95 replies to this topic

[Catamount]

My old Asus N61JQ was like that, if a little better. 15-25 was typical, but that was more because the game was just easier to run back then. It was a fine machine, just too old to play MWO. Give as a budget when you're ready and we'll get your going, whether laptop (yick) or desktop (yay!)

[Oderint dum Metuant]

Reading the OP it was $500 for the tower. Your not going to be setting any worlds alight but quadcore is possible with the admission your not going to be setting the world alight.

Intel
http://pcpartpicker.com/p/jHXXcf

Reuse Windows and the HDD from the laptop if possible, for a monitor short term you can use a TV so you'd just be looking at a keyboard and mouse.

The second build is an AMD Quad Core build. This one comes in 2 parts.

The Reused HDD and Windows flavour Including Monitor and Keyboard (im somewhat amazed i managed this and also horrified with it)

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/dT6vJx

The second part is using a TV as monitor.
http://pcpartpicker.com/p/WwNJrH

[Verstaka]

To answer some earlier questions my Satellite came with Windows 7, and I used the free upgrade to 1 back in July. I'm going to be finding out Friday is the motherboard is at all repairable. If not I'm hopning that I can salvage the processor (An intel i7 Quadcore 2.3 GHz), and RAM. I friend of mine might have an older graphics card that he can give me.

[xWiredx]

Desktop motherboards and laptop motherboards are 99% of the time different sockets, which means unless you put that CPU into another mobile motherboard it probably isn't usable -for you-. It could be a source of a bit of extra income on ebay/craigslist, though. Laptop RAM is almost always SO-DIMM, too, which means again you are probably not using it for a desktop.

[Catamount]

The i7 is almost certainly PGA988 (it's a 720QM, right?), so there's nothing you can do with it, and you wouldn't want to salvage that i7 if you could.

Basically, like Wired says, you're not salvaging anything. The most you're getting out of it is the hard drive - maybe. If it's at least 250GB then it's good enough to use for awhile, and of course the Windows key. The rest you should sell off piece by piece - maybe you'll get 50-75 bucks for everything. The i7 720QM goes for $20-$30 by itself, the DDR3 SODIMM kit maybe another $20 for, etc. If you used the free Windows upgrade already then the only sticking point is finding out what your W10 key is, because I believe you basically swapped W7 for that (ie they're different). You can pop the drive into another computer and boot it, and it'll probably work. These aren't the XP days when Windows will BSOD and refuse to do anything if you swap boards. It won't be pretty, but it would work well enough to run a key reader, take down the key, get an ISO, and reinstall fresh...hopefully.

Once you've salvaged and sold off what you can, you're back to hunting for part to build a tower.

[KhanJames]

wouldnt reccomend FX. had it works great for basically everything except MWO (since your asking on MWO forums im assuming you want to play mwo). When overclocked they can do decent (decent but not good/stable frames is mid 20s-mid to high 30s (have had 55 with it but that was the highest and only achievable if no motiionand particles low as you can go.(wish you could turn off smoke/steam aka the frame killer )). And yea i can say without a doubt it was the FX because i currently have the same setup just on a intel mobo/processor and my average is mid 40 with highest being about 65(with everything except post on high).

I would look on newegg at their "kits" usually have decent deals and have sales alot. But watch the processor in the kits because the despite amds claim the FM2s (combined processor and graphics) are only good for well optimised or lower spec games, they can be overclocked but for MWO which is very processor bound (they have made progress in making it run better especially with DX11) i just dont think they'll cut it.

http://www.newegg.co...t=Combo.2465537
Upgrade Kit UKO-3150K: Intel Core i5-4690K Haswell 3.5GHz Quad-Core, Gigabyte GA-H97M-HD3 mATX, HyperX Fury Black Series 8GB DDR3 1600
: $341^.99

So for 350 you get mobo processor and memory. Which is relativly good considering its an I5 (usually I5s are the "sweet spot" for gaming).

[Kaptain]

KhanJames, on 21 October 2015 - 01:56 PM, said:

wouldnt reccomend FX. had it works great for basically everything except MWO (since your asking on MWO forums im assuming you want to play mwo). When overclocked they can do decent (decent but not good/stable frames is mid 20s-mid to high 30s (have had 55 with it but that was the highest and only achievable if no motiionand particles low as you can go.

EDIT:

I was wrong.

Get an i3 4170 at micro center and avoid AMD!

Edited by Kaptain, 30 October 2015 - 01:50 PM.

