Grant Fondo
Guru
- Location
- Cheshire
Later than I thought! Mighty 8800GT and AMD X2 6000+ putting it 2007/8 I think but does have a 2004 dated HDD. Windows Vista era? Time to fettle and spark up.
PC fettling and repairs thread
- Thread starter DCBassman
- Start date
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Later than I thought! Mighty 8800GT and AMD X2 6000+ putting it 2007/8 I think but does have a 2004 dated HDD. Windows Vista era? Time to fettle and spark up.
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DCBassman
Guru
- Location
- The lumpy far South West
What are you all using these super-PCs for?
My 5 year old laptop is powerful enough to do everything that I currently want to do. The music software that I have (FL Studio) can do way more complex stuff than I'd ever want it to.
Even the most powerful machine I have here (and it is pretty meaty, even by today's standards) is around a decade old. Donated by my younger son, who is a gamer, and only replaced by new stuff early in this new year. That's how powerful it is, although I don't have the monster graphics card that went with it.
Core i7-3820, 32GB RAM - this one - Win 10, monster Corsair monolith case, CPU is water cooled.
Core i7-2600K, 8GB RAM, Win 11 (the P8H61m-LX small form factor box).
Core 2 Duo T9550, 8GB RAM, Win 10, laptop
Core 2 Duo T7200, 3GB RAM, Win 8.1, laptop
Celeron N3050, 2GB RAM, Win 10, netbook, really.
The Celeron is under 5 years old, and is by far the weediest of the lot, but very small, convenient, and with a touch screen. Everything else is, by PC standards, antique...
That would make a pretty unstoppable general-purpose PC with an SSD upfront.
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DCBassman
Guru
- Location
- The lumpy far South West
In fact, the snappiest of those on my list, in general terms, is the SFF box, using the iGPU.
The massive box uses a relatively lowly GT 1030. And that is around 135% pokier than the 8800GT!
The massive box uses a relatively lowly GT 1030. And that is around 135% pokier than the 8800GT!
ColinJ
Puzzle game procrastinator!
- Location
- Todmorden - Yorks/Lancs border
Maybe I wasn't paying enough attention - they all sounded super-powerful! 
My laptop has a 2.2 GHz i7-6560U CPU. Only 8 GB RAM and that is not upgradeable. The SSD is 256 GB and is currently only about 50% full but at some point I may put a faster 1-2 TB SSD in.
It's a pity that I can't put more memory in, but so far it has not been a big issue.
My laptop has a 2.2 GHz i7-6560U CPU. Only 8 GB RAM and that is not upgradeable. The SSD is 256 GB and is currently only about 50% full but at some point I may put a faster 1-2 TB SSD in.
It's a pity that I can't put more memory in, but so far it has not been a big issue.
GuyBoden
Guru
- Location
- Warrington
Linux will run on any 64bit computer, Windows wastes all that power with it's inefficient software.
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DCBassman
Guru
- Location
- The lumpy far South West
I want to agree with this, but having used that SFF box with many different Linux flavours over the past year, the snappiest response is Windows 11, by some distance. And I really did NOT expect that...
fossyant
Ride It Like You Stole It!
- Location
- South Manchester
[/QUOTE]What are you all using these super-PCs for?
Nothing beats bringing old kit back to life and keeping the cash out of Currys pocket!
Unfortunately, trying to play modern games at 4K needs proper graphics grunt, even quality 3 year old kit just won't cut it, alas.
99% of the time it's social media battering, then they may game..... my kids are prime examples....
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DCBassman
Guru
- Location
- The lumpy far South West
And so will Windows. There's no point whatsoever bothering to choose between 32 or 64 bit for anything that has less that 3GB of RAM. Use whichever, it won't make a difference. 4GB and over, then 64-bit every time.
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DCBassman
Guru
- Location
- The lumpy far South West
In my mind, games have not got significantly better since Unreal Tournament GOTY 1999. Graphics-wise, massively, but otherwise? Same old, same old...
And my Core 2 Duo T7200 laptop can handle that, easily.
fossyant
Ride It Like You Stole It!
- Location
- South Manchester
I'm sat here on an older i7 4700 series laptop with 16gb ram, 1TB SSD and a 1TB HDD and Nvidia graphics 
It was a gaming laptop I got for my son when he was diagnosed as a T1 diabetic at 14 (7 years ago), massive shock, so I went and got it for him. I've now inherited it. Fab laptop, and has a fab 17.3" screen for my poor eyesight..
It was a gaming laptop I got for my son when he was diagnosed as a T1 diabetic at 14 (7 years ago), massive shock, so I went and got it for him. I've now inherited it. Fab laptop, and has a fab 17.3" screen for my poor eyesight..
MontyVeda
a short-tempered ill-controlled small-minded troll
- Location
- Lancaster... the little city.
I've just stumbled across what might be the h****t debate of the computing world.... does it matter which thermal paste/gunk is used between the CPU and cooler? some say it does, it really really does. some say it don't. There's only one way to settle it... ask a cyclist!
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DCBassman
Guru
- Location
- The lumpy far South West
Unless you are a fanatic gamer or do something else that canes the CPU, no, it doesn't matter. Get a tube of Arctic Silver 5, cheap and more than good enough.
MontyVeda
a short-tempered ill-controlled small-minded troll
- Location
- Lancaster... the little city.
cheap?! it's over a fiver on fleabay. I was looking at the arctic white stuff at 99p
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DCBassman
Guru
- Location
- The lumpy far South West
Yup, that'll do!cheap?! it's over a fiver on fleabay. I was looking at the arctic white stuff at 99p
fossyant
Ride It Like You Stole It!
- Location
- South Manchester
PS my lad's just got a job with a Utility Company doing PC/Server/Printer/cables etc support job - loves it. He's travelling about in a nice VW Caddy company vehicle fixing issues on their sites. Better than the last jobs that were call centre based (soul destroying). He's loving it.. Fingers double crossed he passes
