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A friend just gave me his old Phenom II gaming PC. Suggestions for what to do with it?

Kadve

Member
Well most of it anyway. He kept the PSU, HDD and case for his new build (got all that stuff laying around already though). He was going to dump the rest as trash and as i thought that would be a huge waste, i asked him if he could give me the pieces instead.
Trying to figure out what to do with it now though and are open to suggestions. Sell the stuff as it is? (the only thing worth selling is the GPU though, maybe the RAM) Keep them around as temporary spares for my current PC? (again, GPU only) Fix it up and sell it as a complete PC? fix it and keep it as an XP build maybe? (got a bunch of older games that my current computer don't like, though i would probably prefer a laptop for that)

The specs are (most of it is from ~2010):

Gigabyte GA-MA790X-UD3P Socket AM2+/AM3

AMD Phenom II X4 905e 2.5 GHz

X2 Corsair CM2x2048 DDR2 1066MHZ/2048MB

X2 Kingston Rmd2-800/2G DDR2 800MHz/2048MB (yes he had mismatched ram, don't ask me why.)

Evga Geforce GTX680
 
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Kadve

Member
I'd save give it to someone older than just need something for web browsing. Anything other than that won't be a fun time for those who's trying to game, honestly. Unless playing a bunch of older older games, imo.
Yea considered giving it to my dad who is looking for a streaming PC. Might be a bit to bulky and power consuming for what he had in mind though. Still it would be for free.
 
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Fart Knight

Al Pachinko, Konami President
God Of War Reaction GIF by MOODMAN
 

artsi

Member
It's a nice retro PC, but honestly I can't see any productive use for it.

Even modern YouTube is probably too intensive for that rig.
 

Wooxsvan

Member
prolly cost you more in the long run on energy consumption than anything you could do with it that you couldnt w/ a way more efficient node. get rid of it.
 

old-parts

Member
Install Zorin Lite on it, a linux desktop OS for 15 year old PC's, this makes it safe to use on the internet with no need to worry about old windows security or trying to run present day windows on it.

You can install console emulators or even install steam, use it to experiment with or give away.

Note that nvidia hardware is quite troublesome under linux due to their drivers, Zorin usually bundle in the best driver to use so it should just work (hopefully).
 

Lasha

Member
I would keep the case if it's nice and send the rest for recycling. Those parts are too new to be retro and too inefficient to bother with for any other use. The amount you would get for those parts used will be surpassed by the time and effort spent trying to sell them.
 

godhandiscen

There are millions of whiny 5-year olds on Earth, and I AM THEIR KING.
I remember when I got my Phenom build in 2008 or was it 2009? I was so disappointed with it, mainly because it wouldn't OC and the performance in games was awful.
 

ZoukGalaxy

Gold Member
Make it an retro/old PC games station on DOS-Windows 98SE and play Tomb Raider I & II, Duke Nukem 3D, Doom I & II, Half life, Toonstruck, Sam & Max, Little Big Adventure I & III, and MDK (random thoughts).
Hope there an optical drive, it's a must !

Or give it to your cat
Cat Space GIF by Cindy Suen


Or make a cool keychain by drilling the CPU
UmVjiM0.jpg
 
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Silver Wattle

Gold Member
As someone with a 955 BE PC sitting in a box, don't bother using it unless you are desperate, the power consumption and heat are not worth it.
one of those 100 dollar refurbished office PCs with an intel CPU are miles better.
 

eNT1TY

Member
Your friend is brave recycling a 12 year old psu for a new build. I'm sure his Antec 900 will still rock though XD
 

Skifi28

Member
Repurpose it for heating the room or wait another 10-20 years until it's a classic and donate it to a museum.
 

Thebonehead

Banned
Stick an SSD in it.

You'll be transported to new gaming world's, with no lod pop in, zero texture streaming issues.

It's like putting a 4090 in your case.

Plus star citizen is ssd only.

Install it and let us know your frame per minute statistics.
 

Chastten

Banned
I bought a pretty similar machine back in January to make a nice XP build. Stick an SSD in for some modern comfort and play games that don't play nice with Win 10.

Haven't used it a whole lot yet since there's so many modern games I wanna play as well, but it's nice to have it there ready to go.
 

Kadve

Member
Your friend is brave recycling a 12 year old psu for a new build. I'm sure his Antec 900 will still rock though XD
Forgot the specify it was "new" in quotes. He Built it ~2017 and only now decided to get rid of the old parts. Not sure i he has upgraded since though so he might still be using it.

Anyway. To my surprise there are actually people out there buying old AM3 motherboards/CPUs so might just sell the parts. Would probably even get more than if i sold it as a complete PC. The question remains though if i should replace my current "emergency" GPU (a HD 5770 from 2009, pretty much worthless while i still can get something for the 680) with this slightly newer one.

Oh and that XP build i was talking about? Would probably actually prefer some slightly older parts and make a Win 2000 PC. Something i really craved as a kid and it would be fun to have one just because. Wonder how young parts can be for that though.
 
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I was expecting to see the Nick Offerman computer gif, instead I got the new and improved Kratos version lol. And on top of that, Office Space?! Amazing all around.
 
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