PC for £45 - Asus M5A78L-M LX SATA 3 Expansion Upgrade Query

[Arthaei]

Hi guys, someone in work was advertising a pc in work for the hilarious price of £45, so I picked it up as a project pc, ultimately to give to my sister as she only has an old laptop and will likely play a few games.

Basic spec WAS:

ASUs M5A78L-M LX
Amd FX-4100
8GB Hyper X Genesis DDR3 Ram I think 1600mhz
148gb Hitachi hd
HD Radeon 6950 2gb gpu
OCZ Core X Stream CXS500W 500w psu
1 intake fan
Basic stock Amd cooler
Windows 7

I’ve gone slightly crazy and updated it to the following keeping the same mboard and psu:

Amd Fx-6300 (oc to 4.3ghz - might need a little more testing but reported stable in intel burn test so far)
Hyper X Fury 1866mhz DDR3 10-11-10 16gb (2x8gb)
Samsung 870 QVO 1TB SSD
Gigabyte G1 Gaming GTX 1070 8GB
Windows 10 64bit

For cooling, I also added 2x BeQuiet BL046 Pure Wings 2 fans for the front intake and adding a rear intake with a splitter as there's just 1x 3pin fan connector on the motherboard, and the Pure Rock Slim 2 fan and heatsink for the cpu. (I originally added this to the existing 4100 processor but decided then to upgrade it, also adding fresh MX-6 thermal paste. My case temps seem VERY good - cpu is idling about 17-20c, during stress testing didn't seem to go much above 46c. When I first had the machine what prompted me to start looking at cooling was that by just opening a few youtube videos in Chrome my cpu temp went up to 70-80c!! - when I took the old default cooler out the old thermal paste had crumbled away, it was hilarious really.
I know I could/should upgrade the motherboard and the psu etc. but in all fairness I've now spent a lot more on the pc than I really wanted to so I'm not inclined to do that if I'm honest. Total power draw from what I can see is under 400w anyway, so I don't really see the need.

All of that being said, I realised the ssd wasn't running at the fastest setting as it was limited by sata rev 2, so I've picked up a few sata 3 pci-e expansion cards but with very mixed success... the first one didn't work at all (not even detected by the motherboard), the second had it's own bios and I've managed to boot win10 from this, also confirm write and read speeds doubled etc so was very happy, but today this now is no longer seeing the expansion card so I'm back to sata 2... I have a third I'm going to try but I'm wondering what could be happening here. Does anyone have any experience here or am I genuinely needing to get a different motherboard really? - I think if I do that I may aswell start from scratch and shouldn't have bothered with what are quite old components here but it's been fun and my first pc build/tweaking build.

Regarding overclocking, I have overclocked from 3.5ghz to 4.3 using 233 fsb clock and multiplier of 18.5. My vcore is 1.312 if I remember correctly. I think the only reason I'm able to overclock on this setup is the big improvements I've made to the cooling. Can anyone advise me on what to do about trying to boot from the expansion card and if this is worthwhile and why my card could've just stopped being recognised by the motherboard. I was wondering is my overclock perhaps not helping? - I don't imagine it's connected really as it's simply not being recognised now by the motherboard, or whether I should give up and accept sata 2 speeds on this old pc?

Lastly, have I done ok upgrading the machine? it feels like it's brand new I'm quite proud of what I've achieved so far. And should be able to get 60-80fps depending on monitor and resolution at high settings in most games as I squeezed in the 1070 was my plan!

Thanks in advance,

Arth

 

[tamzzy]

how much did you spend in total will depend on the answer whether it was good value or not

in any case, i'd urge caution with further overclocks as the corexstream was an entry level psu even back then, a decade or more ago
the psu is really a 450w psu on the 12v rail...your oc 6300 will easily draw 150w overclocked, and with the 1070 tgp of 150w, and extras ~50w
you're running dangerously close to the wall on an old psu

 

[Arthaei]

Thank you, I'm trying to do a very small oc on the gpu too but I suppose it doesn't really need it. I seemed to have quite a stable oc at 4.2ghz too on the processor so may just back it off to that if I have any issues. I just want to nail this sata expansion fun and games at the moment. I'm hovering at £400 total spend but I think I can get about £70 back from old stuff. Hopefully can get down to £300 total spend would be ideal.

 

[tamzzy]

£300 is over what i would've paid tbh, seeing as a 2500k build would run rings over the 6300 due to the vastly superior ipc of the 2500k
as a project for a pastime, i wouldn't worry about the extra spend though

if you're really wanting to cut down on the build and spend as little as possible:
1) definitely would not have spent £40 on the bequiet cooler+fans, that was an unnecessary overspend on an ageing system
2) same with the expansion cards...whilst benches will show a doubling of ssd speeds, real life responsiveness is likely going to be largely similar as the random speeds are mostly the determinant rather than the sequential speeds
ditching the above would get you down to £250 ish

(for comparison, i've just built a computer for my friend's kid for £250 which has a 4790k + 1070 + 500gb nvme ssd + rgb bling bling)

 

[Arthaei]

Ha, nice. Yes well this is my first go at actually fiddling about inside a pc. I was very nervous about swapping the processor over etc. but it has been a good and fun experience. I'm actually really happy with the fans to be honest, it's keep everything so cool and particularly as it literally had NO exhaust fan and the stock cooler was such garbage it's made quite the difference if I'm honest! Right now the cpu is idling at 16c at a 4.2ghz overclock. My own ageing pc is a 4770k oc'd to 4.3ghz and it runs with a massive Alphenon cooler I think it's called and it idles about 40c lol...

