My Old PC - Bin it??

Redford

New Member
Morning all
I have a PC built many years ago... Spec:
P6TE motherboard, Intel Quadcore, I7 2.4Ghz, 6 GB ram, 1 gig Nvidia Graphics card, .5TB HDD. Windows Vista.

Should I just throw it in the bin or should I bung some extra ram in there along with an SSHD and put a copy of Windows 10 on it?
 

johnb35

Administrator
Staff member
Do you mean a Asus P6t-SE motherboard? If you have the money to add a 250 gb SSD and a new HDD then I would say try it and download windows 10 ISO and install it and see if it installs ok along with all the drivers. You may be able to get it running for someone to use. It doesn't have USB 3 and its only has SATA 3 capability not SATA 6 so disk speed will be limited unless you buy a SATA 6 card. If you don't want to then its old enough to get rid of, you'll have to recycle it though as you really can't just throw in the garbage.
 

OmniDyne

Active Member
Even with SATA 3.0Gb/s an SSD would do wonders; SATA 6.0Gb/s isn't necessary for OS usage and there would be no perceivable difference between the two because an OS relies heavily on response time/ latency and random IOPS.

I've upgraded several original Core i7 systems to Windows 10, so it should work.

6GB of RAM is adequate.

My main concern would be the power supply. If it hasn't been replaced recently, it's most definitely time.
 

Redford

New Member
Next problem:
I Pulled it all apart to give it a clean (dust was unreal!) including take the heatsync off the chipset. All done carefully and responsibly (Ive built a few in my time so understand the risks of shorting etc) but now when I turn it on it shuts off shortly afterwards saying my CPU is overheating. Heatsync is in place, fans running properly etc so I know it isnt... Sensor/thermometer problem? This is a little beyond my knowledge base, so where might that be?
 

OmniDyne

Active Member
Maybe it is an SE motherboard.

PSU is a corsair CX 750
Is the PSU original to the build?

What graphics card is in the system?

Next problem:
I Pulled it all apart to give it a clean (dust was unreal!) including take the heatsync off the chipset. All done carefully and responsibly (Ive built a few in my time so understand the risks of shorting etc) but now when I turn it on it shuts off shortly afterwards saying my CPU is overheating. Heatsync is in place, fans running properly etc so I know it isnt... Sensor/thermometer problem? This is a little beyond my knowledge base, so where might that be?

Did you reapply thermal paste?
 

johnb35

Administrator
Staff member
including take the heatsync off the chipset.
You mean you removed the heatsync from the cpu? Cpu and chipset are 2 totally different things. You probably didn't clean off the old thermal paste and apply new and thats why its overheating.
 

Redford

New Member
PSU is only 2 or 3 years old, barely used the machine since it was installed.
Graphics card is an Nvidia... Not entirely sure what though. I want to say GTX 8800 but I could be WELL off on that.

Never heard of thermal paste... that would explain it!! Clearly I need to buy some of that too, clean off the old and apply the new?
 

johnb35

Administrator
Staff member
Never heard of thermal paste... that would explain it!! Clearly I need to buy some of that too, clean off the old and apply the new?
Arctic silver 5 is the most common. What you need to do is use ispropyl alcohol and a paper towel. Dab the alcohol on the towel and wipe the cpu and bottom of heatsink clean where the thermal paste was. Get all of it off and some of it may be dried on there good since its so old. When both cpu and heatsink is clean let them dry for a couple minutes. Then take the AS 5 and push about a drop about the size of a pea in middle of the cpu itself. Do this while the cpu is in the socket. Then attach the heatsink to the cpu and let the heatsink spread the paste where it needs to go.
 

OmniDyne

Active Member
PSU is only 2 or 3 years old, barely used the machine since it was installed.
Okay great. The CX series dates back to at least 2012, so I wasn't sure if you had an older or newer version.

I want to say GTX 8800 but I could be WELL off on that.
It wouldn't hurt to purchase something like a GTX 1030. Depends on if the computer is having issues playing things like HD video from YouTube or whatever you do on it.

Never heard of thermal paste... that would explain it!! Clearly I need to buy some of that too, clean off the old and apply the new?

Reapplying thermal paste to the CPU IHS is critical. Do as John stated. There are plenty of videos online showing the process.
 

beers

Moderator
Staff member
along with an SSHD
Please just go the SSD route, the SSHD hybrid drives are pretty awful.

Otherwise a SSD should increase your general 'speed' perception unless there's a specific workload that is slow depending on a specific resource such as CPU or GPU
 

strollin

Well-Known Member
... Then take the AS 5 and push about a drop about the size of a pea in middle of the cpu itself. ...
Follow this advice closely. Just because some thermal paste is good, it doesn't mean more is better. You only want a very thin layer between the top of the cpu and the bottom of the heatsink in order to facilitate heat transfer between the two.
 

OmniDyne

Active Member
Follow this advice closely. Just because some thermal paste is good, it doesn't mean more is better. You only want a very thin layer between the top of the cpu and the bottom of the heatsink in order to facilitate heat transfer between the two.

Agreed. I noticed Intel applies 3 small separate thermal strips on their heatsinks, and it's more than adequate.

Screenshot_20200514-221641_Chrome.jpg

Interestingly, when you take these heatsinks off after 10+ years of use, the gaps are still existent; there's really no reason to have complete coverage.

For aftermarket heatsinks or reapplication, it's best to use a dot or just under a pea sized amount on the IHS.
 
Last edited:

Intel_man

VIP Member
Never understood how "only apply a little thermal paste" spread around like wild fire. It really doesn't matter if you put a lot of it or if you put only a pea sized amount. putting more won't magically make the layer between the heatsink and the IHS thicker. It just gets pushed out to the side. Granted, that's wasteful but it is certainly not a detriment to the CPU's thermal performance.


Those intel oem heatsink thermal paste is fine because the actual die behind the IHS is probably about the width of that middle strip anyways.
 

OmniDyne

Active Member
It just gets pushed out to the side. Granted, that's wasteful but it is certainly not a detriment to the CPU's thermal performance.

My argument would be that over application could be detrimental to the surrounding components, especially with cheaper conductive pastes.
 

Intel_man

VIP Member
My argument would be that over application could be detrimental to the surrounding components, especially with cheaper conductive pastes.
There's really nothing usually directly around the socket though that is of immediate danger of being in contact with something conductive. You have to really put stupid amounts of paste to make you worry about cheap conductive pastes being a problem. Like... really stupid amounts of paste.

 
Top