Personal computing discussed
Moderators: renee, Flying Fox, Thresher
jstern wrote:Radeon 5450 GPU for $80
DPete27 wrote:jstern wrote:Radeon 5450 GPU for $80
WHAT!!!? I think you should run EVERYTHING by the TR gerbils before making any more purchases. A 5450 is worth $10 at best. Anything with a Core2 Duo is going to have PCI express, DDR2, and SATA.
Take pictures of the current system and new mobo/CPU and post them in this thread.
DPete27 wrote:jstern wrote:Radeon 5450 GPU for $80
WHAT!!!? I think you should run EVERYTHING by the TR gerbils before making any more purchases. A 5450 is worth $10 at best. Anything with a Core2 Duo is going to have PCI express, DDR2, and SATA.
Take pictures of the current system and new mobo/CPU and post them in this thread.
videobits wrote:re: PCI graphics card
The PCI interface probably won't allow the GPU to work to its full potential. These cards are sold because sometimes you've got a legacy system that you must keep running for whatever reason.
Now...about the path you are going down.....
My two cents is that trying to repurpose anything from a ten year old computer is probably not cost effective or wise. And looking at that video you posted shows a tiny little case with a small power supply that may not be standard sized.
You mentioned it is for your mother, so my guess it she wants to surf the web, facebook, and email. Simple tasks.
This is what I would look at:
http://www.microcenter.com/product/4177 ... efurbished
$120 with Win 7 already installed and running. And that was just one example I saw, but you plunk down a few bucks and pull a working system out of a box. If you can return that $80 card you are well on your way.
Good luck
jstern wrote:Just blew it
jstern wrote:It is a "challenge that will get you money back, so why not? You were charged $80. Minus restocking and shipping that's what, $40 that you are getting back? So instead of "losing" the whole $80 you can recoup half of it to waste on something else.Yeah, it is a waste of money trying to bring life back to a really old computer. And I should probably return the GPU back, though I feel bad for newegg having to pay the shipping. But it's about the challenge in a way.
jstern wrote:It's dead (in terms of updating it), Jim.It kind of defeats the purpose of pumping new life into the Pentium 4 since I'm replacing the main components.
End User wrote:jstern wrote:Just blew it
lol
jstern wrote:Not a bad price, but the Pentium 4 won't get thrown out even though it has been on used, un plugged since 2009. So that's why I'm trying upgrade it.
It only had 256mb of ram, so they thought it was broken because it ran so slow. The Pentium 4 is actually powerful enough to surf the web and for the computer to run smoothly, just needs a video card for videos and flash videos.
Flying Fox wrote:The problem is the Pentium 4 is so ancient in computer terms that any attempts to upgrade it with "new" components is going to be not worth it in terms of ROI. Not even charitable organizations may take donation of your "old but you think it is still worth something" computer. Granted it is not getting so low as CRTs yet (even putting it out on the streets for free there may not even be takers).
jstern wrote:I should mention that she does have a Toshiba Satellite core 2 duo laptop from 2009, with a bad battery. Hopefully she will now use the Pentium 4, rather than just having it there unplugged.
just brew it! wrote:Installing Windows from an image may cause problems if the image was from a radically different system. (This was a serious problem in the XP days, it is much better now but I'm not sure if it is completely fixed in Win7.)
just brew it! wrote:Should not be any special drivers required for the PCI slots. Check Device Manager and see if there are any errors.
Are you getting an error message when you try to start the Catalyst tool?
Installing Windows from an image may cause problems if the image was from a radically different system. (This was a serious problem in the XP days, it is much better now but I'm not sure if it is completely fixed in Win7.)