WTB: BUDGET MoBo, CPU, RAM (combo or piece), or LGA775 MoBo

W

wjogert

2[H]4U
Joined
Sep 11, 2007
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Hello all. Been a long while since I've been active on this forum. Life took me in a different direction. Glad my account is still here, and that my forum status is even intact. :)

My system has been slowly dying for months and it's now crashing, freezing, and BSOD multiple times per hour. UUgh. Pretty sure it's the MoBo as it won't even boot if I attempt any change in BIOS.
System is old (built off of parts traded on here!). Gigabyte board, Q9300 Core2Quad, 4Gb DDR2, GTX260, 60Gb SSD for Windows 7, 750 Gb HDD for storage. I know right!?? :ROFLMAO: I have a stash of brand new parts and used parts, but all older than the system!

Anyway, I looked at Micro Center for a quick bundle. Wow, prices have gone up. A new build is just not in my budget.

Looking to see what my old friends on here might have kicking around. I'm not looking for charity, but I have almost no budget. If I don't find a solution here, my backup plan is to revert back to my old Opteron 280 system with DDR1.

A full MoBo, CPU, Ram bundle would be preferred (might require a HSF if none of my old Zalmans can be adapted).
I'm also OK with just an LGA775 motherboard to revive this system (and possibly addtl DDR2 if the board supports it).

Happy New Year!
 
I have a e8400, ep45-ds3l, 4gb ddr2 combo. Free, you pay shipping.

EDIT: pictures added
EDIT2: Gone to OP
 

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If you want to go a little newer I have an old p55 ud3r gigabyte board (I do have the io shield) with an i7-860 and I'm 90% sure I have a 2x 4gb ddr3 set.
You can have it for like $50 plus ship provided I am able to test it all out and make sure it works (I think I have a hyper T2 I could throw in for 10 bucks more if you don't have a compatible cooler).

Would that be within budget for ya?
 
Not sure if you can spare $100 but you can buy way better systems, shipped on ebay that are ddr3 with 8/16G ram, os, etc pre-builts....
 
/dev/null said:
Not sure if you can spare $100 but you can buy way better systems, shipped on ebay that are ddr3 with 8/16G ram, os, etc pre-builts....
Click to expand...
I agree. A refurb Dell around 100 bucks can have i7 2700, or possibly 3770.
 
PremiumG said:
I agree. A refurb Dell around 100 bucks can have i7 2700, or possibly 3770.
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I agree with this approach. A Dell 7020/9020/7040, etc can get you a complete system (or at least barebones) for $200-300 and then you just swap the PSU and drop in an SSD/video card and you have a screaming budget gaming system
 
Gordo74 said:
I agree with this approach. A Dell 7020/9020/7040, etc can get you a complete system (or at least barebones) for $200-300 and then you just swap the PSU and drop in an SSD/video card and you have a screaming budget gaming system
Click to expand...
This is a viable alternative, however, make sure that you are definitely getting one that will take a full size power supply, and has room for a graphics card. Some of the newer style pre-built towers have a sort of shortened chassis with a flip-out cage for the drives, and it will impede your graphics card selection heavily, to the point that even a XX50-series nVidia GPU(1650, for example) won't fit.
 
Any prebuilt from the last 10 years will be faster than the OPs q9300. I personally like what pcliquidations has from time to time:
https://www.pcliquidations.com/p96844-hp-prodesk-600-g1 - $87+ship for an i3-4160
https://www.pcliquidations.com/p56993-dell-optiplex-990-sff - 89 +ship for an i5-2400

Even in stock form these systems should be faster than the OPs current setup and with just a little more ram and a cpu upgrade, they would be much, much faster:
https://www.cpubenchmark.net/compar...ntel-i3-4160-vs-Intel-i5-2400/1044vs2317vs793
 
I agree Samir - my thought was though that if he "splurges" for an i7 (Optiplex 9010 with 3770 or Optiplex 9020 with a 4770), he'd be set for longer for a minimal amount of cash outlay.

That being said, both of what you linked are SFF cases, which would need a half height video card.
 
OP, if you want to try something fun, I have an ITX combo I just pulled for $100. It's an older i3/board/and RAM.
 
