Frankenstein Computer Build - Non-Gaming PC with Old Parts

• 

  randomusername2017 on 21/08/2021 - 01:01

  (Stuff that has to go)
  i7-920 2.66Ghz / 12GB ram / some gigabyte board
  GeForce GT 730
  Antec P160 ATX case (BLING!)
  650W Zalman ZM650-XG Goldrock PSU

• 

  scrimshaw on 21/08/2021 - 01:05

  +5

  For onboard GPU support you'll need to buy a Ryzen 5600G (6-core) not the 5600x. Only the "g" series of Ryzens have a built in graphics processor

  MSI MAG B550 seems like a decent budget choice, it has HDMI 2.1 + DisplayPort. Currently $199 from SE

  Brand of RAM not that important. 3600mhz RAM CL16 memory is a good starting point.

  Power supply will have enough headroom but it does look like it's due for a replacement pretty soon. You know it's old when it still has a cable for floppy drive… replacing it with a newer model won't improve performance but it could be quieter (fan bearings will wear out after many years)

  Computer case — since your case is from 2004 and is older than dirt, you won't have front panel USB3 and the insides are probably much harder to cable manage than modern cases. I would upgrade it not just for the looks but also for quality of life improvements like removable dust filters (easy to clean), native 2.5" SSD drive mounting, tool-less drive mounts for easy installation of drives etc.

  • 

    leyton01 on 21/08/2021 - 01:47

    +2

    Good to know on the G vs X - that would have been a disappointing surprise.

    I thought the same in the PSU - pretty sure Zalman don't even exist any more, at least not in Australia. I might leave this with the old PC parts - 650W again?

    The case is actually something I don't mind keeping both for nostalgia, cost and the fact it is actually very functional - yes it is missing the USB3 but I have a hub on my desk. The case has removable dust filters, removable drive mounts (with my 2*2.5" drives already in there), decent space and cable management - even a removable mobo mounting plate.

    • 

      leyton01 on 21/08/2021 - 02:03

      Plus it's $100 saving I can spend elsewhere I suppose.

    • 

      tebbybabes on 21/08/2021 - 12:14

      I know that case. I like it too. I'd keep using it primarily because you can still work around all of it's cons.

      The only reason I migrated out of my decades old case was because it wouldn't fit in the cubby of my new desk.

• 

  garetz on 21/08/2021 - 02:13

  +3

  I would not trust a power supply that old for a new build, it has a very high chance of exploding sooner rather than later.

  the only things i would keep is the
  Samsung 860 EVO 500GB - primary drive
  Samsung 840 EVO 1TB

• 

  Hybroid on 21/08/2021 - 02:22

  +1

  5600x does not have an integrated GPU so you'll need a dedicated card. Also replace the PSU.

  • 

    leyton01 on 21/08/2021 - 19:11

    Thanks - noted.

• 

  deeeno on 21/08/2021 - 02:25

  I recently bought a whole bunch of computer parts to upgrade from an i5-4450 build using the afterpay ebay sale but my use case is slightly different since it is for gaming, anyway the build I ended up putting together is:

  CPU - Ryzen 5600x (as scrimshaw noted you probably want the G variant for onboard GPU) - ~$340, Ebay15% off + discount g/cs
  CPU Fan - Noctua U12S ~$77 - Newegg
  M/B - MSI B450M Mortar Max ~$75 - Ebay
  Memory - 32gb G.Skill Aegis ~ $191 - Ebay
  PSU - Thermaltake GF1 750w ~$120 - Centrecom sale (now over)

  Will be using my existing 1080 GTX until GPU prices become normal… maybe next year? Using the ebay / afterpay combo as well I took advantage of the $30 referral codes between family members, I haven't included this above but you could take $30 off each ebay purchase (potentially get a referral for yourself, then refer your wife and both of you get $30, again).

  Another thing on mobos, do you want something with inbuilt wifi + bluetooth? Once again scrimshaw's recommendation is a good one but you do pay a $60+ premium for that inbuilt, MSI also have a promotion right now where certain models (B550 and higher) come with steam gift cards, may or may not be useful for you. Another no frills $163 option here. Take 15% off with afterpay promo.

  On the CPU fan, gaming makes things hot so I've already ditched the default. If you're not running CPU intensive tasks you might be okay with the stock cooler but I'm probably not helpful here since I'm not using stock at all.

