Reviving old PC

[xDeuiii]

Just "found" my old PC case, it was basically under my table, completely neglected it and forgot there's a fried motherboard in there, a working Intel Pentium 4 from my previous PC, the previous CPU's stock cooler, 2 sticks of RAM and an old 530W PSU from Thermaltake(87% Efficiency....). So, here are my questions:

1. How do I check that the cooler still works without actually connecting to my current PC? I'm assuming there's no other way but still, need opinions.

2. How to check what type of RAM they are before I try connecting them to my current PC to check? I can't tell anything from the wordings on the RAM. The RAM probably came alongside the motherboard but the only way to know which MOBO is that is through what's written on it and it says G41-M7. The problem is, there's 2 versions of it when I look up on Google, 6 and 7. V6 supports DDR2 but for V7, when I look up in overview, it says it supports dual channel DDR3 but in its specifications, it says supports only DDR2, dafuq.

3. The PSU fans spin, but how do I assume that this thing is still safe to use, should I take the risk to test? Back in the day, this thing costed $195, so I just can't throw it if it works.

4. Suppose I use this Pentium 4 and the PSU, I complete the PC with a new(obviously generations old) MOBO, HDD, Optical Drive and new RAM, will it be enough to kinda make it an HTPC(Home Theater PC)? I could use a VGA to HDMI cable to hook it up to my TV.

 

[JackNaylorPE]

Just "found" my old PC case, it was basically under my table, completely neglected it and forgot there's a fried motherboard in there, a working Intel Pentium 4 from my previous PC, the previous CPU's stock cooler, 2 sticks of RAM and an old 530W PSU from Thermaltake(87% Efficiency....). So, here are my questions:

1. How do I check that the cooler still works without actually connecting to my current PC? I'm assuming there's no other way but still, need opinions.

2. How to check what type of RAM they are before I try connecting them to my current PC to check? I can't tell anything from the wordings on the RAM. The RAM probably came alongside the motherboard but the only way to know which MOBO is that is through what's written on it and it says G41-M7. The problem is, there's 2 versions of it when I look up on Google, 6 and 7. V6 supports DDR2 but for V7, when I look up in overview, it says it supports dual channel DDR3 but in its specifications, it says supports only DDR2, dafuq.

3. The PSU fans spin, but how do I assume that this thing is still safe to use, should I take the risk to test? Back in the day, this thing costed $195, so I just can't throw it if it works.

4. Suppose I use this Pentium 4 and the PSU, I complete the PC with a new(obviously generations old) MOBO, HDD, Optical Drive and new RAM, will it be enough to kinda make it an HTPC(Home Theater PC)? I could use a VGA to HDMI cable to hook it up to my TV.

1. Connect it to a 12v power source

2. If the system was running, you could run Belarc Advisor, HWiNFO or whatever to get a print out of all hardware and software / OS product keys... typing the model line from the RAM sticker such as "CMK16GX4M2A2133C13" into a web browser should tell you what you need.

3. What is this "thing" ... an air cooler is just a block of meta;l with a fan....a CLC is an assemblage of very cheap components and I would not transfer from an old machine.

4. I'd be hesitant to use a 7 year old PSU

5. Finding a compatible MoBo is likely yo be a challenge

 

[boosted1g]

1) Its a cooler so thermally it is going to work. If you mean the fan then just use a molex to fan adapter and test it with your power supply (you can power on the PSU manually by jumping pin 16 (green wire) with a ground wire in the 20/24pin connector.

2) Take the ram out and google the model number. P4 motherboard would not support ddr3 ram. It is eitehr ddr1 or ddr2. You could also count the actual metal pins on the ram and that would tell you

3) The PSU should work fine for a general build, would not try to put a 450w gaming load on it, but for a 300w load it should be just fine.

4) By HTPC machine do you mean for gaming or for watching movies?
For movies it will be far cheaper and better cpu/graphics to just buy a raspberry pi and load libreelec or other kodi distro on it.
For gaming this is completley insufficient for any 2010 or newer titles.

 

[xDeuiii]

1. How to I connect that to a 12V power source? I don't have any power source that uses the pins of a CPU.

2. Apparently, the sticker is removed or there never was, guess I'll guess connect it to my PC. If it's DDR2, will it work correctly with my DDR3 MOBO?

3. What are you talking about? The thing is the PSU, the PSU costed $195.

4. I am using a cheap PSU(the one with no brands....) on my current PC and it works just fine. The Thermaltake maybe 7 years old but the PSU itself has been used for less years.

5. My country is kinda sluggish in terms of technology, I'll probably get a compatible MOBO.

 

[Martell1977]

Just "found" my old PC case, it was basically under my table, completely neglected it and forgot there's a fried motherboard in there, a working Intel Pentium 4 from my previous PC, the previous CPU's stock cooler, 2 sticks of RAM and an old 530W PSU from Thermaltake(87% Efficiency....). So, here are my questions:

1. How do I check that the cooler still works without actually connecting to my current PC? I'm assuming there's no other way but still, need opinions.

2. How to check what type of RAM they are before I try connecting them to my current PC to check? I can't tell anything from the wordings on the RAM. The RAM probably came alongside the motherboard but the only way to know which MOBO is that is through what's written on it and it says G41-M7. The problem is, there's 2 versions of it when I look up on Google, 6 and 7. V6 supports DDR2 but for V7, when I look up in overview, it says it supports dual channel DDR3 but in its specifications, it says supports only DDR2, dafuq.

3. The PSU fans spin, but how do I assume that this thing is still safe to use, should I take the risk to test? Back in the day, this thing costed $195, so I just can't throw it if it works.

4. Suppose I use this Pentium 4 and the PSU, I complete the PC with a new(obviously generations old) MOBO, HDD, Optical Drive and new RAM, will it be enough to kinda make it an HTPC(Home Theater PC)? I could use a VGA to HDMI cable to hook it up to my TV.

1. You could connect it to a fan header on your motherboard instead of the CPU header, or use a PSU connection directly.

2. You could always look up the model of the CPU and see what RAM is is compatible with. There were some motherboards out there that had DDR2 and DDR3 RAM slots, but could only use one or the other. DDR2 and DDR3 are not compatible and wont fit into the same RAM slots.

3. As the other poster said, I wouldn't trust a old PSU like that. unless you know the specifics of how the motherboard died, it's possible the PSU was faulty and did it in.

4. A P4 isn't really good for much of anything anymore and wasn't exactly great in its day. If you are going to get a new motherboard, spring for a little more and get a Core 2 Quad. You can get a Q9550 or Q9400 rather cheap on eBay, plus some DDR2 as well. That's what I did. You can get a new PSU for fairly cheap as well, especially if it's on sale at newegg.

 

[boosted1g]

Agreed that putting any money into reviving p4 hardware is a waste when core2 generation hardware is near the same price

 

[King_V]

I would say it's probably easier to find an equivalent system being thrown out or sold dirt cheap.

If you revive it, it might do the basics of home theater work, but that's about it. I have a working 2.8GHz P4 system that I installed Linux on. Some web pages were just fine, but anything that had small videos or whatever running as advertisements in the corners would cause the cooling fans to roar like a jet engine, and bring it to its knees, taking several seconds to simply respond to a single keystroke (say, scrolling, or pageup/pagedown).

Might be fun to play with for some extremely simple tasks, or maybe retro-gaming, but that's about it.