Advice on upgrading an old(er) mobo

Dimethyl-tyrone

New Member
I'd like to upgrade an ASUS P5N-D motherboard I've got. The graphics card on it (8600 GT) had 5 capacitors rupture, so it's toast. I can't hook up a monitor to it now so I don't know what CPU is in it without pulling it out. However my guess is its an Intel Core 2 Duo E7500 or something similar. My plan is to replace the hard drive, graphics card, CPU, and max out the RAM (card maxes at 8Gb). I'd like to keep everything around $220, so as of now I was going to replace the previously mentioned with:

- 1Tb hard drive (older one was 250Gb)
- 8 Gb RAM with 4x2Gb (previously had 2x1Gb)
- Intel Core 2 Quad Q9550 (will be way better than whatever is in there now)
- a GeForce 1050 2Gb graphics card

I'm having some problems deciding on the graphics card. I have no intention of playing new games at all. Basically the system will be for: MS office, web browsing, watching videos, and playing older games. What I've found so far is I can get everything except the graphics card for ~ $100, which leaves about ~ $120 left over. Any ideas or suggestions you guys have would be greatly appreciated!
 

Calin

Well-Known Member
You mean computer, right?
Remove the CPU cooler, clean the CPU of thermal paste and the model should be written on it.
I would look at building a whole new computer to be honest, the LGA 775 socket is over 10 years old now and the Q9550 will bottleneck the 1050 and there's no point in buying DDR2 RAM in 2017 (if you can even find any)
 

Dimethyl-tyrone

New Member
Yes it is an old-ass rig. I'm fairly certain that its CPU is a duo core, so I was thinking a quad core would be the best (price wise) I could find for it. I did find 4 x 2Gb of DDR2 RAM for only $40, and the Q9550 for $39. The 1050 is probably overkill, but I could always stick that in another rig down the road. Instead of the 1050 how about a 400, 500, 600, or 700 series graphics card? I've found some of those but they start getting close to the 1050 in price.
 

beers

Moderator
Staff member
That sounds like a lot of money wasted on a dinosaur.

What's the specs of your current PC? I'd just upgrade that instead unless you have thousands of dollars just sitting around.
 

Dimethyl-tyrone

New Member
Current PC is a 6yr old Dell XPS. I just figured putting some components on the old P5N-D for >$220 would make it usable for a couple of years
 

Cisco001

Well-Known Member
Unless you are going to upgrade the whole system soon, i don't see the point for GTX 1050.
May be you can find second hand GT730?
 
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