# Rate my Rig



## Justtom (Dec 27, 2009)

Hello,

Back in 2010 some of the guys on this forum basically built me a nice PC ( Original thread) I am still very happy with it and I think its the best computer I ever had (minus some startup issues, might be faulty RAM or RAM sockets it is like 8 years old now). Its good for older games from that era, not gonna run any newer AAA titles though (witch Im not too fussed about, I like older games anyway, but I would like to play Kingdom come and Witcher 3 at least on medium ). 

I would like your opinion on how you think this rig stands against the test of time and how I could maybe make it better, or even if it is worth making it better (Not looking for anything cutting edge, and I cant spend too much money on it right now due to personal reasons)

So, here is the list of components and my comments:

PSU: Chieftek 650W - seems fine?
CPU: AMD Phenom II x2 555 (3.2 GHz) - Its a dual core... And the stock cooler is laud, would like a cooler change.
MB: ASUS M4N68T - the board mighty be faulty as mentioned above sometimes doesn't run, no error codes
RAM: 4 GB Corsair DDR3 1333 - the cards mighty be faulty as mentioned above sometimes doesn't run, no error codes. Recently added 4 more GB of random RAM I had. Would probably like 16 GB.
Storage: Seagate 700 GB HDD - maybe pop an SSD for windows or something?
GPU: Sapphire ATI Radeon HD 5770 Vapor-X 1 GB of VRAM if I'm correct
Case: Thermaltake V4 - front I/O faulty (headphone jacks USB slots etc.) would like some USB 3.0 slots, is that even possible?
Also has an LG DWD RW optical drive - seems good since not used often anymore.
OS: Windows 10 x64

Thank you all for you opinion, and thanks again to the people (even though most of them are probably gone from the forums by now) who built this PC and gave me wonderful memories.


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## Masterchiefxx17 (Feb 27, 2010)

You're going to be looking at a full rebuild if you want to be able to play newer games like Witcher 3 and Kingdom.

Any upgrade to the system would require the next part being upgraded too and you would have a snowballing effect.


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## Justtom (Dec 27, 2009)

Masterchiefxx17 said:


> You're going to be looking at a full rebuild if you want to be able to play newer games like Witcher 3 and Kingdom.
> 
> Any upgrade to the system would require the next part being upgraded too and you would have a snowballing effect.


Alright then, never mind the newer games then, I just want to improve my overall PC experience, make it run smoother, quieter, play older games etc. What would you suggest?


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## SpywareDr (Jun 15, 2013)

That motherboard is pretty old with obsolete parallel and serial ports, IDE, 3 Gb/s SATA, USB 2.0, PS/2 mouse and keyboard ports. And on top of that, it's not working correctly ... but yet you want to keep using it?​


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## Justtom (Dec 27, 2009)

SpywareDr said:


> That motherboard is pretty old with obsolete parallel and serial ports, IDE, 3 Gb/s SATA, USB 2.0, PS/2 mouse and keyboard ports. And on top of that, it's not working correctly ... but yet you want to keep using it?​


I dont want to sound rude, but could you go through my post again? Maybe you missed the part where I said "_I would like your opinion on how you think this rig stands against the test of time and *how I could maybe make it better, or even if it is worth making it better*_"

I am a bit confused about why you are answering my question with a question. You could maybe give me suggestions on improvement (replace the MB, find out whats wrong for sure etc.) or just say its not worth it and call it a day. The whole point of this post and the info I provided is so you could form your opinion easier.

And to answer your question, I am not sure its the MB, it could also be the RAM.

Sorry again if I come off as being rude, that is not my intention and thank you for your reply.


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## SpywareDr (Jun 15, 2013)

IMHO (In My Humble Opinion), it is not worth trying to "make it better". 

If the motherboard is bad, I'm not even sure you can a new one. You could blow out the RAM slots with canned compressed air, clean the gold contacts on the RAM with a pencil eraser and then run memtest+ (or similar) to see if you get any errors.

If you do, the only way that I know of to find out if it is the RAM or motherboard would be to test with a different known-good motherboard or known-good RAM. If you have to pay for either of those I don't believe it wouldn't be worth the money or the trouble. But, that is just my opinion. I'm sure some would enjoy the challenge.


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## Justtom (Dec 27, 2009)

SpywareDr said:


> IMHO (In My Humble Opinion), it is not worth trying to "make it better".
> 
> If the motherboard is bad, I'm not even sure you can a new one. You could blow out the RAM slots with canned compressed air, clean the gold contacts on the RAM with a pencil eraser and then run memtest+ (or similar) to see if you get any errors.
> 
> If you do, the only way that I know of to find out if it is the RAM or motherboard would be to test with a different known-good motherboard or known-good RAM. If you have to pay for either of those I don't believe it wouldn't be worth the money or the trouble. But, that is just my opinion. I'm sure some would enjoy the challenge.


Thank you for the suggestions, I guess you might be right though and I'm just trying to hold on to what I have because I cant get newer stuff right now... This got me wondering, how does this hardware compare to my Acer laptop with is just a bit newer?

Laptop specs:

Intel i5 4200U 1.6 - 2.3 GHz
8 GB DRR3 RAM
AMD Radeon HD 8750M

I know it depends on what you do with it but just as a general comparison. What do you think?


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## Masterchiefxx17 (Feb 27, 2010)

I personally plan on building a new machine once Nvidia released the next generation of graphics cards and lowers the prices with them.


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## SpywareDr (Jun 15, 2013)

UserBenchmark.com > Core i5-4200U vs Phenom II X2 555


> ...
> The Intel i5-4200U is a dual core 4th generation Haswell processor. Specifically designed for tablets and ultrabooks it gives the appropriate balance between performance and battery life. The i5-4200U has integrated HD 4400 graphics which are fine for desktop use but not suited to 3D gaming. With an impressive TDP of just 15 Watts, the 4200U will typically give 6 hours of battery life. Despite the low effective speed of 56 which is 70% below the average of the leaders, when coupled with an SSD the 4200U can give a reasonable user experience.
> 
> _[...continues...]_


A lot more info on that page, as well as the following:
https://www.cpu-monkey.com/en/compare_cpu-amd_phenom_ii_x2_555-247-vs-intel_core_i5_4200u-30

Intel Core i5 4200U vs AMD Phenom II X4 965

https://www.cpu-world.com/Compare/7...ev._C3)_vs_Intel_Core_i5_Mobile_i5-4210U.html​


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## Justtom (Dec 27, 2009)

SpywareDr said:


> UserBenchmark.com > Core i5-4200U vs Phenom II X2 555
> 
> 
> > ...
> ...


Yeah did some research as well... I always thought it was a quad core for some reason. What if I did some gambling and replaced rhe MB with something similar but with a core unlocker (I know its not a high chance the locked cores are stable) then get an aftermarket cooler and do some overclocking? I read that these Phenom CPUs overclock pretty good.


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## SpywareDr (Jun 15, 2013)

<shrug> Even if you throw a bunch of money and time into it you might be able to push it to a stable 15% increase in speed. But it would still be an old, slow CPU. :sad:


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