This is the PC I got for free from a friend, is it truly worth keeping?

[TickleMyElmo]

This is the PC my friend gave me for free. Hope this link works. https://h10057.www1.hp.com/ecomcat/hpcatalog/specs/provisioner/05/GC758AV.htm
I was going to put 8gb ram in it and maybe a 250gb ssd. Could always use the ssd in other builds down the line too. Waiting for the rest of my ram to come in the mail. I was planning on using this as a Linux learning machine/backup if if my main dies. Maybe buy a really cheap GPU? What are your guys' opinions. Would an SSD even work on this old thing? Anyways, thanks again guys.

 

[trents]

What CPU does it have? I can't find that info in the information given in the link you provided.

Yes, you can run an SSD on that system. However, you won't see the same read/write disk performance improvement over a conventional hard drive that you would see in a newer system since the CPU and Memory subsytem as well as the older SATA bus will bottleneck to some extent. But it would be a good Linux machine.

 

[TickleMyElmo]

It has a Core 2 Duo E4600 cpu. Could you or someone else provide me with a link on amazon for the best 240/250gb ssd for this under 55.00 please?

 

[Alaric]

Kingston, Adata, Corsair, any of the mainstream brands are good. All will give a big boost in performance, too. Honestly, go for the best price and enjoy. Any SSD and Linux will give you good performance.

 

[mackerel]

It is rather ancient but will still be able to run Linux no problem. Any SSD is a good SSD for that age system. Don't worry about SSD performance, buy the cheapest SSD that's big enough from a brand you like and it'll still outperform any hard disk. Pricing has come back down again so there is plenty of choice. If you add GPU later, check the PSU rating of the system. Quite likely it wont have much power, so you'll probably be looking at the likes of a 1030 GDDR5 or 1050.

 

[ATMINSIDE]

This looks like the best 250 class drive on Amazon under $55
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07573JBW3

 

[wagex]

"It is rather ancient but will still be able to run Linux no problem."
it will run windows 7 just fine too. it's not THAT ancient of hardware. that is exactly what computers were when windows 7 came out lol.

 

[TickleMyElmo]

I ended up getting this one, let's hope it's a good one. https://www.amazon.com/Silicon-Powe...ents=p_n_feature_three_browse-bin:14027458011

 

[TickleMyElmo]

What would be a cheap yet decent gpu for this pc? I think the psu said 350w. Something less than $75.

 

[don256us]

For graphics, it just depends on what you're looking for. I think that for this build, I'd stick with a card that has no power plug requirements. Radeon RX550 or Nvidia 1030 are both options for less than $100. There are even Nvidia 1030's with passive heat sinks if the case has enough air flow.

You can get new GTX 200 series for less than $40 all day long too. All of these prices are "new".

 

[ATMINSIDE]

Grab you one of the 550W PSU's from here, won't find much better quality especially at that pricing.
https://www.overclockers.com/forums...eries-massive-sale-Tier-1-PSUs-budget-pricing

 

[wagex]

for something like that if i recall correctly core 2 duo's started bottle necking gpu's at like a 4870 or 6850? i dont remember off the top of my head.

 

[TickleMyElmo]

Not sure if I could take out this psu without doing damage. I actually think it's welded in there.

- - - Updated - - -

So that would be what in nvidia terms wagex?

 

[ATMINSIDE]

Not sure if I could take out this psu without doing damage. I actually think it's welded in there.

- - - Updated - - -

So that would be what in nvidia terms wagex?

Welding is expensive, I doubt that's how they attached a PSU.
Pictures are worth a thousand words, though.

 

[TickleMyElmo]

I'll try and take some pictures of the whole thing later. It has a huge MB in it. I think a server MB?

 

[wagex]

idk, like a gtx 470 to 570 ish?

 

[don256us]

Nope. I just googled some pics of this machine. I'm standing my ground but adding a low profile requirement for the card. Looks like a proprietary PSU and SoDiMM memory and not much room for any growth what so ever. You can pull the hard drive and install an SSD but you can't *add* a HDD/SSD unless you remove the optical drive. While there are 4- SATA ports, there is no physical room to install additional equipment. If you have the small form factor version.

If you have the mid-tower, you still have some wonky proprietary parts in power supply/mother board connection and mounting points in the case.

I'm going to double down and say go with the cheapest GPU you can find that has no power cable requirements.

 

[mackerel]

"It is rather ancient but will still be able to run Linux no problem."
it will run windows 7 just fine too. it's not THAT ancient of hardware. that is exactly what computers were when windows 7 came out lol.

The CPU was launched in 2007. 10 years is forever in tech. Sure, it still works, but it depends on use cases and expectations what you might do with it. I have a similar spec Dell unit that was being disposed of at work, currently have Win10 on it but I have no need for it... it would be roughly comparable to the ultra-low end of today's offerings, somewhere around the Celeron or Pentium equivalent lines.

What would be a cheap yet decent gpu for this pc? I think the psu said 350w. Something less than $75.

Don't know about pricing where you are, but the nvidia 1030 has been mentioned. If you choose to go this route, be aware there are two versions of the 1030, one with GDDR5 which you want, and one with DDR4 which you don't. At least, not if you care at all about performance.

 

[wagex]

The CPU was launched in 2007. 10 years is forever in tech. Sure, it still works, but it depends on use cases and expectations what you might do with it. I have a similar spec Dell unit that was being disposed of at work, currently have Win10 on it but I have no need for it... it would be roughly comparable to the ultra-low end of today's offerings, somewhere around the Celeron or Pentium equivalent lines.

windows 7 released before any I series of cpu's were launched (besides 1366 but that was way out of reach for most price wise). windows 7 runs fine on core 2 stuff. windows 7 launched in 2009, which is forever ago lol it was designed to be ran on hardware from forever ago.

i have a couple computers still running core 2 cpu's on win7 it works fine with no real slowdowns for general computing or light gaming or playing older games. its really not that crippled of a system that it has to resort to running some light version of linux.

now if it was an old 775 p4... maybe or a 478 cpu... yeah, or just go with xp. even those could run win7 for general computing though.

 

[don256us]

I've not seen any noticeable performance hit going from Win 7 to 8/8.1 or Windows 10. If it's slow on one OS it will be slow on all of those. But with a freebie machine like that, why not play with Linux? Getting started with Linux is way easier than you think and skips Windows all together.