Davros Fuentes DuWah

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Sep 28, 2011
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I recently got given a desktop PC ASRock 775i65G with an Intel Celeron 336 2.8GhZ, 2Gb of DDR Ram with a AGP 8x slot and thought about giving it a boost to have as a respectable backup for applications like adobe Lightroom, Photoshop CS5, ZBrush and some late 2000's games and the rest. I understand the motherboard is considered pretty much obsolete since there is no PCI-e slot but I was thinking about installing both a CPU and GPU and throwing around £80-100 ($125-155) into it. I'd like to see how far I could take it for that money if possible, since I'm not sure it's worth expending any more into an outdated board (for me at this point anyway).

I'm a bit new to this and incorrectly assumed AGP cards would be significantly reduced in cost when I began hunting around and I'm not versed as a scratch PC builder (more of an off the shelf individual) but I've had the panels off previous machines replacing RAM and HDD'S etc over the years enough so I'm not put off at poking around inside plus I've had an enjoyable learning curve the past couple of days becoming familiar with such things. Prices seem to vary on Ebay and I'm not precisely sure what to expect for what.

I've been looking here for appropriate CPU models www.cpu-upgrade.com/mb-ASRock/775i65G.html and on NewEgg for AGP cards.

Any CPU/Card recommendation/combinations?

Also, the current power supply is 400W. Hope I've provided enough info.

Cheers.
 

clutchc

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If you have any desire to game with a computer, I'm afraid there's not much you can do to it to make it Game-ready for modern games. Yes, the AGP slot is way obsolete, but what's worse... the AGP technology stopped about the time they died out. Give some thought to putting together a home-built sustem. Maybe you can use the case and PSU if it has a 24 pin motherboard connector.
 

Davros Fuentes DuWah

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Sep 28, 2011
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In terms of gaming, I'm not too bothered about it being game ready for current modern titles such as Skyrim maxed out and what not, I have a main PC I think I can upgrade for that in the future if I wanted, titles I used to play such as Bioshock or Gears of War would be fine for such stuff (I'm not a very current gamer anyway to be honest). The decision is either spending around £80-100 on it as pretty much a one time upgrade as a backup machine for work related activities with Lightroom and CS5 etc or beginning with a new motherboard which might mean new DDR2/3 RAM and perhaps a new PSU on top of the processor/fan and a PCI-e card for it then it begins to add up and seems a less appealing venture. I'd probably leave this machine at my brother's and use it away from home when I stay with him. Hmmm, like I said I'm still learning about this and I'm thinking you're probably right that putting together a new build with the money is better, especially in the long run.

Just as an example of what's in my tabs currently are a Core 2 Duo E6600 2.40GHz £35.00 and an
AGP nVIDIA GeForce 7950GT 512mb £65. Shame the board doesn't have a PCI-e slot, but then again I got it for the cost of a few pints!

Cheers for the reply.