Old PC Upgrades (AMD AM3+)

Alkers

My parents desktop is well old at this stage and has been running very slowly for them.

I'm going to do a fresh windows install for them now but was wondering about whether it would be possible to source some upgrades while I'm at it.

Specs are:

ASUS M5A78l-M LE motherboard

AMD Athlon II X3 450 CPU

4GB RAM @ 1333Mhz

120gb SSD with data on a HDD.

RAM seems easy enough to find 16gb for cheap enough and I'll get a bigger SSD no problem but I'm struggling with sourcing a CPU. I had a quick search on Adverts but didn't find anything. Are there any places you can thing I might source one? Happy with 2nd hand either.

I realsie the system is well dated but they literally just use it for email, browsing and solitaire. I am reluctant to go to the hassle and effort of building a new machine as I haven't done so since I made this pc for them.

Alkers

Someone recommended I try CEX and I managed to find just what I need very inexpensively, worth a shot anyway and hopefully keep the machine going for another few years.

Alkers

Having some isses with this now, turning out to be more work that expected.

I received 16gb of RAM from CEX but the machine will not boot with either one or both modules installed. Nothing happens, fans spin up but nothing is displayed on the screen.

Heres what I orderd:

https://ie.webuy.com/product-detail?id=smem8qaa&categoryName=ddr3-desktop-240-pin&superCatName=computing&title=

This is what I received:

https://www.itcreations.com/product/53669

https://www.memory4less.com/nanya-8gb-ddr3-pc10600-nt8gc72c4ng0nl-cg

That first link there states server ram not desktop, not there's much of a difference that I can see.

Board specs:

https://eu.shi.com/product/30371211/ASUS-M5A78L-M-LEUSB3

It seems unlikely that both chips received are defective but as far as I can see, they should work with the board.

minitrue

I've had it happen before, CEX gave you registered/buffered (generally server) ecc ram and your board only supports non-ECC or unbuffered ECC ram.

ECC Vs non-ECC ddr3 ram is easy to tell apart as the ECC ram has 9 chips instead of 8 but I don't think there is an easy way to just tell if ram is buffered/registered or not by looking at it but your itcreations and memory4less links at least says it is.

Alkers

Thanks for your input, I may get onto cex again so.

There is an ecc setting in the bios, with the following options:

Disabled, basic, good, super, max or user.

If I set it to user I can then set dram ecc to enabled or disabled.

Would this change anything do you think?

Murt2024

It really is end of life. I’d get a dell optiplex for 70 euro off eBay which would have four times the power.

Murt2024

Something like this:

https://www.adverts.ie/desktops/dell-optiplex-3040-micro/32757747

Murt2024

It should have at least a i5-6500 which on cpu benchmark is:

https://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu.php?cpu=Intel+Core+i5-6500+%40+3.20GHz&id=2599

compared to the x3

https://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu.php?cpu=AMD+Athlon+II+X3+450&id=159

You might find a better deal with a 7th gen

Alkers

Thanking you, I managed to pick up an FX8350 from Cex for 40e and swapped the RAM for non ECC and all is well.

https://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu.php?cpu=AMD+FX-8350+Eight-Core&id=1780

Will give it antoher couple of years before I need to replace the machine now

K.O.Kiki

40e for a 12yo CPU is highway robbery 😆

smuggler.ie

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121669911#Comment_121669911

Running FX8350 "black edition" on Sabertooth 990FX since 2013 . No issues. Think will be fine for another few years

Alkers

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121671591#Comment_121671591

Ha yeah the only other one they had for the same socket was 10c, about the same what was in it already.

Just after posting earlier and now the SSD seems to have failed!