Gaming build from old (very old) parts - Advice needed

dreadpiratedan on 26/07/2013 - 09:34
Last edited 26/07/2013 - 10:34

Hello everyone,

tl;dr
Which would be the better option for low end gaming:

e7500 core 2 duo with some crappy lenovo motherboard (so no chance of OC) + 1 x 4gb ddr3 ram 1333mhz (not sure of timings)
AMD Athlon x2 6000+ with asrock AliveN570SLI (potential OC to 3.1 3.2 so nothing really) + 4 x 1gb ddr2 800 mhz 6-6-6-18

Longer verion
I am doing up a extreme budget build for a friend, budget being free. So I am using parts from old computers to throw something together.

The other parts in question are:

ATI Sapphire Radeon HD 4870 512mb
Coolermaster ATX case of some form, it goes allright
Antec eco plus 550W PSU
Windows 7 professional 64bit.

I'm stumped as to which processor would be better, originally I was suspecting the athlon would be the way to go (better board, OC options), but after a small test run of it last night I'm not so sure.

Said test was playing borderlands (1) and even with such an old GPU, the CPU was still managing to bottleneck it (CPU usage above 90%).

Ideally I'd like to upgrade the CPU, but from my research it would seem the best processor the AMD board will take as a Phenom x4 9950 @ 2.6ghz. I'm not thinking that would be worth even doing.

So for the time being I want to just throw together the best of what I've got, so what CPU = mobo combo would you go with given the choice? The timings on that ddr2 ram suck so I'm considering that the ddr3 might give the intel build a slight advantage. Everything I've dug up so far suggest the e7500 is the better chip (just), but I'm thinking the OC could tip it to the AMD.

Regarding the ram, I have 2 sets of 4gb ddr2, one is corsair value 667mhz stock (can OC past 800mhz though) 5-5-5-16 timing, the other I can't find the brand and is 800mhz 6-6-6-18. The corsair stuff is the better option right?

Any input would be greatly appreciated :)

Also I realise it is the oldest crappiest build you could make now days, but for a free build you can't really complain. It is at least better than his iMac with a 4670.

Poll Options

4
Intel e7500 core 2 duo (2.93 GHz no OC)
1
AMD Athlon x2 6000+ (3.0ghz can OC)

Computing

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ozhunter on 26/07/2013 - 09:46

Go with intel, http://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu_lookup.php?cpu=AMD+Athlon+64…

Intel = 1876
AMD = 1568
- dreadpiratedan on 26/07/2013 - 10:33
  
  Yeah I'm definitely thinking it looks the more appealing. Really don't wan a use the crappy motherboard though! ;p
- ESEMCE on 26/07/2013 - 11:36
  
  Even with overclock the Athlon is only going to be barely better and given they're already used components, the lifespan of the system might not be great.
  The Intel is faster stock and has faster RAM.
  I made a system with a P4-HT 3GHz, 2Gb RAM and old ATI HD2600 card for a mate to play Left4Dead.. Does the job at 720p resolution and low settings.
aim54x on 26/07/2013 - 10:10

Go the AMD, drop both sets of RAM in together…..then go to overclock that Athlon! If you luck out you may even find another donor AMD chip that will fit the AM2/AM2+ socket. I'm not sure how far you can OC that Athlon but if you can then I would prefer more RAM, just of day to day usage.

BUT if you can manage the same amount of RAM E7500 should win even without the OC.

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gaming-cpu-review-overcl…
http://cpuboss.com/cpus/Intel-Core2-Duo-E7500-vs-AMD-Athlon-…
- dreadpiratedan on 26/07/2013 - 10:29
  
  Ahh i forgot to mention both sets of the ddr2 ram are 4 x 1 gb so its one set or the other unfortunately :) lol. I'm pretty happy with it having 4gb though as that's what my rig has, mine being q6600 oc @3.33ghz, the 4gg 667mhz corsair ram oc'd to ~740mhz and 560ti. It plays everything quite well on high-ultra 1080p(crysis 1,2,3 and witcher 2 being most notable). So if its enough for me it'll certainly be enough for this build hahaha.
  
