Best use of old parts

archer_dan

archer_dan

archer_dan

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Joined
27 Aug 2005
Posts
287
Location
Coventry, UK
I recently upgraded my main PC (see signature), which has left me with the following spares:

E8500 3.16GHz Dual Core (Akasa 965 cooler)
4GB DDR2 (2x2GB)
Asus P5Q-E Motherboard (ATX)
HD4850

In addition, my brother gave me his old rig which has:

E6600 2.4GHz Dual Core (stock cooler)
4GB DDR2 (4x1GB)
Asus P5W-DH Deluxe (ATX)
HD4850
Hiper 580W Modular PSU (dual rail 12V, 20A/18A respectively)

Not sure what to do with them, was thinking of getting these to put together a xbmc & steam system for media and lighter gaming (the 4850 still copes reasonably well).

YOUR BASKET
1 x Crucial MX100 256GB SATA 2.5” 7mm SSD + 9.5mm Adapter (CT256MX100SSD1) £86.99
1 x Silverstone Grandia GD09 Home Theatre Server Case - Black (SST-GD09B) £49.99



The idea did pop into my head to crossfire the 4850's but a little worried that the Hiper PSU will struggle, particularly as its an older unit.

Any advice/suggestions?
 
The 4850 should play HD videos fine so I wouldn't worry about crossfiring them

What I'd do is keep one set (probably a HD 4850, the E6600 with the stock cooler, 4GB DDR2) and get a new PSU for reliability (don't think the Hiper one's are particularly brilliant)

HTPC does sound like a good idea - so flog one lot of components, whack the others into a HTPC kind of thing like you said :)
 
 
Hmm, not sure as all you need to do is put the old stuff into a case and sort a safe PSU and drives..
 
Yeah, I'd like to re-use the old parts, gives a bit more gaming grunt, more expand-ability, and could try to OC either of the processors.

Saves the faff of selling stuff too, but reduced power consumption and size of a Kabini setup is tempting. :)
 
if I did go for running both 4850's in xfire (might not work as they are different brands), how much power would I need? a decent single rail 550W?
 
The problem with an E8500 and 4850 Crossfire in a media PC is that it's not exactly going to be quiet: of course that depends on the type of media etc you like to run, if it's mostly action movies you won't care... but I find noisy media PCs to be very annoying.

The E6600 machine I'd remove the GPU and set it up as a headless home server/NAS/Plex media server etc.

E8500 set up for gaming as you've outlined, or sell it to buy a cheaper, quieter Media PC, depending on how much you care about noise. I suspect you'll spend less time gaming on it than you expect, though.

I'd probably want a 650W PSU, or at least a new 550W the 4850's weren't exactly efficient cards, and the Hiper's weren't great new: I wouldn't trust one to handle crossfire with 5 years of capacitor degradation!
 
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