[Valasharia]

One possibility that would save you money is to check online for old computer parts. I currently have three old machines in my basement including a massive 6 - year old gaming comp in a Coolermaster tower. I plan to stick all of them on Kijiji eventually and advertise them as free computer parts. Depending on where you live there may be a number of people disposing of old computers this way.

[Valas]

Also, grill your more tech oriented friends. If they are like me, they have an extensive "bone yard" of stuff that you may be able to piece at least part of a rig together from. I generally always have spare drives, PSU's and older video cards sitting around. Right now I have a E8400 3.0 ghz Intel Core 2 Duo and Asus P5E motherboard sitting around, and I think 2 gb of ram. Only thing I ran into with it, was the onboard sound seemed to have issues with Windows 7, and Windows 7 did not automatically detect some of the on board devices. It's an old board, so drivers have not been updated for several years. Think it would struggle with this game though.

After buying a few "store brand" pc's early in my PC gaming, a friend quickly converted me to building them myself and upgrading as I go. I find getting a solid motherboard and CPU, and upgrading the rest as I can afford to, tends to make the system last longer, and I can often go a lot longer, before I having to do a hard reset with a new motherboard chipset/cpu socket, etc. I will use my 3770k until it chokes and dies probably lol. Have not overclocked it yet, but I know there is plenty of room too when the need arises.

Edited by Valas, 21 October 2015 - 04:01 PM.

[Revis Volek]

Valas, on 21 October 2015 - 03:57 PM, said:

Also, grill your more tech oriented friends. If they are like me, they have an extensive "bone yard" of stuff that you may be able to piece at least part of a rig together from. I generally always have spare drives, PSU's and older video cards sitting around. Right now I have a E8400 3.0 ghz Intel Core 2 Duo and Asus P5E motherboard sitting around, and I think 2 gb of ram. Only thing I ran into with it, was the onboard sound seemed to have issues with Windows 7, and Windows 7 did not automatically detect some of the on board devices. It's an old board, so drivers have not been updated for several years. Think it would struggle with this game though.

It would have a hard time with this game is right...

I was running a Q6600 Core 2 quad around 3.0Ghz and was having a hard time keeping it at 40fps all the time. Dips into the 20's which was no good. But thats what i was using while i was building my new rig, it wasnt the best and i dont recommend anything under and i5 honestly.

[MechWarrior5152251]

Hell, I run 1080 res smoothly with a $40 - G645 2.9 Ghz (2 cores), $50- 8G Ram with a generic $20 motherboard and a $30 GTS 250 1 GHz video card. Assuming you don't have an Operating system you can get that for $60 windows 7. $20 for a computer case. $30 for a small Hard Drive... There is no advantage to 4 cores in video games....

So I have $190 invested though I jacked the Operating system because I am a farging Pirate (otherwise it would be $250). If you can't figure out how to build a computer from watching youtube you are definitely going to be stuck in Tier 5....

Oh yeah, you need a Bronze power supply. I got a 400W one on Newegg for $20.... I blew up 2 $10 power supplies learning that lesson so never get less than Bronze. I have never seen a Bronze rated power supply fail.

Edited by MechWarrior5152251, 21 October 2015 - 06:50 PM.

[Kaptain]

DarthRevis, on 21 October 2015 - 06:16 PM, said:

It would have a hard time with this game is right...

I was running a Q6600 Core 2 quad around 3.0Ghz and was having a hard time keeping it at 40fps all the time. Dips into the 20's which was no good. But thats what i was using while i was building my new rig, it wasnt the best and i dont recommend anything under and i5 honestly.

EDIT:

I was wrong.

Get an i3 4170 at micro center and avoid AMD!

Edited by Kaptain, 30 October 2015 - 01:50 PM.

[darqsyde]

I'm gonna suggest checking craigslist for some possibly interesting buys.

Things like a Xeon or a Sandy Bridge i3. Just add a reasonable video card, and external peripherals and you are good to go.

Now, these might not be the best around, but some people don't know what they have. I managed to grab an i7-920 based system(not including HDD) for free. All I had to do was clean out the dust, swap in some fans, and drop in a HDD out of spares.

Also, you can get Win10 for free via the Windows Insider program. You do have to deal with preview builds, but on the 'Slow' ring, that only once every few months.

[xWiredx]

Kaptain, on 21 October 2015 - 07:32 PM, said:

I was using a qx9650 at 4.0 and even that was slowing down an old GTX280.

