Recently while searching through my old computer parts while thinking it’s time to discard some of them or give them away. I came across an ASUS P5Q Pro board with a Core2 Q9550 EO stepping mounted in it. It occurred to me that just because it’s an older part doesn’t mean it’s not still a good performer. It’s just not as good as the new stuff, but then old stuff never is (except me). I remember a time when any builder on the web would’ve loved to have had a Core 2, Q9550 EO. So I decided to build it into system and then decide what I’m going to do with it. To be frank, this will be my fourth old parts build since June, but hey, the previous board I found had a Q9650 in it and it’s working just fine with a copy of Windows 7 installed. So I decided to see if I have the parts to make it happen. I found a box with 14 SATA hard drives in it ranging from 160 GB, 320 GB, to 500 GB. I tested them all and they were all still good. I also found a box of about 30 sticks of RAM and several power supplies (Corsair 750W), Antec EarthWatts 650W, and you get the picture. I have a collection of graphics cards going back to the old Voodoo 3 and 5. I located two EVGA Nvidia GTS 8800s which I used on a “Folding” team to increase our points. I still have a couple of old Cooler Master Cases, so the build was on. The only problem is that all the plastic clips on my older Socket 775 coolers were broken or ready to break. Intel’s decision to use clip on socket 775 coolers was a good idea that was poorly implemented because of the cheap plastic clips. That left me with two choices, either I purchase a new one online, or I find a way to repurpose the old ones, and repurpose it is. Whenever I’ve encountered issues with malfunctioning parts in past builds, I’ve always managed to modify them to work, and more often than not even improve upon them. So I grabbed an old Arctic Freezer Pro 7, cooler, removed the plastic clips, and then searched my nuts and bolts collection for just the right size that would allow me to mount the motherboard without the bolts interfering. It was a bit of a pain in the ass but I found nuts and bolts that would do the job, applied thermal paste, and then carefully mounted it to the board. I have to say that the contact of the CPU and heat sink was a definite improvement over the plastic clips. If anyone has any simple but functional modifications they've made, then why not share it?
& the board can be upgraded to a quad core & 16gigs of ram. https://www.asus.com/Motherboards/P5Q_PRO/specifications/ https://www.asus.com/Motherboards/P5Q_PRO/HelpDesk_CPU/
my 1st intel quad core is the 9450 2.66ghz which is now in the 3rd floor computer as replaced cpu with an i5 4590 3.3ghz with faster ddr3 ram for this computer. both running win7 pro 64bit.
On my last new build I decided to move from Intel to AMD processors. Just about everything these days is more power than most people need. My old Q9650 will perform most tasks with good speed. I still work with a lot of images and video and most of the application used are multi-threaded so I went with an 8 core AMD. The Q9550s was second to only the Q9650 in the Core 2 quad Yorkfield cores, and because it's EO stepping it matches it for overclocking.
I think the decision to build from older parts depend obviously on the parts, but also how it performs. My old parts include a Q9650 and a Q9550s. They don't stack up to the new stuff, but they were great in their day, and they still perform as well now as they did back then. Another reason to build using older parts is that you can install Windows 7 on it which allows you to play some older games, and use any older software that doesn't do well on Windows 10. I would like it if Microsoft would release Windows 7 to open source, but they won't because it would tap into their Windows 10 push.
I think I could've thought a little longer before choosing a topic title. "BUILDING AN OLD PC USING OLD PARTS" I mean how do you build an old PC using new parts?
I never said I was a martyr or wanted to be martyred. I said "you know I have a martyr complex" which of course isn't really true, but it fit the moment. And does one need a cause to become a martyr, or just a moment in time?
I've done so many builds over the last...well more than a few years. Around 2009 a group of about 6 of us formed a folding team. Donald (64026402) and I both built folding farms, and as a result I built several systems. Some with new parts and some with old. We did quite well we first moved into overclocking.net's top 1000, and then we moved into the top 300. We actually beat out some university labs which is really good for 6 guys. I think we ended it in 2010, because the electrical bills were killing us. As a result I ended up with several Core 2 processors including 4 Core 2 Quads such as the Q9650. In 2017 Hurricane Irma passed near where I live, and before taking the power out for a week, it caused electrical surges that took out two of my hard drives in the Q9650 system. So I figured it was time to do a new build, and I shelved the Core 2 quads until now. I still have several more CPUs, boards, box of hard drives, and a box of RAM that are still out of use.
You may know, or not, if you ever want a new, 2021 printer, wi-fi is required. No more USB cords. USB is an option but only after "activating" the printer on a wifi service. Got burned recently thinking all I needed was the cord.
sounds like a damn epson.. have one here.. won't work with the cable at all.. and my router won't play ball.. so one day it's going to get a flying (or falling) lesson down the Aspull pumping shaft.. 1200 feet straight down... I'm sticking with my old dumpster HP Pro that was at the back of one of those high street "we print your pictures" places.. with it's CIS and it's regular "print system failure" hard reset requirement..
