Adventure in upgrading a computer that cost less than $500 [bought in 2017]

Pupp

Member
So, the Lenovo Ideacentre 300s is NOT a very good computer. I did manage to get a graphic card installed that used all of 19 watts.

Then the computer started having issues with the sound, so I ordered an inexpensive sound card.

HAHAHA: The PCIe 1x slot DOES NOT LINE UP WITH THE BACK OF THE CASE!!!

So...
...I ordered a cable that will allow me to hook up the sound card and just stick it anyplace really. I doubt I'll be able to screw it into the case, so I'll make an custom enclosure for the sound card. Most likely I'll try and find some cheap plastic box (maybe from the sewing/craft dept. or I'll look at small tackle boxes in the outdoor dept.)

PLUS........

The wifi just went out, so I ordered a new m.2 Wifi 6 card for it.

It might be the only Lenovo Ideacentre 300s sporting 8 gigs of ram, a graphic card, and Wifi 6, and a sound card.

I've yet to nail down if that machine runs on 60 watts or 90 watts. I'm starting to lean toward 90 watts though.
 
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Pupp

Member
I'm seriously thinking about going to a computer repair shop and seeing if they have a used PSU and graphic card that you have to plug into the PSU, just to see if can upgrade the graphics from a Geforce 710 2GB. I'm curious if I could get that to work. The graphic card still needs to be kinda old though, or it will overload the CPU. Maybe a Geforce 900 series at most. In my quest to hack the sound card, I found out all I need to know about PCIe riser (ribbon) cables. :cool:

I mean, at this point, the sound card is going to be outside the box, so why not just go for broke. Worse case scenario is I roll back the crappy Geforce 710, which is still a fine upgrade for that machine, but pretty weak considering the person uses Photoshop.

I've had worse experiences... There was a guy that lived in public housing a block away that needed a computer, so I got him a cheap used one from a repair shop. There was an issue with the graphics, so I told the guy I'd be back the following Wednesday, and when I showed up three days later, he'd already chucked the computer into the dumpster. I was not happy that the guy couldn't wait 3 days for me to repair it. -This was about 20 years ago.
 
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Pupp

Member
That’s not really ‘a thing’ dudebro.
I just read someplace online about "matching a GPU" with a laptop, and it said something about the GPU could take up too much of the CPU's resources.
The article was about external GPU's running through Thunderbolt 3 or 4.

So I don't know what to think now.

I don't care at this point if I blow up the machine. It wasn't until about 2 years after it was bought, the owner (a relative), complained it could barely run Photoshop. -I upgraded the ram and install a 19 watt graphic card: Geforce GT 710.
If the a new wifi card doesn't fix the wifi, it'll have to be scrapped anyway. So I might as well have some fun with it.

Current issues:
1) The wifi is out.
2) the sound sometimes works, sometimes doesn't work. Been like that for about 6 weeks. It's a hardware issue for sure.
3) A sound card can't be plugged into it in the normal fashion because the case's card slot for the PCIe 1x connector doesn't line up with the PCIe 1x connector on the motherboard.

A secondary reason to installing a sound card is to try and offload even a few percent of load on the CPU. Whatever I can do to squeeze a bit more performance out of the CPU.
 
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beers

Moderator
Staff member
So I don't know what to think now.
I mean, you can put a 3090 on a single core Athlon 64 S754 build if you wanted to.

2) the sound sometimes works, sometimes doesn't work. Been like that for about 6 weeks. It's a hardware issue for sure.
so, what's the difference between working and nonworking states?
 

Pupp

Member
The computer has been officially retired to the dust bin of history. Between the sound issues and wifi issues, and the fact it pretty much sucks for desktop publishing/photoshop, we went and got a nice Lenovo...

...which is a brand the relative would consider: i7 10700F, Geforce 1660 S, 16 GB of ram, and a 512GB M.2 NVME card, and he splurged on a 32 inch monitor,. I'll add a hard drive and a USB PCIe card (USB Type C x2, USB Type 3.1 x 3 soon.
For some reason, Lenovo put several fast USB ports (Type C x1, Type 3.1 x2) on the front and only four USB 2.0 ports on the back.

I didn't bother trying to up-sell him to a CyberpowerPC at Best Buy. The case was too big and full of flashing lights. So we went to Office Depot and got the Lenovo with similar specs, but it was $300 cheaper, but only came with a single spare PCIe slot. -The PCIe x16 was populated by the graphic card. Plus I knew any computer sold by Office Depot would be designed for an office and not a super nerd's bedroom.
______________
Going back to the budget 4 year old computer...
...the sound would be fine for a few days or maybe a couple weeks, before just randomly stopping. Sometime it would stop in the middle of a video or what not. Although most of the time, it went out between watching videos, since he didn't watch too many videos, unless something major was happening on the news. It started around late February, or early March, from what he said. Restarting the computer fixed the sound, until it eventually happened again.

Note: The only other brand he would consider was a Dell.
 
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