  How much would you expect to get out of an OC with the average athlon chip though? A lot of my googling resulted in threads that the OP wouldn't revisit to post results so many dead-ends for info :(. What I could gather was I I might get 200mhz if I'm lucky. Not sure that would cut it :S
  
  Edit: that's toms hardware link is a good one! But daaang, it falls waaay behind the e7500 :p
biozet on 26/07/2013 - 11:49

the phenom would be far better…but i suppose it is not worth doing for the price?
the powersupply (if decent and an accurate 550) would handle a better graphics card which would definitely be an improvement.often older model graphics cards make clearance lists at msy etc. my kids computer is pieced together older parts…pentium 4 4 gig ram ect. but with a 5770 it rocks out all his lego, pes/fifa and racing games. i'm assuming it is pcie slot
- dreadpiratedan on 26/07/2013 - 12:11
  
  Power supply is good. It came from my actual rig (mentioned in my comment above) and handles some pretty massive overvoltage across cpu, ram, south/northbiridge etc.
  
  Ideally I'd love to get a quad phenom in there (especially if it were a black edition), and a dx11 card - 460, 560, 550ti, 5850, 6850, 5770, 6770 any of thoses. Then at least it should play just about anything as it would be in the same league as my rig. Trouble is the board can't take phenom 2's, and the phenom 1's looks pretty poor. And though it will support the AM2+ chipset, it's got this little clause in there:
  "If you use AM3 / AM2+ CPU on AM2 chipset motherboard, the system bus speed will downgrade from HT3.0 (5200 MT/s) to HT1.0 (2000 MT/s), but the CPU frequency will not be influenced."
  So I guess performance would take a bit of a hit.
  
  CPU support list for the board:
  http://www.asrock.com/mb/NVIDIA/ALiveN570SLI-eSATA2/?cat=CPU
  
  Edit:
  
  something like this looks pretty appealing http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/AMD-Phenom-X4-9850-BE-2-5GHz-AM2-…
  It would just be a matter of trying to re-coupe some of the money loss by flogging off the unused parts on ebay/gumtree lol. Which I'm happy to do. Trying to way up the actual performance benefit the extra 2 cores vs the higher clocks would give is proving a bit tedious though. I'm thinking the e7500 might still be more viable even against a quad phenom given the slower clock, so it would be down to relying on getting a good overclock out of it.
biozet on 26/07/2013 - 12:39

ok i get it now…ty dreadpirate. sounds like you're all over it. enjoy the project
mkerr on 27/07/2013 - 10:15

+1

If you're anywhere near Rockhampton I'll give you my old gaming pc. 560ti. Phenom 945 be.
- aim54x on 31/07/2013 - 12:23
  
  That is a very generous offer!
  - dreadpiratedan on 02/08/2013 - 05:15
    
    I'll say it is! Too bad I don't live anywhere near Rocky :(. Top bloke mkerr, I really appreciate the offer but alas can't access it to accept :p. Thank you anyway though.
ethereal88 on 02/08/2013 - 07:22

-1

Neither. Find a cheap Phenom x4 955/965 online:

$44 for 955: http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/AMD-Phenom-II-X4-955-Black-Editio…

$95 for Asrock Extreme 3, brand new from MSY.

Sell off those parts (except the 4GB DDR3 stick) to cover some of the cost and you are done. The 955 would murder both those CPU options.
- dreadpiratedan on 05/08/2013 - 10:01
  
  Not sure why people negged you cause it is a pretty decent plan. I ended up doing something pretty similar; got another q6600 + ga ep35 ds3P + ram + 4650 + some monster heatsink that looks pretty similar to the one I'm using.
  
  So I'll flog off what I can from those parts to recover the money spent. I've got 3 x e7500 to sell, 2 of which are in working lenovo think centre desktops (with legit windows 7 Professional OEM key). I'll see if anyone will go for them on gumtree for 100-200, they're pretty decent office computers. Then hopefully if there's any spare cash I can replace that 4870 for something better that actually supports dx11. Then done an dusted and he'll hopefully have a pretty sweet rig after all (pretty much my exact rig lol)

Gaming build from old (very old) parts - Advice needed

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