Advice on what to do

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Aug 12, 2017
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hi guys let me start off by saying it's been a decade since I built and OC'ed a pc. I currently have ,roughly , a 8 year old dell desktop with a AMD six core.

Now keep in mind. I don't game anymore. I rarely use it to surf. It's just to pay bills. But I want to have a tad of fun so that's why I'm here for some advice.

The hard drive just crapped out so I ordered a Samsung EVO 850 250gb for my new boot drive.

The memory is stock. The psu I replaced with a Corsair 600. The video card is an ATI....ugh....middle of the road card from 7 years ago.

Anyway. I could just put in the new SSD and call it a day but if I can get away cheap enough I was toying with the notion of getting a better motherboard to OC.

Is there anyway you guys think I can do this with the stock memory?

I know I'd have to get better cooling for my proc but I really don't want to through a lot of money at this.
 
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8 years old? You literally only have 3 options I will list:

1. Install SSD as it will be the single fastest upgrade you can do.

2. Toss the old system and build a brand new current machine.

3. Toss the old machine and buy a current pre-buikt Dell or HP.... anything but what you have.

By now I'm sure your computer doesnt even have the power to hardware accelerate a browser. I could be wrong.
 
^^^

What he said.

A new cpu means a new motherboard and RAM, as well. That, and the new SSD, gets you pretty set. Toss in a graphics card, and you're good to go. Oh, and a case. Hmm, that PSU, being an old Dell, probably should get swapped.

How's your mouse holding up? ;)
 
If you want to stick with AMD check out some of the new APU coming out this winter/2018 Q1 for light use (browsing).

The SSD makes sense but the overclocking does not but using lower power settings does ;)
The processor is Thuban series which is very flexible for altering power states but sadly Dell tends to not be great for motherboard/bios support. You should be able to find out which AIB it came from since Dell brands products but hardly ever does anything different to them .

 
hi guys let me start off by saying it's been a decade since I built and OC'ed a pc. I currently have ,roughly , a 8 year old dell desktop with a AMD six core.

Now keep in mind. I don't game anymore. I rarely use it to surf. It's just to pay bills. But I want to have a tad of fun so that's why I'm here for some advice.

The hard drive just crapped out so I ordered a Samsung EVO 850 250gb for my new boot drive.

The memory is stock. The psu I replaced with a Corsair 600. The video card is an ATI....ugh....middle of the road card from 7 years ago.

Anyway. I could just put in the new SSD and call it a day but if I can get away cheap enough I was toying with the notion of getting a better motherboard to OC.

Is there anyway you guys think I can do this with the stock memory?

I know I'd have to get better cooling for my proc but I really don't want to through a lot of money at this.

The Thuban should be capable enough to pay the bills. As pieter3dnow said, it's a flexible tech, but I'd argue about OC - it may be worth it to apply an overclock.
However. Before you do so, we need more info. Stock RAM is fine, but how much do you have? And is it one stick or two (dual channel)?
The SSD is a great idea and you will be very pleasantly surprised. The ATI card should also be fine for office work. As long as it's a discrete card you should be fine. Integrated can affect performance.
What make and model is your PSU? Do you have a stock cooler or an aftermarket one?
Do you have chassis fans - one for pulling air in and one to expel warm air?
 
For me I figured go budget on the early adoption to go Ryzen. B350 boards are just OK for the platform and can get a decent OC. Keep thinking there will be a revision of the Promontory chipset. If you want to wait for the platform to mature before you jump in, install the SSD and your performance, boot time etc.will improve drastically. Wait for Black Friday before you jump on Ryzen is the best advice.
 
Download CPUZ or HWinfo and get some real details. I am guessing its a Phenom II X6 Thuban, so DDR3-1333 maybe.
If Turbo is supported and enabled, its all you really need. Not going to get a ton more out of that chip with an OC.

If you got a single stick of 4GB I'd look for another 4GB stick used. 8GB and new SSD with a fresh install of Win10 and Windows should be plenty snappy.
Toss in a 1050Ti or used GTX 960 and your gaming performance will go through the roof compared to what you got.
If you start looking at replacing the MB your getting into doing an entire new build as you would likely need a new case also as OEM cases are crap for fitting in aftermarket boards.
 
Just updated an old Phenom II x4 970 BE with a 1050 Ti, 8GB memory, and a Samsung SSD boot drive (plus a 1TB WD drive for storage), along with a fresh install of Win10. Not gonna set any speed records, but it's a capable, basic machine.
 
Just updated an old Phenom II x4 970 BE with a 1050 Ti, 8GB memory, and a Samsung SSD boot drive (plus a 1TB WD drive for storage), along with a fresh install of Win10. Not gonna set any speed records, but it's a capable, basic machine.

Gunna clock that sumbitch? :p
 
Eh...it's for the kids (tweens and teens). Figure to leave it alone, as the Phenom II is already so far behind the curve that overclocking doesn't exactly buy you an awful lot. Games OK for the basic stuff that they mess with.

They want a better system, they can get their ass out there and start mowing lawns and raking leaves like I did at their age.
 
Sorry it's been a while guys. I got the SSD and I'm up and running.

My PSU is a Corsair GS600.

I think you guys are right. I'm going to give this to my wife for a work PC and build a budget gaming rig.

Although I have a question, I used the Samsung software to check my EVO and I'm getting speeds of around read 270, write 237.

Seems slow. Is it because I'm still on WIndows 7 and haven't stuck W 10 in yet? I thought these were suppose to touch mid 5's? Is it because the rest of my stuff is ancient?
 
If the 6 year old mainboard is stuck at SATA 2 (very probable) then you're not going to get any faster than that.
However, check your BIOS out and make sure that your drive mode is set to ACHI (instead of IDE or Legacy mode), that will give you a small boost. Note: if it's currently at IDE or Legacy you'll run into boot issues because Windows treats changing the drive mode almost like changing the boot device, the boot loader is pointing to the IDE device (which no longer exists) instead of the ACHI device. This can be fixed: http://www.askvg.com/how-to-change-...o-ahci-raid-in-bios-after-installing-windows/
 
As Trail mentioned, you've likely got SATA 2 ports. An 8 year old board would definitely be on sata 2. My LGA 1366 board in 2011 was still sata 2. (Board that revised it was sata III -.-). Be sure to put up a new post for a new machine :p. We'll help you pick some parts! :D
 
Ok, So I installed Windows 10, I enabled "rapid" mode in the software and now it's saying my reads are 615 and writes 1879!

And yes, I'm going to start a thread soon on which mobo to get :)
 
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