that satisfies 1), 2) and 3)?
Click to expand...

I bought my dad a new setup recently. Literally just the base unit. I ended up building him a superb Core 2 Duo system, 2GB DDR2, 160GB SATA II, low-mid graphics card all for £230. You can easily get a decent setup for £200 as long as It's just the baseunit. It might be worth hunting for a 2nd hand one perhaps? This would allow you to get a better spec for same price.

Yes all three would be no problem :)
 
A second hand 939 socket with a dual core X2 and pcie graphics might be realistic at that price. I've got one i need to put on the MM at some point.
 
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