  Already the parts above are less than $1k, cooler optional and I question whether you need more than 16gb of RAM if not gaming / VM / video related tasks. Difference could go that mobo with wifi + bluetooth and spare/new PSU.

  Also, I'm not planning to reinstall windows 10, firstly I'm lazy but also random browsing on reddit suggests just putting the old boot drive into the new system and seeing if windows 10 can handle the change in hardware. There's also some windows 10 activation you should preplan for, so read ahead before upgrading and always make a back up of important files!

  Also, do not go past https://au.pcpartpicker.com/, such a useful website for designing PC builds.

  • 

    leyton01 on 21/08/2021 - 19:15

    Looks like MSI is a good choice.

    re Mobos - definitely don't need wifi, main PC is always wired. Bluetooth would be nice but haven't needed it so far. You don't need it until you do I suppose.

    I suppose I can always ditch the stock fan it if it annoying. Good news on the windows 10 front!

• 

  PeeTeeJay on 21/08/2021 - 09:30

  Hello, I build frankenstein PCs from old broken PCs all the time. It is pretty fun, but can be time consuming when things don't go your way! I literally have 6 Frankenstein PC's from maybe 10 broken PCs.

  Firstly, you mention you use stuff like Adobe Photoshop, CAD, etc, so even though you aren't using it for gaming, it still needs to be a decent PC and graphics card.

  So you are right that the old stuff inside has to go, and stuff you can still reuse are the hard drives, the case, and possibly the PSU. But as some people have pointed out, PSUs literally age and die over time. They get weaker over time. So my suggestion is to also get a new PSU.

  Case and hard drives aside, you're practically making a new pc, so why not just keep the old PC as a spare somewhere, and keep the 500GB drive inside. The 500GB is barely any faster than the 1TB, so I would partition the 1TB in your new comp to have something like 500GB for windows/boot, and 500GB for files/saves/documents, etc. That way you can format the windows drive and never touch your files/saves/documents.

  The OS will cost you (unless you're using a previous key…)
  If the OS is sorted, the 1k budget is pretty decent. 200ish for motherboard, 300ish for CPU. 300ish for GPU, 125ish for Ram (you could buy 8GB and then just add more in the future, if you wanna cut down on price here), 150ish for PSU. You are just really really unfortunately that you wanted to build a new PC when prices are at their highest haha. Had you decided to do this 2 years ago, the exact same parts today, were cheaper 2 years ago!

  So you just gotta decide if you wanna go down the Intel motherboard route, or the AMD motherboard route. Personally, I am an Intel guy, but there is a war between the two, and both sides will say one is better than the other! Same with brands. I am a Gigabyte/Kingston/Corsair guy, and that is just me.

  But in your position I would…($1115 total)
  Motherboard - 249 - Gigabyte Intel Z590 UD AC LGA1200 ATX Desktop Motherboard
  CPU - 269 - Intel 10th Gen Core i5-10400 Desktop Processor
  GPU - 339 - Gigabyte GeForce GTX 1650 OC 4GB GDDR6 Graphics Card
  RAM - 139 - Kingston HyperX Fury 16GB (8GBx2) 3200MHz DDR4 Desktop RAM - Black
  PSU - 119 - Corsair CX650M 650W 80 Plus Bronze Semi-Modular Power Supply

  I strongly wait for a sale, because these are all practically full price. You'll see these parts on OZBargain all the time! You could even use your old GPU and RAM until a sale comes. Motherboards and CPUs are a pain to change, so consider just buying the Motherboard, CPU, and PSU for now, until prices drop (IF THEY DO!), or wait for black friday/cyber monday sales. And then just wait for the GPU, RAM, and maybe a faster HDD when the sale hits!

  (for reference, one of my frankenstein PCs is…Gigabyte B75M-D3H, Intel G2120, GTX460, 8GB 1333, 500GB SAtA HDD! And I use it for a lot of server related stuff haha. And the case cost me $2 during some weird stock clearance sale)

  • 

    leyton01 on 21/08/2021 - 19:18

    Yes I am thinking of keeping the old 500Gb in the previous PC and getting another SSD so I can do a slow change over if there are any disasters. I have another old case I can use and will transplant the guts into that.

    The GPU looks good - I can probably wait and see the performance and upgrade if prices ever come down.

