Octopus Overlords

I'm looking for a mobo/processor/RAM.

As I recall, I had a similar thread about a year ago to get my oldest son able to run Borderlands 2. This time it is about my youngest, 12. He loves gaming, but the system he uses is eight years old and barely runs anything released in the last few years. He's been playing Subnautica lately with everything turned down to the lowest possible settings and still only getting ~10 FPS. I wouldn't even consider it playable at that point, but he still plays. Now he's trying to play Ark, and the performance is even worse than Subnautica's.

The system is an old Core2Duo with 4 gigabytes of RAM.

I usually keep it running by upgrading my own system every couple of years (I put back $25 a month toward this, pretty much my entire gaming budget) and passing the parts down, but the way Windows 10 is treating OEM licenses now means I can't afford to do so any time in the next year or so (if I replace my motherboard, I'll be having to buy a new copy of Windows as well.) This year, I've decided to use my upgrade budget to get his system at least functional as a birthday present.

I'm looking, and even the lowest recommendations I'm seeing for new core components (mobo/proc/RAM) would run ~$400. Add in a new copy of Windows and that would be more like $500. That is multiple times what I could actually spend.

I'm hoping someone has upgraded and would be willing to sell their old bits and pieces. My money, your junk!

Kingquin has Win10 keys for $30.

Daehawk wrote:Kingquin has Win10 keys for $30.

Did some reading. Multiple accounts of people not receiving keys, people complaining about not receiving keys and having their accounts deleted, and people getting keys that work fine for a month and then having Microsoft revoke them.

$30 for a $120 product is too good to be true.

In any case, I think I've worked something out to buy some parts from an OOer. I'll make sure the Win 10 key is legitimate, as I expect to be using it for a long time.

I'll look through my stuff this evening. I just upgraded my video card and went with a single, down from SLI. So both of my kids will be getting an upgrade. I should have their two functional video cards after this weekend. But they will be GTX 7xx or 8xx level. I don't think I have a working MB/CPU/RAM though.

PM sent

Unfortunately, most of my old stuff is older than my current pc, which is from July 2010. I'd offer up the video card, but the fan has issues and stops running (hence why I replaced it). I assume that replacing the fan is more trouble than a card that old is worth.

I've been wanting a new pc. But I can't really justify it. I'm not running into any issues with the games I'm running. Plus, I really like my case. So I keep stumbling along. One of these days, though.

Thanks, all. The slow processor and RAM are what are really holding him back. I worked out something with someone for a mobo/processor/RAM, and with having to add in a hard drive (his is failing) and a copy of Win10, my upgrade budget for the year is spent.

Thankfully, the upgrade curve seems to have leveled off a bit, and things don't go obsolete quite as fast.

my 2nd-gen i7 and video card (GTX 670?) on my main computer can still run nuDOOM at high-ish settings (with some medium, some ultra). there really isn't a compelling reason to upgrade yet.

If you need some additional older memory, let me know. I can see what I have.

Did you get everything you needed for this, Blackhawk?

Cylus Maxii wrote:Did you get everything you needed for this, Blackhawk?

Yep. Made a deal and bought a mobo/processor. Picked up some RAM and the drive, plus a copy of Windows. It ate up my upgrade budget for this year, and it is counting as his birthday present (he turns 13 in a couple of weeks), but he is able to play games on ~medium+ settings at reasonable framerates instead of playing them on minimal settings at ~7.

I'm going to use the old mobo/processor/RAM I pulled out to cobble together another system to set aside for homework an such as soon as I can pick up a power supply (my spare turned out to be bad.)

What video card di you end up with. I may have a hand-me-down to contribute.

I already had a GTX 6-something in there, which isn't bad at all.

OK. I'll let you know if I have a GTX 7xx or 8xx. Will a full-size card fit the case/ Do you have the power connectors?

Cylus Maxii wrote:OK. I'll let you know if I have a GTX 7xx or 8xx. Will a full-size card fit the case/ Do you have the power connectors?

Yep. I appreciate it, although as I said, my budget is gone.

if I have one that will work, it will be a free-to-good-home sort of donation.

Well, gosh. Thanks!

Regarding the extra parts I pulled out of Caiden's computer:

I found an old 300 watt power supply from some manufacturer I don't recognize. It weighs about three ounces and has one set of standard molex connectors coming out of it. I put the motherboard in my spare case, stuck in an old Radeon HD5770, stuck the 20-pin molex into the 24-pin motherboard plug, then put the 4-pin molex into the 8-pin motherboard slot. I found a molex to six-pin adapter to plug into the video card, and an SATA adapter to stick into an old 120GB hard drive.

There is no way this thing should run. The card specifies a 450 watt power supply, and I know this knock off is only 300 watts on the label. And yet, it does run. It is running now. It may be a Frankenstein of a computer, but it is alive. I have no idea how stable it is, but I'm going to see how it goes as a utility system when the others are tied up.

Just to be clear, when I was talking about medium+ settings at playable framerates, I was talking about Subnautica, which he is obsessed with, and Ark, which he could barely play (it reminded me of the first time I played Morrowind on my Celeron 500.) Both are hogs when it comes to system resources. For more moderate games, he can play on high with no problem.

Blackhawk wrote: There is no way this thing should run. The card specifies a 450 watt power supply, and I know this knock off is only 300 watts on the label. And yet, it does run. It is running now. It may be a Frankenstein of a computer, but it is alive. I have no idea how stable it is, but I'm going to see how it goes as a utility system when the others are tied up.

Nope. Not going to happen. It shuts itself down now and won't stay up long enough to install Windows. I'll just stick it in the closet until I can get a power supply. It was worth a try, though!

Blackhawk wrote:

Blackhawk wrote: There is no way this thing should run. The card specifies a 450 watt power supply, and I know this knock off is only 300 watts on the label. And yet, it does run. It is running now. It may be a Frankenstein of a computer, but it is alive. I have no idea how stable it is, but I'm going to see how it goes as a utility system when the others are tied up.

Nope. Not going to happen. It shuts itself down now and won't stay up long enough to install Windows. I'll just stick it in the closet until I can get a power supply. It was worth a try, though!

i'd be *very very* hesitant of trusting that power supply with any sort of modern PC - even a backup spare-parts machine. probably a good candidate for e-waste recycling.

That power supply came with some case or another years and years ago. I didn't trust it with my components, then! I thought I'd give it a try, and it did OK until the CPU and drive started doing actual work (installing Windows), then it just couldn't give enough power.

I'll look for a PS too then. I'm pretty sure I have an old case around that hasn't been completely gutted that probably has one in the 400-650 watt range.