Absolute low budget build in need of help. (resolved)

Skellington9270

New Member
Greeting and salutations,
Some back story before we get into it. I have very, very little disposable income... basically nothing. I'm 24 but instead of student loans I have medical bills. I've been building computers since I took interest is high school and took a few vocational classes in A+ and networking but that was 7-8 years ago.
So let's roll with that. Before you laugh, this rig has been built out of 6 different computers, virtually from different eras and up until I switched mobo's and CPU's everything had been working as well as it could for over 3 years.

My current rig:
Motherboard - HT2000 mcp61pm-hm
CPU- AMD Athlon 64x2 6000+ (never tried or been overclocked)
4x1GB DDR2 (all the motherboard can handle)
and an off brand 400w power supply.
Cooling is no issue (4 120mm case fans and 1 60mm cpu fan/heatsink

My current two issues:
Asus GeForce 8500GT just bit the dust by short circuiting the hdmi port thus rendering it useless
and to top it off, critical hard drive failure. Nothing could be recovered.

What I'm looking for is help and brain storming in using as many parts that currently work as I can with a newer or "new to me" build. Also a working OS that isn't going to cost me an arm and a leg. All it has to be is Vista or newer. I'm not looking for the latest and greatest. Just something that can run... let's say Command and Conquer 4 on medium/low settings and be reliable.

If I keep my mobo it's limited to one PCIE x16 1.0 but I recently read that 2.0 cards can work on it as well?
On a good day I'm looking at maybe $100-200 to spend on new parts.

I can put computers together but I don't know details which is why I'm asking for your help.
Thank you for any input.
 

Auryn

New Member
Hey man. I'll look at parts for you, but I have to go to school, so I'll be doing it later.

However, something that I can suggest to you right now, is the website: www.kinguin.net . They sell excess game and operating system, product keys. I built a computer over Christmas, and bought Windows 10 from Kinguin for approx €36. (You can get it slightly cheaper if you don't pay the little bit extra for product insurance, which allows you to get a refund if the key doesn't work). I paid for the insurance, and the key I bought worked perfectly first try, but I would definitely recommend paying the little bit extra for insurance.
 

Skellington9270

New Member
Hey man. I'll look at parts for you, but I have to go to school, so I'll be doing it later.

However, something that I can suggest to you right now, is the website: www.kinguin.net . They sell excess game and operating system, product keys. I built a computer over Christmas, and bought Windows 10 from Kinguin for approx €36. (You can get it slightly cheaper if you don't pay the little bit extra for product insurance, which allows you to get a refund if the key doesn't work). I paid for the insurance, and the key I bought worked perfectly first try, but I would definitely recommend paying the little bit extra for insurance.

Awesome, thanks for the tip and the help. I'll need a working hard drive first but I'm definitely saving the URL for later.
 

Auryn

New Member
Quick question. What do you use your computer for? Do you use it for mostly gaming, internet browsing, etc?

Also, could you please give me a full parts list of your current computer, so I know what you have and can therefore match parts to it.
 
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Skellington9270

New Member
Quick question. What do you use your computer for? Do you use it for mostly gaming, internet browsing, etc?

Also, could you please give me a full parts list of your current computer, so I know what you have and can therefore match parts to it.

Absolutely, I use it primarily for gaming almost exclusively the Command and Conquer series with random other titles thrown in mostly older single player FPS and RTS games. I would say and 80%-20% split. With the 20% going to youtube but I now have an old PS3 to do that for me.

I'll attempt to get as detailed as I can with parts from the ground up and in one place:

HT2000 mcp61pm-hm motherboard:
AM2 socket, 1x PCIE x16
2x PCI
1x PCI x1

AMD Athlon 64x2 6000+ series CPU
1x 40mm Cooler Master CPU fan and heatsink
4x 65mm Cooler Master case fans (was way off on my measurements from before)
4x 1GB Samsung 5300U DDR2
Hipro HP-E4008FWR 400W PSU
Toshiba DVD Writer Model TS-H652

No hard drive
No graphics card.
 

Skellington9270

New Member
I also have an Intel Pentium 4 2.6GHZ/512/800 and a Pentium 4 2.4GHZ/512/533/1.5V and a laughable AMD Athlon 30,000k series made of plastic.
An MSI MS - 7536 motherboard
A Dell 0KWVT8 motherboard
And a hand full of Kingston and ProMos 512MB DDR1 RAM
With their respective crappy/proprietary PSU's and other hardware.
Those are some of the computers I built this fubar monstrosity from.
 

Skellington9270

New Member
Transfer it to your larger case.

Grab a 2nd hand video card if you play game
used GTX 750ti would probably a good one to bid for $70 - 80.

I don't know much about Hipro PSU, you may consider grab a decent branded PSU if you install video card.
I can see where you're coming from. Just buying a slightly newer, complete PC and going from there.
A better platform to build off of. And if I could, I would definitely buy a brand name PSU if I spent actual money on a graphics card.
The only issue is that my budget is genuine and the PC that was working 24 hours ago was doing 95% of what I wanted. Sure I'd love to play a heavily modded Fallout 4 or Skyrim but that's just going to have to wait. What I'm looking for is a relatively cheap fix for what I'm working with now.
I appreciate the insight though and will keep it in mind if I have extra money when it comes time to make a decision.
 

johnb35

Administrator
Staff member

Skellington9270

New Member
What country do you live in? I want to find you the best price parts.
Central US
If thats all you have then just get new parts and put in existing machine. You really don't have the budget for a newer machine at the moment.
That's exactly what I said and what I'm looking for. I haven't bought new parts in years and I'm looking for primarily a graphics card with an hdmi out that will fit a PCIE x16 slot and compatible with or will run on 1.0 stats due to the old motherboard.
 

Skellington9270

New Member
You will need to upgrade your psu to at least a 500 watt unit such as corsair or evga. The 500 watt will leave you open later for a better video card. You are probably looking at around your max 200 bucks for a new power supply and a gtx1050ti.

I don't plan on building this rig up. There's no point in it due to it's age.
I would need a larger power supply if I decided to go with that card but it's not compatible to my motherboard. From what I've read it might be backwards compatible but you take massive hits when you jump more than one generation (i.e. going from 3.0 card to 1.0 motherboard).
 

johnb35

Administrator
Staff member
But why buy an older style video card when you can buy the latest and use it on a new build later?
 

Skellington9270

New Member
But why buy an older style video card when you can buy the latest and use it on a new build later?
I'm trying to save money now and buy the things I want later. I'm just attempting to find a cheapish fix that will be reliable and work with what I have. I know it's stupid to say but this rig does have sentimental value. It was the first rig I ever built and I'd like to keep it together for a long time without modifying much. I already have ideas for a future build. I understand your ideas but I respectfully don't have the same.
 

Intel_man

VIP Member
From what I've read it might be backwards compatible but you take massive hits when you jump more than one generation (i.e. going from 3.0 card to 1.0 motherboard).
That's not remotely true. Don't worry about the 3.0 and 1.0 spec for PCI-E. Maximum bandwidth =/= used bandwidth. The difference between PCI-E x16 3.0 and x16 1.1 is easily within 5-10% max. That's negligible.
 
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