Regarding the expansion cards I'm really confused.. I've tried 3 different cards only one of which worked (Startech), that has now refused to even show on the motherboard as a card and has stopped it's bios thing, the others I tried again and again, the motherboard isn't recognising them, yet when I put an old wireless pci-e card in, it recognises that fine, I wonder if all these cards are just garbage or if it's just pot luck. Weird for one to be working for a while then just randomly stop.. could my overclock and fsb and voltage values pushed that component too far and fried it or something? I'm trying a normal 200 fsb with a x21 multiplier now which I think might be a bit more sensible but time will tell... with the expenditure it's mostly on the gtx 1070 which I picked up for £90, but I think upgrading the old 6950 was worth it.

 

[tamzzy]

I'm actually really happy with the fans to be honest, it's keep everything so cool and particularly as it literally had NO exhaust fan and the stock cooler was such garbage it's made quite the difference if I'm honest!

my point was that you needn't spend a pretty penny for new stuff, could've just get a couple of cheap fans and a second-hand cooler and it've done the same job for less than half the price

Regarding the expansion cards I'm really confused.. I've tried 3 different cards only one of which worked (Startech), that has now refused to even show on the motherboard as a card and has stopped it's bios thing, the others I tried again and again, the motherboard isn't recognising them, yet when I put an old wireless pci-e card in, it recognises that fine, I wonder if all these cards are just garbage or if it's just pot luck. Weird for one to be working for a while then just randomly stop.. could my overclock and fsb and voltage values pushed that component too far and fried it or something?

if you kept the bclk at 100 shouldn't be an issue...
bios update?
either way, if the build is for someone else, i'd ditch the expansion cards and just run SATA 2 and 100% stability

real life responsiveness is likely going to be largely similar as the random speeds are mostly the determinant rather than the sequential speeds

with the expenditure it's mostly on the gtx 1070 which I picked up for £90, but I think upgrading the old 6950 was worth it.

yeah £90 is extremely worth it for a 1070 and would see a huge bump compared to the 6950
what i do worry about is that the 6300 is, again, a humongous bottleneck due to its poor single core speeds, and nvidia's drivers rely on single core speeds to drive the gpu

jfyi. it's with newer hardware but the same still applies

 

[Arthaei]

Thanks Tamzzy, yeah I nearly went for a used RX 480 for about £75 but was also considering GTX 1060. I got curious if I could push for the 1070 as it's better than both even with bottlenecks. My own build has bottlenecks too as it's desperate for an upgrade now but my 8 month old son has taken priority at the moment!! it's an old 'Titan Scythe' Overclockers machine from about 8 years ago. i7 4700k and it has an RTX 3080 10gb. Can't wait to swap that gpu into something better but there we go. What makes me laugh is this machine actually feels faster, probably is! reason I went for the 6300 was the tdw is 95w and apparently this board wont take a 125w cpu. Also for gaming people were saying there's not really much difference to the 8350 etc. again I think those were going for £100 used iirc, so would imagine the 6300 is probably one of the best processors to stick in this mboard.

if you kept the bclk at 100 shouldn't be an issue...
bios update?
either way, if the build is for someone else, i'd ditch the expansion cards and just run SATA 2 and 100% stability

Yeah the bclk is actually 200 for this cpu so I'm using that now with a x21 multiplier for 4.2ghz. 4.1 is the boost clock anyway so it's nothing too fancy here. Although vcore is set to only 1.3v I wonder if it's worth pushing again for 4.3 as you said earlier considering the basic 500w psu. Possibly not. Burn test did report that config stable though previously, but that was with a 233 fsb and 18.5x multiplier to get 4.3. I've uninstalled msi afterburner now, I really don't think the oc on the gpu is going to be worth it voltages-wise for such a tiny return.

With the sata expansion I had no luck at all last night with every config, so I'm sending them all back, I'll try one more time with a new Startech one I think as that was the only one that worked, but as you say maybe it's safer to keep the bclk of the cpu at 200mhz default and things will run more smoothly? I don't think overclocking things like ram is helping here earlier. Does the fsb overclock cause more volts to pass over all the other components? I imagine so.

Thanks for all your advice so far!

 

[Defy Belief]

£300 is awful value to be honest but sounds like you've enjoyed it and learnt some stuff on the way

videos on YT showing that cpu bottlenecking even a 1050ti, you could've bought a brand new 5600G build for that money with better performance and newer/better features like pci3.0 nvme and not sata 2.0

 

[Arthaei]

Ooh, definitely enjoyed and learnt yes! Well, I think I had good value on the components really, my spend list is pretty much this so I’ve recalculated actually with what each cost me. My previous figure was based on all the expansion cards I’ve been buying, so I’d overestimated!:

Pc £45
Samsung QVO 1tb ssd: £45
Hyperx Fury Memory: £15
All fans and new cooler: £50
6300 cpu upgrade: £25
Gtx 1070: £90
Splitter cable: £7
Ssd housing: £8
Thermal paste: £8

Old components to resell (and resale values from eBay sold items):

CPU: £15
HD: £10
Ram: £15
Gpu: £25

So actually if I can sell a few old bits as well, it’s a total cost of about £230!

I’m hoping to give to either my sister or Dad so they’ll just give me that spend it’s likely. I’d be grateful to see an equivalent modern build for similar money though!

Regarding the OC, I’ve reverted to sticking with the 200mhz bclk and 21x multiplier to get 4.2 which seems quite happy. I might try 4.3 again but as said previously probably reaching voltage limits then for the psu. I think for just over £200 it’s pretty good, they’ll use it for a bit of photoshop and occasional gaming at 1080p, possibly 1440p so I imagine it’ll be actually pretty decent for that!