old micro atx |Compaq upgrade

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coastrider

New Member
Looking at a last ditch effort to upgrade an old Compaq Micro Atx to gain more ram. This PC now has M2N68-LA MB and Athlon2 x2 215 processor. The PC will barely operate a\nd Windows updates take 2 hours plus. I just need a PC that will function and 4gb ram is not doing it. Id like to just do a MB, Ram, Processor and PSU upgrade and keep the rest so im not investing in an old pile of junk. I dont game and i dont care about fancy rgb fans and bling. What is your recommendations for something fairly fast with 16gb ram. Cheers, Ed
 
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DavidG

DavidG

Active Member
4GB of RAM will only be a minor bottleneck. I would recommend that you add an SSD to your upgrade. No matter how fast the rest of your new kit it will be held back if you are relying on the old HDD. If the HDD is of some age it's reliability is going to be suspect anyway. If you intend to re-use the old case then you need to absolutely sure that it adheres to Micro ATX standards. A lot of HPs and Dells used custom cases, coolers and fittings that make it difficult for anything else than the original motherboard to fit easily. For a relatively small additional outlay it might be worth adding a standard case to your parts list. I would go to pcpartpicker and look at their builds according to your budget.
 
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johnb35

johnb35

Administrator
Staff member
Where are you from? I would definitely look into getting a midtower case so you don't run into issues wiring up the new motherboard. You are gonna be looking at something around $600 USD. I just did a build for a client and thats what it came out to be. At this point, I do believe going Intel is gonna be cheaper with having onboard video.

You can modify this build here for whatever you like.

Part List - Intel Core i3-10105, Cougar MX331 MESH-X ATX Mid Tower - PCPartPicker

Part List - Intel Core i3-10105, Cougar MX331 MESH-X ATX Mid Tower
pcpartpicker.com pcpartpicker.com

You can find online sites that have cheap windows 10 keys. You may not need a dvd drive. Once we know where you live we maybe offer better ideas.
 
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coastrider

New Member
Thanks for the replies, I live in Nanaimo, British Columbia, Canada. The hard drive is a new WD blue 1TB but you are right, I'd like to have the OS on an ssd so a 500mb ssd would be suffice for my needs. I have a cheap Zotac 1gb video card I can run till I can afford something better so do not require a processor with video processing. Cheers, Ed
 
johnb35

johnb35

Administrator
Staff member
Well even if you get a Ryzen 3rd gen, you are still looking at around $270 just for the processor. And with you living in Canada, prices will be higher. Cpu availability is bad right now. Places are sold out soon after getting in stock. Not sure what is available right now in Canada as I've looked on Bestbuy and amazon and there isn't much to choose from that is recent generation, which would be Intel 10th or 11th gen and Ryzen 3000 or 5000 series.
 
beers

beers

Moderator
Staff member
DavidG said:
4GB of RAM will only be a minor bottleneck.
Click to expand...
Disagree, any W10 system at 4GB has been intolerable.

@coastrider you could also upgrade to a quad core or something for like $10, it'd be a little less boggy for a better casual/light workload environment, but I wouldn't put more than that in there to be honest. AM3 is pretty old these days, Athlon/Phenom II debuted in 2008.

Laptops have gotten pretty baller for the price now that solid state is so readily available in the market, you might consider just using one docked while having the added convenience of portability if desired.
 
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coastrider

New Member
Ok, I decided to do my first build instead. Here is the list of parts I have ordered, hope it goes OK. Not gonna lie, a little nervous as it's a lot of money for a first build.

My 1st build​

 
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johnb35

johnb35

Administrator
Staff member
Just a couple notes here.

1. A a good 430 watt psu would have been good to power this system.
2. 32gb of ram will be way overkill depending on what you plan on doing with your system. I've been buying 16gb kits for clients now since its so cheap.
3. You will be limited to an HDMI or Display port output since the motherboard doesn't have VGA or DVI, so hopefully your monitor supports HDMI or Display port connection.
4. The system might not boot until you update the bios. The 5600g needs bios version A7 which just came out a few months ago to fully support it. Maybe you will get lucky and it will already have that version. If not, then you'll have to follow this video to update the bios before installing Cpu and ram.


You could have considerably lowered the cost of this system.

My pics are here. I did choose a gen 4 ssd but could have went down to a gen 3 since gen 4 is outrageous right now and gen 3 would be fast enough for you coming from a standard hdd. You also could have saved more money by going Intel instead.

