Might be in need of a new build

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matt167

[H]ard|Gawd
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Dec 18, 2016
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My Dell T3500 got some blue screens a couple weeks ago and it relates to the PNY SSD I have, died. I have not gotten another yet. Instead I just powered on my old gaming/ mining pc, with one of the AMD R9 270X video cards installed. Changed a few settings and I can browse the web and play some older titles ( Athlon II X3 445 Rana is quite old now ). The boot/ only drive is a MDT 400gb IDE.. I'm basically living with it for now.

I could put another SSD in the T3500, reinstall Win 7 and be ready to go for $50-80, but in 2018 is that box really worth it?
I have it setup with a Dell Powervault LTO-3 tape drive, so I still need to keep it around to maintain my backups. Would really work well as a dedicated backup server..

What I'm considering is a newegg bundle since they seem well paired and cheap.. I have in my spare gaming/ mining box is an XFX 650W power supply which is fine. I could even reuse the Cooler Master Elite 310 case but I'd rather not..

Seems, this bundle https://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboBundleDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.3557131 will double my performance or better for pretty cheap. When I build computers, I've always gone AMD, but I'll go Intel if it really matters..

Budget, $600.. I don't need graphics, power supply, or main storage. Just an SSD but I won't even count that cost in the build since that's my minimum need just to get going again

Any insight, or a different combo? Really only looking for memory, mobo and processor.. Don't have any local places to buy parts. I've always used Newegg and Tiger Direct. Live in upstate NY, so Best Buy is about it.. GTX 1060 6gb is the video card I will run
 
Cool deal. Nearly the same pricing, newer and slightly faster.. I tend to trust MSI quite a bit
 
An Overclock would really help you out but with a dell board we can probably forget that. Too bad u got a dell dude.
 
Yeah, but considering I spent $250 on it, stuck a 1060 6gb in it and then ran it hard for 2 years. I can upgrade.. It was well under $600 video card included
 
matt167 said:
Yeah, but considering I spent $250 on it, stuck a 1060 6gb in it and then ran it hard for 2 years. I can upgrade.. It was well under $600 video card included
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can't knock that deal. I'm sure u will love your new AMD.
 
Honestly, if you're going to spend out $600 for something that's only MARGINALLY faster? I'd say just spend out for the SSD and call it a day.
More work up front. Sure. But that's $500 down towards a DEMONSTRABLY better PC in the future.
 
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matt167 said:
hmm, that gets me thinking.. The Dell board is slowly going south. ( lost onboard audio a while ago ). But a preowned/ refurb X58 board could be used to put my processor and 12gb of Ram into and then overclock..

Check out the listing on this ( no, not to buy. I just found it and had to share ) https://www.ebay.com/itm/HUANAN-X58...485172?hash=item33ea22dbf4:g:1IIAAOSwDFBaJoZj
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A good x58 board is probably going to cost as much or more than a board for a current gen setup.. yes, x58 stuff still goes for a lot.

The 1366 XEON 6-core CPUs are generally pretty cheap though and overclock well.... so there is that.
 
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Yeah I knew that. Obviously I'm not going to spend a dime on a board that has "Time to send 1366 stents and grease" in the description... X58 Sabertooth or something like it for $200ish isn't a bad deal

But it's $500 for current gen vs $200 for overclocked old gen, which is nearly as fast. Since I have an X5670 and 12gb of matched DDR3 already in triple channel.. Decent case, and call it good.The fact that the platform STILL brings a premium 10 years later, at least for boards that are OC capable means is actually a good thing.
 
2600x + DDR4 is unfortunately not the sweet deal it should be (that's why I'm waiting for RAM prices to chill out).

The day I can get 16GB of 3200 for less than $130, I'm SO in.

Till then, I'd just toss a new SSD in the T3500.

It's still a 12 thread beast etc.

Ie. Note the specs in my sig, while no where near "optimal", I have yet to really complain gaming-wise....

(Hell, I've been waiting almost 3 weeks for my x3450 to come in - $40. If it can hit 3.5-3.6, I'll be super pleased)

It just depends on what you're doing/playing I suppose
 
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horrorshow said:
2600x + DDR4 is unfortunately not the sweet deal it should be (that's why I'm waiting for RAM prices to chill out).

The day I can get 16GB of 3200 for less than $130, I'm SO in.

Till then, I'd just toss a new SSD in the T3500.

It's still a 12 thread beast etc.

Ie. Note the specs in my sig, while no where near "optimal", I have yet to really complain gaming-wise....

(Hell, I've been waiting almost 3 weeks for my x3450 to come in - $40. If it can hit 3.5-3.6, I'll be super pleased)

It just depends on what you're doing/playing I suppose
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needs a new ssd anyway right? 269 for a 2TB ssd has me wanting to buy it.....I will say i really like the thought of the 2600 setup as well...only downside is its only a 10% increase in ipc from our ancient overclocked intel chips.
 
With the exeption of low framerate in Watchdogs 2 ( 35-45 is all that it will do, CPU bottle necked ) , I don't have any complaints with the T3500/ 1060 6gb.
 
your in an excellent position. your rig does what you want it to. there is so much coming down the pipeline in the next 6 months i would definitely go with a ssd and wait for ddr4 prices to continue to drop. as well as intels next cpu beast, amds next cpu beast and possibly a solid gpu to contend with nvidia and nvidias next beast. lots to look forward to seeing while you bang away on your current rig ;)
 
Well, I decided to rob a broken laptop of it's spinner... I'll just get a big upgrade later on. This old box that I'm using having an IDE drive I'm realizing that I can live with it.

I'm also going to run Win 10, because why not.
 
Ok so Win 10 loaded and activated with the 7 key on the computer. Going to go back to 7 due to some incompatibilities but, at least I have 10 free/ activated now..

Now my brother wants a computer again, and I might just give him the spare, but it's not great..

Can anything be done with an AMD Athlon X3 445 ( that will not unlock 4th core ) in modern games?

I have 2 R9 270X, and I think a better deal for him would be, the 2 R9 270X in Crossfire in a $100 Dell Precision T3500 with the power supply swapped for the 650w Seasonic unit I have, since the video card market is still messed up.
 
Wow, you got windows 10 to activate from an old win 7 for free ? if so how ?
 
AP514 said:
Wow, you got windows 10 to activate from an old win 7 for free ? if so how ?
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I thought it was kind of known that it worked still, from the 10 upgrade and accessibility period..

Literally put in a Windows 7 key in the installer and 10 will activate and install the appropriate version. I just used the COA from the computer itself.. I would guess if you have any dead computer's with 7 COA's, you can use them as free installs as well
 
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