• 

  ShannonN on 21/08/2021 - 11:15

  Give the wife the computer and buy a new budget one with o/b graphics

  • 

    leyton01 on 21/08/2021 - 19:19

    Hey wife - I bought a new computer, here is the old one! Hmm that might not play that well ;)

    • 

      ShannonN on 22/08/2021 - 09:09

      Perhaps but if wife is already using this system which copes with the multiple tab webpages what's the problem, it meets her needs perfectly as is, Where the programs you wish to run need a bit more oompf

      Mind you there are many alternatives to the Adobe stuff that are cheaper and work better on medium powered systems. Look at Affinity range of stuff

• 

  TheBird on 21/08/2021 - 11:16

  +1

  A big part of the whole thing is if you're doing this all yourself or whether you're taking it to a computer guy/shop to get done. If you're doing it yourself, you don't have to worry about the labour cost when things fail.

  I assume the case is fine as it is ATX.

  Sure.

  If I don't get another PSU will the old one have enough grunt?

  New computers are using less power than older computers. It's the new video cards that are drawing heaps more power.

  CPU cooling with the stock cooler - good enough if not overclocking? Quiet?

  I'm relatively clueless in the AMD side of things, so I don't know if that CPU would last you that long and I don't know AMD stock coolders.

  You'd have to define quiet. I'm used to near silent, so stock coolers drive me nuts. It depends on you, but good quiet cooling systems cost a fair bit to put together, depending on how hard they'll be running. On my systems, they tend to add about $300 to $400 to the cost. If that's worth it to you, go for it.

  I have managed to avoid reinstalling Windows for the last 10 years - wish me luck.

  err… good luck.

  I would not trust a power supply that old for a new build, it has a very high chance of exploding sooner rather than later.

  While this is possible, it's unlikely. Older power supplies can fail, sometimes intermittendly. Personally, I tend to upgrade the power supply with each upgrade, but it does depend on how it's going and how important stability in the system is to me at the time. Sometimes I don't care, other times it's critical.

  Another point, if you're buying to last another 10 years, it might be worth investing in a decent system.

  Last point, technically, you can reuse your video card. It's not very good, most on board video cards are better than it… but buying a decent video card at the moment is an expensive proposition. If I were you, I'd get a CPU that has onboard video.

  • 

    leyton01 on 21/08/2021 - 19:41

    I can build it myself which saves a bit. Used to build them for a living before I moved on - as long as they haven't changed too much.

    Re: cooler - back in the day one or two stock coolers would be screamers and need to be replaced immediately. As long as the noise is not widely regarded as an issue I should be OK.

    I think I would go onboard video with a view to upgrade to a card in the future. I assume the 5600G and most mobos with onboard video (is it on the CPUs now) will be able to be disabled once a GPU goes in?

    I think I will replace PSU.

    • 

      TheBird on 21/08/2021 - 20:59

      Used to build them for a living before I moved on - as long as they haven't changed too much.

      They've changed a fair bit from when I originally learned hardware. In the last 10 years, is has changed a little bit, but I'd say, most of it won't be for areas you care about.

      I think I would go onboard video with a view to upgrade to a card in the future. I assume the 5600G and most mobos with onboard video (is it on the CPUs now) will be able to be disabled once a GPU goes in?

      From my understanding, it's on the CPU. It just passes through the motherboard to the external ports.

      I don't know how it is with AMD, but with Intel, if you install a GPU, both are enabled and work at the same time.

• 

  kusama on 21/08/2021 - 14:36

  I just bought a lot of parts for a new computer
  For ram I went F4-3600C16D-32GTZNC Trident Z Neo. It's 3600, with latency 16.

  You can get really stuck researching ram and everything else!

  SSDs will be ok to run, but think about purchasing something like a 980 Pro NVME M.2
  New generation really fast hard drives.

  • 

    leyton01 on 21/08/2021 - 19:44

    Thanks for the tip. It was daunting looking at the RAM page.

    I might go with the NVME and leave the primary drive with the old PC.

• 

  leyton01 on 21/08/2021 - 20:04

  OK so this is what I am looking at (ignore vendors)
  PCPartPicker Part List

  Type	Item	Price
  CPU	AMD Ryzen 5 5600G 3.9 GHz 6-Core Processor	$399.00 @ Centre Com
  Motherboard	MSI MAG B550 TOMAHAWK ATX AM4 Motherboard	$199.00 @ Centre Com
  Memory	G.Skill Trident Z Neo 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3600 CL18 Memory	$159.00 @ Umart
  Storage	Samsung 980 Pro 500 GB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive	$159.00 @ BPC Technology
  Power Supply	Corsair RM (2019) 750 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply	$139.00 @ I-Tech
  	Total	$1055.00

  Reuse:
  1TB HDD as storage.
  Glorious P160 case.

