Re-using an 8600GTS GPU

Morph3ous

Morph3ous

Morph3ous

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I'm rebuilding my fathers PC for him. He wants to keep his EVGA 512MB 8600GTS graphics card. Will the following spec work with it okay? Any suggestions on the components?

Not looking for it to be a gaming PC, just a general family workhorse that'll run two monitors (hence the recycling of the 8600GTS)

Gigabyte GA-Z68AP-D3
Intel i3 2100
Corsair XMS3 8GB 1333mhz (2x4GB)
Agility 3 SSD
EVGA 8600GTS GPU
Q-Tec 550w Dual Fan 24P PSU (Never heard of this PSU? Any good?)
Two 250GB mechanical HDDs for storage/backup

Advice appreciated.
 
Thanks. So, a revised spec:

Gigabyte Z77-D3H
i3 2120
Corsair XMS3 8GB
Agility 3 SSD
EVGA 8600 GTS GPU
Corsair CX430 PSU
Two 250GB HDDs

Any issues with those together? Will the 430w PSU run it all okay, so no real need to go with the CX500?
 
Thanks for the advice. The budget is £400 including a copy of Win7 64bit.

We're keeping the case, 2 x HDDs and CD-ROMs, so need:

New mobo, processor, PSU, RAM and an SSD for the OS drive. A 60/64GB drive will do just fine as the budget doens't allow for a larger one, and it'll only be used as OS/Apps.
I think I'm pretty happy with the spec I posted, will maybe swap the RAM for the 1600. I've got a Vertex 2 in my PC which seems to be coping pretty well, so thought the Agility 3 would be even better at roughly twice the speed. As a general workhorse, its rarely (if ever) going to be put through its paces...
 
stulid said:
Just to check,

Your HDD's are SATA?

You need a DVD drive for the Windows disk, not a CD drive.

This is £400 with Win7,
Click to expand...

Yeah, the HDDs are SATA and we have DVD-ROMs.

So you think I should drop out the Z77 board and change it for an H61? I put an H67 in my PC a few years ago when sandybridge was just released as I had no need for overclocking or an additional GPU. Are the H61 boards the same idea? i.e. no clocking? Because my parents wont be clocking or anything like that. They just need a board suitable to run the 8600GTS with USB3 and SATA3 for future proofing, so if the H61 fits the bill we'll go with that...
 
stulid said:
No overclocking with H61 boards.

The i3 chip has a locked multiplier also.

That particular H61 board has two USB3.0 ports at the rear, two SATAIII ports.
Click to expand...

Sounds like that it'll be the one then, and the difference can improve the SSD.

With a 'basic' i3 2120, will there be a significant improvement in purchasing a CPU cooler like the Coolermaster TX3 over the stock Intel one? I know it will keep the temps down, but with the minimal stressing, would it be worth it?
 
So, I've bought and built the PC and it seems to be working okay. I've added the 8600GTS today, as I was running off the integrated to get the PC all up and running.

When I just did a restart, a message from the Nvidia panel came up to say that the GPU had reduced its performace in order to protect the system as it wasn't getting enough power. It suggested I attached the external power adapter cable (which I don't have right now)

Do you think I've put in a PSU thats too low? A reply above suggested the 430W would suffice? Once I get the cable of my parents (assuming they still have it) will this solve the problem? Is there any way of checking how much of the 430W the PC is using?
 
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