The FX6300 is the best bang for buck processor one can buy. I love my Intel 6600k but the the OPs best bet is a fx6300. I have first hand experience with them now and they are a great chip for $100

Actually, the Haswell-based Pentium suggested earlier is better bang for the buck. Comes in at only $70 and will overclock like any other Haswell chip. Runs cooler, uses less energy, has a better memory controller, and will overclock better with a cheap heatsink. Probably will give the same level of performance for MWO (I thought we'd verified that already but I'm not entirely certain).

[Catamount]

Alright, briefly:

1.) He already has the W10 upgrade on his laptop, and I'm hoping he can get away with transferring that to his desktop

2.) FX chips are bad, plain and simple. Verstaka, you're not getting one Even the super-budget Pentium G2358 is a better chip than FX chips for almost any game, and you can afford an i5, which is better than ALL other options, full stop, end of discussion. No one is going to disagree with me here that i5>anything else, and you can afford one, so that's what you're going with. (we're ignoring i7s, they're out of price range)

3.) DV shows a pretty good example of what you could build with $500 if you're freed from buying a Windows license, and if $530 is too much, then just sub out the CPU and motherboard for the two I linked and I it'd be great... except that RAM

Really, DV, no G.Skill? For shame!

[Oderint dum Metuant]

Catamount, on 22 October 2015 - 06:40 AM, said:

Alright, briefly:

1.) He already has the W10 upgrade on his laptop, and I'm hoping he can get away with transferring that to his desktop

2.) FX chips are bad, plain and simple. Verstaka, you're not getting one Even the super-budget Pentium G2358 is a better chip than FX chips for almost any game, and you can afford an i5, which is better than ALL other options, full stop, end of discussion. No one is going to disagree with me here that i5>anything else, and you can afford one, so that's what you're going with. (we're ignoring i7s, they're out of price range)

3.) DV shows a pretty good example of what you could build with $500 if you're freed from buying a Windows license, and if $530 is too much, then just sub out the CPU and motherboard for the two I linked and I it'd be great... except that RAM

Really, DV, no G.Skill? For shame!

I put G.skill in everything i do....but sometimes other peoples budgets mean i have to let it go...it's always the last thing i change

Edited by DV McKenna, 22 October 2015 - 10:24 AM.

[Bill Lumbar]

Kaptain, on 19 October 2015 - 09:37 PM, said:

If nothing got spilled on it and the connections are fine... Bake the board. I've fixed 2 motherboards and 3 graphics cards with this method so far. You have nothing to loose.

EDIT: look up a few videos of this on you tube. Basically you preheat the oven to 380f ish, set the board on tin foil blocks so that it is well supported on a baking sheet. Let it bake for about 8-10 minutes. Remove from oven and let cool for 15+ minutes. Install, check.

Yep.... this is not a ideal method and the fumes from doing this can be quite toxic..... but I have done this with a older Ati 4870 card that started to fail, several apple laptop motherboards, and several PC laptops. This process is best done in a outdoor oven, or if done indoors with very good ventilation. It is vital to make aluminum blocks as stated to ensure the mother board is propped off the cooking pan and supported in several places so it doesn't warp. As stated, you have nothing to loose at this point. If it works, the bad connections will flow back together making good connections. I have repaired many parts this way and it does in fact work if done right. Make sure you watch your temps, not to low and to high our you will cook the board. Good luck man, should be fun either way, Right?

[Kaptain]

xWiredx, on 22 October 2015 - 05:07 AM, said:

Actually, the Haswell-based Pentium suggested earlier is better bang for the buck.

EDIT:

I was wrong.

Get an i3 4170 at micro center and avoid AMD!

Edited by Kaptain, 30 October 2015 - 01:50 PM.

[ShinobiHunter]

Sorry to hear about your PC

AMD FX 6300 plays MWO ok, especially if you overclock it. Everyone here is Intel fanboys (no offence guys), but the AMD gets the job done. It's not going to be as good as an i5 or i7, but it beats the heck out of an i3. I can't compare it to the Pentium, but seriously take a look at it. It also plays most other games fairly well, if that's a concern. You can get a 970 Motherboard and FX6300 for under $200.

Good luck o7

[Kaptain]

Catamount, on 22 October 2015 - 06:40 AM, said:

Alright, briefly:

3.) DV shows a pretty good example of what you could build with $500

DV McKenna, on 21 October 2015 - 10:53 AM, said:

Intel
http://pcpartpicker.com/p/jHXXcf

WOW!

I would use the gtx760 newegg has on ebay though. Twice the texture fill and memory bandwidth.
http://www.ebay.com/...58433?#shpCntId
http://www.geforce.c.../specifications
http://www.geforce.c.../specifications

Edited by Kaptain, 22 October 2015 - 05:45 PM.