Part List - AMD Ryzen 5 5600G, NZXT H510 ATX Mid Tower - PCPartPicker

Part List - AMD Ryzen 5 5600G, NZXT H510 ATX Mid Tower
ca.pcpartpicker.com ca.pcpartpicker.com

You would have saved about 200 bucks.
 
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coastrider

New Member
johnb35 said:
Just a couple notes here.

1. A a good 430 watt psu would have been good to power this system.
2. 32gb of ram will be way overkill depending on what you plan on doing with your system. I've been buying 16gb kits for clients now since its so cheap.
3. You will be limited to an HDMI or Display port output since the motherboard doesn't have VGA or DVI, so hopefully your monitor supports HDMI or Display port connection.
4. The system might not boot until you update the bios. The 5600g needs bios version A7 which just came out a few months ago to fully support it. Maybe you will get lucky and it will already have that version. If not, then you'll have to follow this video to update the bios before installing Cpu and ram.


You could have considerably lowered the cost of this system.

My pics are here. I did choose a gen 4 ssd but could have went down to a gen 3 since gen 4 is outrageous right now and gen 3 would be fast enough for you coming from a standard hdd. You also could have saved more money by going Intel instead.

Part List - AMD Ryzen 5 5600G, NZXT H510 ATX Mid Tower - PCPartPicker

Part List - AMD Ryzen 5 5600G, NZXT H510 ATX Mid Tower
ca.pcpartpicker.com ca.pcpartpicker.com

You would have saved about 200 bucks.
Click to expand...
Thanks for the advice, I figured no matter how much I researched I would still make a couple mistakes I watched that video last night and to be honest I went with msi for the flashback button as I have to other cpu to boot with. I went with 32gb of ram due to the cost factor and then I can allocate more to the on-board video. I'd also like to try my hand at 1080 video editing as I've never had a pc that was able to edit my gopro video. As for the AMD/Intel, it seems everyone has an opinion on it and that only makes it more confusing. I also read that the Intel competition for this runs warmer and uses more power. Some things I went with the idea of future expansion and not having to update components within a year. Thanks for all the responses fellas
 
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coastrider

New Member
Well due to no stock I had to cancel the ssd and found another on sale for $30 more, its a

Samsung 970 EVO Plus 1TB NVMe M.2 Internal SSD​

 
johnb35

johnb35

Administrator
Staff member
Damn, dropping from a Gen 4 to a Gen 3 and the cost went up? That's bad. Maybe it's from a third party?
 
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coastrider

New Member
Well what a turn of events this has been with delayed delivery! I ended up not getting my ssd online as Best Buy had a good deal in town on a wd black sn850 1tb so I got that instead. Way more than I had planned on spending but seems that's the way its going.
 
johnb35

johnb35

Administrator
Staff member
Welcome to the new world order. Its gonna be that way with everthing you buy now. Cars, computer parts, groceries.
 
beers

beers

Moderator
Staff member
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coastrider

New Member
Now begs the question, do I get windows 10 or wait a few days and get windows 11? I don't want to shell out $130 for an old operating system but also don't want a new program full of bugs.
 
johnb35

johnb35

Administrator
Staff member
beers said:
W11 is a free upgrade for W10. You could probably get a W10 key less expensively.
Click to expand...
He can, very much so.
coastrider said:
Now begs the question, do I get windows 10 or wait a few days and get windows 11? I don't want to shell out $130 for an old operating system but also don't want a new program full of bugs.
Click to expand...
Get your windows 10 key here.

www.cdkdeals.com

Microsoft Windows 10 Home OEM CD-KEY GLOBAL - cdkdeals.com

Purchase Microsoft Windows 10 Home OEM CD-KEY GLOBAL from cdkdeals.com. You can enjoy the best discount on Microsoft Windows 10 Home OEM CD-KEY GLOBAL. Instant delivery. Best Price Guarantee. Worth to buy.
www.cdkdeals.com www.cdkdeals.com

You'll have to create an account though.

Use coupon code CAREY

I just built 2 systems and used this and they are both activated with no issues.

This is where I got it from.

 
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coastrider

New Member
Thanks everyone, I found a lady locally that just purchased windows 10 pro and did not use so I got it on USB drive for $40 canadian and will take the windows 11 update when it comes out. Also got a monitor, keyboard and mouse combo. Hope I'm now done
 
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