r/lowendgaming • u/Gold-Agent24k • 3d ago
Parts Upgrade Advice Hi guys as you know it's really expensive nowadays to build a pc so I asked one of my friends to lend me their old pc for basic use like Web surfing, editing videos on capcut and some older or emulator games. He send me the pic of the motherboard and you can pretty much guess it's specs by looking a
It seems like it's core 2 quad, he did say he was using win 10 in it, it might have 2gb or 4gb ram I would need to upgrade it to its max 8gb and for WiFi I do have a USB receiver and yes I also need to add a graphics card in this as the motherboard only have vga, thinking about 1050ti but the version I saw on FB have a 6 pin power connector, maybe I need to upgrade the PSU too? Suggest me your thoughts. I don't need a powerful pc as I was using win 7 for years. Motherboard is ASROCK GM41S
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u/Ninja_Weedle 3d ago
that's a lot to invest into an incredibly old machine (~20 years!). Core2Quads lack the CPU instructions to even run Windows 11, Capcut's gonna be pretty rough on it. Don't dump any money into the thing, use it as is or buy an optiplex. you can get i5-6500/6600/7500 machines for like ~40$ these days with 8GB DDR4 that you can just move your hard drive into and get a much better experience.
demand for the low end of hardware has dropped significantly since 2025 and thus for this segment prices are actually lower than before when it comes to things that aren't memory or storage.
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u/Gold-Agent24k 3d ago
I was using i5 450m up until recently with win 7 and it did what I mentioned above. As I live in Asia the prices you mentioned aren't the same here and sellers here sells between USD 200 for a 6th gen i5 witg and pc. How ever I did saw a i5 8th gen processor for sale around 80 USD. If I decide to go for it then which motherboard will be better for my basic stuff?
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u/MandyKagami 3d ago
The trick with video editing on old computer is actually using time accurate software versions, modern stuff has a lot of fluff he might not need, a video editing software made in 2008-2012 might be a great bet.
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u/Enturbulated_One 3d ago edited 3d ago
https://www.asrock.com/mb/Intel/G41M-S/index.asp
Get someone local to you to help validate the hardware if you need to, but yeah this is Core 2 Duo territory. DDR2 RAM, etc.
As for OS ... Yeah, throw a lightweight linux distro on it or don't even bother.
If you can have it at the max supported RAM (8GB) and SSD for primary storage, it might run tolerably well with Win7, but I wouldn't suggest Windows at all at this point.
[edit: clarity]
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u/MasterJeebus I7 3770k | 32GB DDR3 | Amd R9 390 8GB | 6TB HDD 3d ago
Are they just letting you borrow it for some limited time or actually given to you? I would not suggest spending money upgrading system that wont be yours. This core 2 quad era pc will be 20 years old. Can’t run modern games, will need to stick games made before 2016. It’s better suited for old retro OS like Windows XP, Vista, 7. But using such old EOL OS for daily not recommended unless if it’s only to run old apps and old games. No banking, no personal data since such OS have security issues that haven’t been patched.
If you decide to proceed, upgrading ram to 8GB and using SSD for Windows 10 will help with performance. For GPUs need to check if they have legacy bios support, new ones do not have it anymore. While pcie slot may be same the firmware in new cards need UEFI. For Amd GPUs stick with ones made in 2015 and older. For Nvidia stick with GTX 1000 series or older. I have tested up to GTX 1650 4GB GDDR5 PNY single fan and works with Legacy bios. But i read that the refresh versions with GDDR6 may not work in legacy bios.
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u/Zaldekkerine 3d ago
I currently use a PC with a Core 2 Quad Q6600 and a 1050 Ti. The GPU's way overkill for almost everything at 1080p (literally only Pumpkin Panic hit 100% GPU usage out of every game I've ever played), but it's a decent pairing for 1440p. Still kind of overkill, though.
Definitely go for 8GB of RAM, and get an SSD if it doesn't have one already. The CPU's going to be slow enough already without an HDD dragging you down.
In my experience, gaming on Linux is significantly worse than on Windows 10 IoT due to Proton overhead hitting hard on weak CPUs. I'm currently using CachyOS, since the performance loss isn't a big deal for the types of games I play (visual novels and 2D indies). If I wasn't lazy, though, I'd switch back to Windows 10 IoT.
Be aware that some games won't open on a CPU that old. Some also won't open on Linux, and there's no way for me to tell which one's responsible when it happens. I don't care about that since I'm happy just playing a different game whenever it happens, but if that bothers you, you should really go with a more recent CPU.
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u/THE_KILLER_4 2d ago
Those specs are potato af
I do not recommend dumping any money into it, that CPU is obsolete for a solid 20 years now
that PC will bottleneck any Graphics card designed in past 7-8 years regardless, a PC is only as fast as its slowest component
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u/BRealistic1970 2d ago edited 2d ago
It's all based on what you can find cheap. The 1050 ti is just supposed to be a 75 watt card. If they have a 6 pin, that suggests a factory OC'd card. But even then, they don't need MUCH over the 75 watt pci-e slot power. For something 120 watts or less, I am totally ok with using an adapter to get the 6 pin power as long as the PSU is 300+ watts and not total junk. I ran GT 9800 in a refurb Dell Phenom 2 X4 with adeprters fine.. but that was back when Dell had pretty good 300 watt PSUs.
Other low power available in single slot low profile options: RX 640, RX 550, GT 1030 (make sure ddr5 version though). Those seem way better matched to that CPU.
If you are playing mostly older games, note the GTX 750ti was the budget no power cable needed GOAT for many years. The only thing that eventually killed it was the 2GB of ram. Though any low profile examples are rare and expensive now. Having more then 2 GB Vram helps in some older games like GTA V.
Another cheap option is the 2 GB GDDR5 GT 730. Here is an EVGA version missing the bracket and VGA cable. Offer 10 bucks. https://www.ebay.com/itm/158362659116
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u/Muted_Stand_9623 2d ago
There was an issue related to the BIOS (ChatGPT mentioned it, but I haven't confirmed it yet) where a legacy BIOS might sometimes show a black screen. So you'd better check this one too.
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u/ju2au 3d ago
I know that this sub-Reddit is about "low end" computing but those parts are just too obsolete.
Have a look on the second-hand market (on Facebook Marketplace, for example) and see if you can find second-hand prebuild or laptop for under $100 that will run rings around that old PC.
For example, earlier this year, I got a Dell SFF PC for free from Facebook Marketplace; they were moving house and just wanted to clear their cupboards.
It was an i5-4460 with 8GB RAM and 500GB HDD. I installed an AMD R7 430 2GB video card (low profile) into it and handed off to my niece so that she can play Minecraft.
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u/rockknocker 3d ago
A Core2Quad was an enviable machine for its day, but you'll need to compromise to use it today. Less than you'd think though.
Maxing the RAM to 8gb is an absolute necessity and should be your first priority, as you've stated. Win7 will be very happy with 8gb, win10 will be satisfied, and win11 (up to version 23H2 with mods) will run but you will notice it occasionally. Linux will run easily.
Equally important, and probably your biggest expense, is to use an SSD of some type. It's the biggest drop-in improvement that can be done to old PCs. For this machine a SATA SSD is the obvious choice. For your use, it doesn't have to be too large. I'd recommend installing the OS from scratch on it to minimize any bloat that might be on the drive today.
Any semi-modern GPU that uses external power ports is too powerful for this CPU and would be wasted. I'd recommend a regular GTX1050 without a power port, or an equivalent AMD GPU. Older cards would be fine too, but only if you get them for almost nothing. This should prevent needing to replace the power supply.
Have fun!