Upgrading old rig using RX480

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ali99__

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Jul 17, 2016
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hello again!

Yesterday, we were allowed to open and dissemble the computer in our computer lab and clean it and assemble it again, it was a kind of practical as well a good habit to teach students..the pc specs were:

hp elite pc

intel i5 2500

8 gb ddr3

hp mobo with an extremely stable BIOS

cd rom.

supports USB 3.0

1tb hhd

i was quite supriwsed that it was powerful punch....i have never before checked its hardware via device manager....i was trule surprised...

after completing the practical i asked my teach the price of this pc...he said it retails about 108.89 US Dollar (400 AED)

i was shocked...this pc...a quad core legend....clocked at 3.2GHZ for 109$ was AMAZING...

i went to the local markets and confirmed and bargained a little...the retailer,for the same model agreed on 95.28 US Dollar
i was like OMG OMG OMG OMG.....!!!!

i sat for a moment and thought this to be my future build rather than that dual core i3 :p (i3 6100)

the power supply didnt had a 6 pin pcie power connecter...but no beggie...i can easily manage a new psu for the rx 480....

so... conclusion...

an i5 2500
with a rx 480 8gig
with 8 gb ddr3 memory
with a cd rom
with a stable mobo
with hp smart care services..
...and ofc warranty,,,
for less than 400$....

what do u think..?
at least its better than those i3s...
 
Solution
mitch074


No - it needs to be plugged in, including the external power connector, to be detected. The closest you'd come to this is if you had an external enclosure for graphics card with the card plugged in, and connecting it to the tested system - but even then that wouldn't give you any indication about compatibility as the PCI-e bus wouldn't be the one the card would connect to. PCI-e isn't exactly hot-swappable.
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mitch074

mitch074

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Mar 17, 2006
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The processor seems to still be good for a little while, and shouldn't bottleneck the GPU too much (except in high framerates). I would suggest throwing a small SSD in it for the system to be really enjoyable. If it's for gaming, you're pretty much set - you might want to see if you can't increase the RAM to 16 Gb.
 
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konius

konius

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Oct 8, 2016
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+ the i3 6100 is surely faster than the i5 2500
 
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RobCrezz

RobCrezz

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Mar 14, 2013
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Single thread yeah, 4 threads probably not.
 
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ali99__

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Jul 17, 2016
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what do u mean the bios wont support? kindly give more details..i know tech but never upgraded an old pc like this before..also im sure that if it support usb 3.0 ..it would support new cards..its not really that old...


also the i5 2500 is much better than the dual core i3 6100...like srsly dual core??

quad core is the future..
 
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mitch074

mitch074

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Well, a recent i3 will have better performance in single thread - usually, the main bottleneck is the GPU driver's thread (in DX11 games mainly, and most DX12 games that are merely 'DX11 with croutons'). So, you may be bottlenecked in some games that can't go past a certain fps rate. If your screen can't do more than 60fps, you don't care about it anyway.
Current CPU-heavy games can make full use of a real quad core, and those games will run better on an old i5 than a recent i3.

Long story short, your i5 will not have the same top performance a recent i3 can give you but it will provide a smoother experience.

About the card running on that motherboard, it's unlikely you'll have compatibility problems - at worst you can enable "compatibility mode" in the driver to make sure it doesn't pull more power through the PCIe port than it can handle.

The PSU is, indeed, a concern: you need a 500-550W with such a rig to run stable. You can find one for 50 bucks though.

You could also wait a few months for the lower-tiered Ryzen CPUs to come out and get a R3 or R5 - it WILL cost more than your i5, but not THAT much.
 
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RobCrezz

RobCrezz

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Hps bios often dont allow some of the newer cards to work
 
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ali99__

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Jul 17, 2016
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hmm...should i do it then?

..well...its seems ok to me....

im thinking to get the rx 480 before the pc, i would try to configure that in the shop by placing it in the pci slot....

btw// is there any way to...u know,, see if the card is detected without giving the power to the card but putting it on the pcie?
 
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mitch074

mitch074

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Mar 17, 2006
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No - it needs to be plugged in, including the external power connector, to be detected. The closest you'd come to this is if you had an external enclosure for graphics card with the card plugged in, and connecting it to the tested system - but even then that wouldn't give you any indication about compatibility as the PCI-e bus wouldn't be the one the card would connect to. PCI-e isn't exactly hot-swappable.
 
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