Antique CPU question

[deshepherd]

Tell me about it, lol, my first real pc aside from the spectrum, was a 386 lol!

same for me (well Atom and BBC-B rather than spectrum - a 16MHz 386SX with 1MB of RAM ... I could say I got into "system building" with that as TinyComputers had just appeared selling cheap base units which need a HDD fitting - I added what I then thought was an insanely large 40MB HDD! A few years later with a 120MHz Pentium-1 I discovered a jumper on the motherboard which controlled the bus clock and I found my CPU would then run at 133MHz ... and I'd started overclocking!

 

[mattyfez]

Well everything is working, system runs very well now.
Slight issue though, it idles at 60c, and can ramp up to 100c when installing an application for example.

I did a botch with the TIM though just wiped it with tissue and put new Tim on, so I'll have to clean it properly and do it again.
I'm just wondering if the stock intel cooler is up to the job

 

[MagicBoy]

Depends which stock cooler, some came with a better one with a copper core. TDP is 95W IIRC on the Q8400, the Pentium E will be 65W.

 

[mattyfez]

Sounds like the cooler is the cheaper one then.
However I have redone the thermal paste properly this time and also realised one of the clamps wasn't all the way home.. it's now idling at about 45c. Doh.

 

[F1aw1ess]

perfect choice of upgrades for an old system, I personally would have chucked another £18 at an arctic freezer CPU cooler myself as I can't stand the whine of the stock coolers but she knows no different so you should be getting some nice granny cake from her soon

 

[Geck0]

Is granny cake code for something?

 

[new boy]

those socket 755 coolers are a pain in the ass to install. Its possible one of the stupid twist lock things isn't in properly, I've done that before.

EDIT - I should read properly first lol.

 

[Pocah]

I think it's a really good upgrade. The SSD will really make a big difference, as will the additional RAM. It's never going to be a rocket, but it really should make a nice difference.

 

[mattyfez]

Oh Yeh, it runs great, it's not as nippy as my modern i5, but that's overclocked and blah blah but for surfing the net and general desktop duties it's not a million miles away.
Put it this way, if you were to use it for its intended purpose you wouldn't have any complaints with it. I. E. Not for gaming or video editing lol!

She's happy with it anyway and saved a wad of cash over buying a new tower.

 

[JasonM]

If it helps I have a Core 2 1.86 (overclocked to 2Ghz!) with 5GB RAM that I run as a backup HTPC in the conservatory, it's used for basic web-browsing and youtube, it's used mainly by people who visit and just want basic internet. You would be surprised but once it's go going it's still quite usable, and will even run Kodi at 720p.

 

[LeMson]

If it helps I have a Core 2 1.86 (overclocked to 2Ghz!) with 5GB RAM that I run as a backup HTPC in the conservatory, it's used for basic web-browsing and youtube, it's used mainly by people who visit and just want basic internet. You would be surprised but once it's go going it's still quite usable, and will even run Kodi at 720p.

Look at dropping a cheap E5450 in there instead

 

[JasonM]

Look at dropping a cheap E5450 in there instead

Of course, you would not want an old dual core 775 CPU now, I just mentioned my old CPU as if this is still usable then a Quad 775 CPU will definitely still be usable also

 

[mattyfez]

Yeh for the sake of £12 for the quad core, on the occasions there are multiple tasks running it takes the load off, so a better user experience.

I've not done any bench marks on it, but from experience the SSD was the biggest boost, but the extra 2gb ram and the extra 2 cores have certainly helped things along.

A happy grandma!

I was considering putting more ram in it, but 4gb seems ample, my work pc is an i3 with 4gb and it copes fine unless I need to do something intensive, in which case I just rdp into a more powerful machine.