Showcase AtlBo's Old School core 2 quad

[AtlBo]

Bought this PC back in 2014 I think. Original hardware:

Biostar GF7050V-M motherboard nVidia chipset (pentium, pent dual, core 2 duo, core 2 quad)
Intel Pentium Dual Core E2160
2 GB DDR2
120 GB IDE HD
NVidia on board graphics
Rosewill 550w psu

Added a Q9400, but later noticed the caps were bad on the GF7050 mb. PC was sluggish wouldn't boot sometimes and froze others. So, I upgraded to this:

Biostar TP45E Combo motherboard (DDR2 or DDR3 RAM)
Intel core 2 quad Q9400
8 GB DDR3 1333 Mhz (1350 Mhz oc)
500 GB Western Digital 6 GB standard disk drive
ATI HD 7570 Graphics card
Syba 2 Port SATA 3 PCI-e card
Protronix 4 port SuperSpeed USB 3.0
Seasonic 300w psu (Rosewill moved to another PC)

Overclocked the quad from 2.66 GHz to 3.368 GHz. TP45E Combo BIOS is good for the era with a number of options. Q9400 doesn't have any multiplier options for overclocking but the FSB can be overclocked. At 1.28v, the overclock is nicely stable at 420 x8 (maxed multiplier). Temps are too high though (99C during 5 hr Prime95 test/38C at idle), so waiting for a new cooler which has been purchased. Eventually, I will upgrade the psu and then the graphics card.

This board is great to work with for anyone who would like to put together a great socket 775 computer. However, I also have purchased an Asus P5Q3 board which will take at least 8 GB DDR3 and maybe even 16 GB. Probably going to build a water cooled core 2 quad maxout system.

BTW, with the 3.368 oc on the Biostar board, the Passmark processor benchmark has already gone from 3400 to 4160.

Sorry about the pics. PC is running and near a wall. Camera is turned on its side pointing through an upside down bicycle at the open case...now awaiting a new heatsink...

This old build has been rewarding. Thanks for looking.

 

[plat]

It looks like new.

 

[AtlBo]

I was surprised by the board. I paid $30 incl postage for the Biostar TP45E Combo board, a Q8400 processor, and 4 GB DDR 2. That processor I put away for now, but the Biostar board looks almost new. Happily I got the box and instructions. Had to order to China for the backplate, and it arrived so all good there.

Gonna try an SSD on the computer as soon as I get the money for one. Now that I have sata 3 speeds from the PCI-e Sata 3 card maybe I will see some good returns. The Sata 3 disk drive does OK at about 100 mb/sec.

I think all of these parts are at least 12 years old except the PCI-e parts (including graphics card). System even has a floppy disk and of all things an IDE DVD drive...yes DVD not CD...

Thanks for taking a look. It would be great for a home file server or general purpose basement computer. Good performance...

 

[Anker_by]

Old but it's a treasure i am big fan of older pc parts with some tweaks and more we can make it 100% good to do the minimum tasks or even run Quake Live heheh

 

[AtlBo]

Strange era of motherboard. PC owner with Pentium D could in many cases upgrade all the way to core 2 quad. Parts prices are low for the old parts, so why not? Still I guess I have spent $200 to get the PC and upgrade. This era motherboard its hard to find anything that will use 8GB of ddr3. That's the key for me. Both this Biostar and the Asus I purchased will do this. The Asus P5Q3 will actually run with 16 GB, which is crazy, but I will build the system with that much lol. Gonna be water cooled and as fast as a core 2 extreme can be. Yeah this type of 775 brings back alot of memories. Fun to do this for me, since I never came close to this performance on 775 before. Now I can see what the best was like...

I used to play QuakeLive alot. Fun game. Not sure what games I will put on the Asus computer when I get done with it, but this one I am using for now for general purposes. I like the core 2 stable performance. Always felt stable to me.

Parts
Original PC $85
USED
Intel Q9400 ($17 incl postage)
Biostar TP45E-Combo $30 (incl postage with a Q8400)
2x4 GB ddr3 @1333MHz ($15 incl postage)
ATI Radeon HD 7570 ($15 incl postage)
NEW
Syba 2 Port SATA 3 PCI-e card ($10 incl postage)
Protronix 4 port SuperSpeed USB 3.0 ($13 incl postage)
Western Digital 500 GB WD500AUXD ($25 incl postage)

 

[show-Zi]

This era motherboard its hard to find anything that will use 8GB of ddr3

The H-55 motherboard I am using seems to have exactly that problem. And there are only two memory slots. It is running at 4GB, but thanks to ssd it can be used without slowdown stress.

 

[Oten]

Ah reminds me the good ol days of socket 775. I once had a Q9550 oc'ed to 4GHz, but finally after so many years the mobo died. Then I sold the rest.

 

[Wraith]

Bro you brought me down the memory lane. I still have a Q8200 rocking in my little old asus mobo with 4GB RAM, 500GB HDD and a 512MB 9400GT. It runs windows 7 still today although it's just used for watching movies and some basic typing jobs. It still keeps an overclock of 2.8Ghz. It was my first gaming build made in 2010.

 

[AtlBo]

Really good fun these core 2s. I got the cooler I was waiting for yesterday and pushed the 9400 o/c to 3.6 GHz. Had to drop the memory speed back 1200 mhz from 1347 where it was, but the system is better by Passmark standards. Even the memory mark showed gains in the bench. Better than the 99 I got with the stock cooler on a run last week.

Cooler is doing the job. Made it 4 hours in Prime95, then lost a core in the test. Just after 5 hours a second core went down. Temp got to 79, which is high, but not as bad as 99C reached last week with the stock cooler. Think I will raise the power to the memory slightly, but the o/c seems really good and safe enough to use for now until I can get back to the issue. Guess I will be installing some 1998-2008 type games when I get a chance. Not sure what yet, but all that will probably be a while from now...