  Possible future upgrades:
  CPU cooler.
  GPU.

• 

  leyton01 on 21/08/2021 - 20:16

  The final questions before pulling the trigger:

  Mobo - can't see a lot of difference between the boards (Tomahawk, Mortar etc) other than the form factor - is the Tomahawk a good choice?

  Also mobo - is it worth the upgrade to a X570 chipset? The MSI Gaming Plus is +$40. edit looks like crappier network and no display port for the second monitor. The X570 Q still stands especially with the 980 Pro usage.

  To make this build last a bit longer is the Ryzen 7 5700G worth the +$150?

  • 

    TheBird on 21/08/2021 - 21:22

    Can't help you with the motherboard.

    From the 5600g to the 5700g seems to be about a 20% performance boost. That increase is about 1.5 more power than your current CPU. That's assuming you're pushing all the cores hard. Personally, I'd go for something like the 5900x. It's double the price, but it's also double the cpu power. So long as the computer physically lasts, it'll handle your needs for longer. Even a 3900x. It's about 1.6x on the power.

    Photoshop wouldn't care. As for Cad programs.. I don't know they run with multiple cores. I assume they'd use them all well.

    So you have the information at hand so you can make that decision based on what you see are your needs. It might even be worth waiting until the new Intel i7-12700k comes out later this year before pulling the trigger either way.

    It's hard for others to predict your future needs. Computers have come a long way in the last few years and it's looking like the 4 to 5 years are going to see some drastic improvements in CPU speeds. The video card market also looks to heat up in the next few years, but only time will tell.

  • 

    scrimshaw on 21/08/2021 - 23:21

    The x570 chipset simply gives you more PCIE lanes to work with compared to b550 chipset.

    More PCIE lanes = more available bandwidth = more likely the board will have a greater number of fast USB ports and multiple NVME m2 slots.

    You'll notice many B550 boards are still rocking old-skool USB 2.0 ports on the back, that's not them trying to be cheap, it's due to the lack of available PCIE lanes that connect them.

    Some boards also even disable a couple of SATA ports when you fill in an NVME slot.

    If you think you can make full use of those extra pcie lanes and want to connect all sorts of fast storage to your computer then yeah, consider spending more on the motherboard. And before buying any motherboard make sure you read the specifications properly to see it has all the Video output ports and special USB ports that you need for external storage.

• 

  jmac314 on 21/08/2021 - 22:20

  I agree with everyone else that you should change the PSU, my current build is from 2011-12 and my PSU just carked it the other week. Personally I would also buy a new case for quality of life things espescially if you're looking to buy a GPU down the line. Stock CPU cooler should be fine with your requirements.

• 

  leyton01 on 22/08/2021 - 18:52

  OK I went down the RAM rabbit hole but not too far.

  Final selection is the RAM - from the stores I am looking at there is:
  16GB DDR4 G.Skill (2x8GB) 3600MHz Ripjaws V RAM Kit

  F4-3600C16D-16GVKC Or
  F4-3600C18D-16GVK

  For the same price ($149 less 15%).

  The difference will no doubt be miniscule if at all but which is considered superior?

  • 

    kusama on 22/08/2021 - 19:50

    Have you found B dies in the hole yet?
    Edit: search shows that may be the difference between the two.. they have slightly different latency timings.

    I can’t help too much as I’ve already forgotten most of what I read, I stopped at 3600/16 is generally good ram but some ram is better to tweak.

    Whirlpool will be able to help more. 1 thing I noticed is 4400mhz is more common on 8GB sticks and in the wiki there some are picked that you might want. I went with 16GB sticks as I may expand for virtual machines.

    https://whirlpool.net.au/wiki/rmp_sg_whirlpoolpcs_gaming_con…

    • 

      leyton01 on 22/08/2021 - 20:09

      Don't really want to tweak - just plug in and have it stable and quick. I assume they are much of a muchness.

• 

  leyton01 on 22/08/2021 - 23:20

  +1

  Ok I ended up with:

  Ryzen 7 5700G
  MSI B550 tomahawk
  980 Pro 500gb
  Corsair RM750x PSU
  Ripjaws V 16gb 3600-16

  Cost me about $1180 after discounts.
  Happy to spend this considering my original budget did not have an SSD and PSU. I squeezed in higher CPU as well.

  Thanks everyone for their help!!