Gordo74 said:
I agree Samir - my thought was though that if he "splurges" for an i7 (Optiplex 9010 with 3770 or Optiplex 9020 with a 4770), he'd be set for longer for a minimal amount of cash outlay.

That being said, both of what you linked are SFF cases, which would need a half height video card.
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Yeah that would be optimal, but I've found that systems that are more 'ready to go' like that command more price than the parts. Besides, even my i5-2500k seems light years faster than my lga775 systems, so my thinking was these sub $100 sff systems would be so much faster that the gpu wouldn't be missed as much. And then even if it is, a 1030 or something like that would be on par with the gtx260 and be a cheap upgrade. Personally, I think the move to 8gb from 4gb would be a bigger upgrade than the gpu.
 
UrbanFuturistic said:
This is a viable alternative, however, make sure that you are definitely getting one that will take a full size power supply, and has room for a graphics card. Some of the newer style pre-built towers have a sort of shortened chassis with a flip-out cage for the drives, and it will impede your graphics card selection heavily, to the point that even a XX50-series nVidia GPU(1650, for example) won't fit.
Click to expand...
Early last year I picked up an Acer i5-8400 with 8G ram and 1TB spinner for $380. Swapped out powersupply for a $30 shipped 650w evga special, dropped in 500GB nvme as I had budget & then picked up a new open box 1650 super for $90 a few months later and made a gaming pc for my son.
 
Here is a Sandy Bridge 4c/8t (very similar to i7-3770) for $119 shipped. Just add hard drive. Even has 8GB ecc ram and a quadro video card included. It's really add ram & OS and that is it. It probably even has a windows license sticker on it.
Here is an i5-4570T (low power, SFF) for $80. Can't game on it but should be an OK desktop
Another 4c/8t (Sandy Bridge Similar to i7-2600) for $103
 
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/dev/null said:
Here is a Sandy Bridge 4c/8t (very similar to i7-3770) for $119 shipped. Just add hard drive. Even has 8GB ecc ram and a quadro video card included. It's really add ram & OS and that is it. It probably even has a windows license sticker on it.
Here is an i5-4570T (low power, SFF) for $80. Can't game on it but should be an OK desktop
Another 4c/8t (Sandy Bridge Similar to i7-2600) for $103
Click to expand...
This is some awesome stuff! Any of these will blow a q9300 out of the water, even without a gpu. Killer prices for shipped systems. :)
https://www.cpubenchmark.net/compar...-vs-Intel-Xeon-E3-1230/1044vs1189vs2041vs1199
 
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/dev/null said:
Not sure if you can spare $100 but you can buy way better systems, shipped on ebay that are ddr3 with 8/16G ram, os, etc pre-builts....
Click to expand...
$100 ish was my target. I haven't been on Ebay in sol long, lol. I also haven't followed ANY of the performance ratings of the past 10 years, making it hard to know what is / isn't a good deal. Basically been telling myself if it's newer than the Q9300 and will keep me running, then it's worth $100
 
wjogert said:
$100 ish was my target. I haven't been on Ebay in sol long, lol. I also haven't followed ANY of the performance ratings of the past 10 years, making it hard to know what is / isn't a good deal. Basically been telling myself if it's newer than the Q9300 and will keep me running, then it's worth $100
Click to expand...
That's a solid target. :) The main thing you'll want to make sure is that you can put in a full height gpu since you already have the gtx260, so basically tower case pre-builts.

For knowing what's what in terms of performance, check out cpuworld to learn about the various cpus and passmark for raw speed comparisons.
 
Sorry I haven't been responding. Didn't realize there were so many responses. I must not have selected email notifications.

I appreciate all of the offers and suggestions. I don't game and I don't do as much CAD as I used to, so the GTX260 is still plenty of GPU for me. I've needed to upgrade RAM for a long time, but that was easy to ignore until a complete system failure, lol. I really like the case I'm using now... it's fitted with a great PS and many custom cooling mods.

My current plan is to take the free system that KYANG357 offered. The motherboard is just one model higher than mine with the same chipsets. I'm hoping it will boot my existing system without pissing off Windows. That would give me time to build up a new system based off the FM2+ components offered by Durvelle27.

I will update if that plan changes. Thanks again everyone. I'm so glad to see that this community is as friendly as it was "in my day" lol.
 
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