Dead PC = New PC ?

nicmcv

nicmcv

nicmcv

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Joined
28 Nov 2005
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48
Location
UK
My pc's power supply went fizz at the weekend.
I've got another to try it with tonight, however the pc is pretty old (Athlon)XP3200.

If the power supply does not work i'm looking for a cheap solution, I already have a HP Proliant ml110 g5 (running xp used for storage) and have been looking at converting that into my main pc (I use cubase etc).

It only has PCIe x8 on it so it's out for gaming. I was thinking of getting a Proliant ml115 g5 as I think this has a x16 PCIe slot.

I'm really not sure how well this will perform, what do you reckon?

:)
 
Having recently upgrade from a similar AMD single core (no Hyperthreading) to a modest dual core, I can see why the second hand value of those old singleC chips are next to nothing.

Old games, you wont see any difference. New games, however its almost a requisite. But you mention Qbase. Windows tasks in general benifit far far more than I would have expected. I can almost load windows in single seconds now. Music compiling from disc to wav is super fast. Your Anti virus software no longer grinds the whole machine down (extra memory helps too!).
 
nicmcv said:
It only has PCIe x8 on it so it's out for gaming.
Click to expand...

I picked up a 2nd hand PCIe mobo almost free. Its SLI PCI slots are only 8X each even though I'm using just 1.

My Ati 4850 card (plus AMD 5200+) are bring back the correct benchmark results. Which really surprised me as I was expecting old DDR single channel (!) + the 8X slot to noticeably hold it back.

Now, the difference between benchmarks and reality is that benches tend to load in everything first. A better memory subsystem is worth it to minimize loading stutters (which again, arnt as bad as I was expecting).

I built a new comp using existing + free DDR memory, a £30 mobo+cpu... and a £120 gfx card:o. It was only meant to last 2-3 months before I bought an intel core2/duo, however I'm not sure I'm going to bother now.

In your position, I wouldnt shell out for an AMD processor or DDR memory if you cant get hold of them cheap. Both now sell for more second hand than new DDR2 and Intel core2's. However if you have a mate whose upgrading.....
 
Hi Totoro (cool name)

Here's the spec,

Intel Xeon Dual Core (3065) 2.33 GHz Processor with 1333 FSBz
1 GB (800 MHz) PC2-6400 ECC DDR2
250 GB Hard Disk Drive
HP Embedded 6 Port SATA Controller with embedded RAID (4 ports for HDD)
Embedded NC105i PCIe Gigabit Server Adaptor
DVD-RW Drive

The processor will go like a mother in comparison to my old xp3200.

I'm going to use the existing sound card I have but will upgrade to an external one soonish.

Just a wee bit concerned about the motherboard as a lot of PC music bods go for p35 motherboards.

Thats pretty interesting about the x8 and x16, I'll have to look into that a wee bit more. I'm not going to game that much so the graphics isn't the be all and end all.

:)
 
Hi JTrickle

Thanks for the info. I'm all for re-using odds and sods, i have some old ish ram knocking about so I'll give it a go in the Proliant but given the price of memory at the mo i might have to give in and get 4gb with a view to adding 4gb more in the next few months (i'll have to re search the benefits of 8gb with cubase).

Are AMD's worth checking out, the only reason i'm keen on getting the proliant going as my main pc is that it's so cheap and would save me a ton on building a new system, the draw of quad processors is strong :eek:.

I'd also have to get a fancy motherboard and fast drives etc, I don't need it, but I want it:o.

I think i'm going to give the proliant a go as the old pc is sooooo old. If that doesn't do the do, i may have to get a wee bundle for around £200 to shove in my old box, and a power supply unit ;).
 
I didnt realise your 110g5 was as well specced. Surely using that as a base must be your way forward if you are counting pennies.

Repairing the single core for "storage" duties, as you put it, would seem sensible?
 
Yeah, that's defo the best idea. Get a new PSU for the old one. Swap the disks, pop a bit more ram in and see what graphics card I can get that's PCIe x8 (or use an adaptor maybe? I know nothing about graphics cards).

Now i'm going to find out about a new audio interface, cause my current one is older than the pc it's in. It does the job well but I need one that's got better pre amps and perhaps some DSP on it. :cool:

All the best
 
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