Media PC > Gaming PC?

Associate
Joined
14 Jan 2020
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Gaming PC Specs:
Case: X11 Advanced X-Station
CPU: FX 8350
Cooler: Artic Freezer 7 Pro
GPU: Zotac Mini 1060 6GB GDDR5
RAM: 2x 8GB HyperX Fury DDR3 1866MHz
SSD: Sandisk PLUS 480GB (Boot Drive)
HDD: Seagate Barracuda 7200.14 1TB
PSU: 650W Corsair VS650

So my Chromecast is starting to give out and I'm debating whether or not to replace it with another one or to go back to using a computer. However rather going back to a laptop, I feel inclined to go with an old tower and plug it in the TV since it's cheaper, avoids HDMI cables to trip over and won't melt my bed.

Thing is that a lot of the towers I'm looking at come with i5s. i5s that appear to be better than the FX in my gaming PC. You can probably see where I'm going with this, problem is that I have no idea how compatible any of the stuff above is with old Intel hardware.

So is this a worthwhile endeavour or just silly and I should buy a replacement Chromecast?
 
Soldato
Joined
18 Nov 2007
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Deepest Darkest Essex!!
Hello
That's your choice. Out of the parts you listed, the case (the cooler if you still have the intel part for it) the ram (up to 5th generation intel core CPU's, codenamed broadwell) PSU, Graphics card, The SSD & HDD. Swap the board & CPU (you'd need a board with a H97 of Z97 chipset) the latter chipset do hold their value due to being able to overclock 4th Generation CPU's on them. Put all back together again, reinstall windows, Job done.

Though I doubt you be able to the above for the same cost or less than a new chromecast. The latter would be less work too.
 
Soldato
Joined
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South UK
That FX8350 is getting a bit old now but it still holds it's own against the older i5's from Intel. Your AMD machine will be fine for a while yet, the 1060 is not a card that will be bottle-necked much.

It all depends on what games you play, if the AMD is struggling then it's time to upgrade but you can use some of the parts from teh AMD machine to offset the cost of a totally new machine.
 
Soldato
Joined
6 Jun 2008
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Finland
With lacking number of cores/threads most i5s are actually handicapped in CPU demanding games as well.
While in older games made to utilize only couple cores heavily those i5s beat "Faildozers", situation has evened in high core count demanding games.
 
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