
I just picked up this $12 pc from Facebook marketplace. It has a Lga 1155 socket motherboard with a unrecognisable Company, With 4 gb ram and a 500W Power supply. It has a Pentium g630 CPU and a 250gb harddisk. How Can I Turn this into a gaming pc/Usable pc? Im willing to spend $50-$100.
47 Comments
Gaming PC? nope
Surf the internet and play solitaire? sure
Unrecognizable? It literally says Foxconn
It was $12 for a reason..
dayumn .. Foxconn is now ” **unrecognisable Company** “
Well firstly, its not unrecognizable, its a foxconn MB. You can not turn that into gaming PC that can handle modern games. There are some LGA 1155 cpu’s but i dont really see use and meaning of that one to spend money in it unless, you want some kind of older gaming machine for games that dont run good enough on Windows 10.
Nice deal. I would start by replacing the CPU as it’s painfully slow by today’s standards. I would suggest trying to find a CPU like an Intel i7-2700k which would be about 4x faster. Next I’d replace your hdd for an SSD, as it will give you a big performance boost. You could probably use the hdd to store games. If you have any money spare, buy the fastest ram your motherboard can handle.
Well you have a small budget so its going to depend whether you can find used i7 2600 or i7 3770 at cheap price. Then you want to upgrade ram because 4GB is too little this days, look for 16GB memory kit that has two dimms so you can have dual channel. Don’t mix and match ram since you need all the performance you squeeze. Look for at least 1600Mhz DDR3. Then look for used gpu like RX 580 8GB will probably best to balance old cpu out. Then you can play any game made before Alan Wake 2, since that one needs newer cpu and gpu specs that your old mobo will never support. So you can literally play most games made before 2023.
Get an old i7, an ssd, a gtx 1650 and 16 gigs of ram (or 8).
I5 2500(k)
8gb of ram (preferably 16)
120gb ssd (doesn’t improve your FPS, but will make it so much nicer)
Spend the rest on a gpu (that can work with your current psu)
No, this won’t rival the brand new $1000 machines that many redditors consider entry-level. However, you can play a lot of games and have a lot of fun
are they bent pins ?
The motherboard cpu socket looks like it has some damage to the pins. I don’t think this mb will even work
My low end gaming rig has the same CPU socket. The best you can do is an I7 3770 for the CPU. I picked mine up on eBay from GreenCitizen for $30. I Would then pick up a 16GB kit of ddr3 1600Mhz for about $20. Then you will need a GPU, I currently run an AMD RX 580 4gb. I can run BG3 on 1080P and Ultra Settings around 50fps. You can also pick up a 1TB Western Digital SSD for about $50. This would build an all around decent low end gaming rig
Just get i7 3770k or non k should be doable for around 20 bucks. 16gb ram make sure its 2 sticks of 8 and ddr3 dont pay more than 15 for that. Then try and get a gtx 970 or rx 580 for 50 or below, and u could add an ssd. If you can stay on or below those prices id say its worth it. You can probably run everything up to 2014-2016 on it, most likely not at the max settings though. I saw ppl say pre 2008 stuff but thats bullshit unless u use it as is.
r/lowendgaming is more suitable for this
Assuming that mobo still work you can also consider Xeon processor https://www.cpu-world.com/Sockets/Socket%201155%20(LGA1155).html especially the one sell for very cheap on AliExpress
Pair with something like used RX580/570/480/470/550 or GTX 750 Ti/1050 Ti/etc. and it should play most pre-2020 games well (a lot of 2020-2023 games should work too but don’t expect much)
Why in the world would you do this.
A stick of 4gb ram, cheap ssd as boot drive and the best gpu you can buy with the money left ( consider the psu’s gpu cable )
i7 3770 + gtx 1050 no 6pin + 120gb ssd bootable + 8gb ram
This is E waste, friend. I would properly dispose of it.
You can make a usable pc and definitely for very light works probably just browsing. Download Linux and good to go. But definitely not for gaming.
If my guess is right this motherboard should support some other Cpus try searching probably can get it cheap. Then a SSD gonna make a day and night difference for this PC.
Foxconn mobo, the color is Foxconn genuine color. I would suggest turning that in a usable pc yes, gaming retro 2D games yeah, playing 2020-2023 AAA games, not so much. The CPU is old and it was a lame CPU back then, is even lamer now.
okay here is how you do it. 20$ shittier ssd, used gtx 970 or 1060 for 60$, 10$ used ram to upgrade it to 16gb and a 10$ powerstrip with a built in overwattage breaker for when this thing inevitably blows the fuck up. in the meantime, enjoy some minesweeper, solitaire and some civ2.
If you can get your hands on a 3rd gen i7-3770k for cheap, pair it with a 1060 6g or better, load it with a bunch of ram, then probably you will have a mediocre gaming pc. But it doesn’t really make sense money wise i think
I wouldn’t call Foxconn an unrecognizable company – they’re one of the biggest, if not THE biggest electronic manufacturing companies in the world and they OEM for some pretty big brands (Apple, Sony, Microsoft, Nintendo, among others).
That said – don’t get this unless you’re speccing a machine for some retro emulation.
The problem with old stuff like this is once the hardware becomes obsolete it becomes more expensive to buy new parts for.
I’d venture to guess that a new CPU for this would cost just as much as buying a modern motherboard and CPU and the performance will be 1000x better with the modern stuff.
This won’t run the newest and most demanding titles unless you replace pretty much everything, but it should still be possible to upgrade it to a point where it can run some games. An i7 3770 (or maybe a Xeon) with a Rx 580 or 1060 will still be quite decent. Also try to get 16gb of ram and a Sata SSD.
I know you didn’t pay a lot, but something newer probably wouldn’t have been much more expensive. I recently bought a pc with an i3 6100 for €27 and a pc with an early gen Ryzen or 8th gen Intel shouldn’t be much more. Something like that would offer much more potential to be turned into a decent gaming pc. Instead of upgrading, can’t you use the $100 you have to buy something with an AM4 APU and use that for some light weight gaming until you can afford to upgrade it?
Maybe check out the YouTube channel RandomgaminginHD for some inspiration.
By throwing it into the e-waste bin and saving up for a new pc
Honestly you would’ve been better haggling off for a 2017-2019 gaming laptop than this
I find funny how privileged some people sound when saying this is an unusable garbage when you can probably give some life to this thing with some effort, Here in Latam, that MB with the highest i7 a 1155 can take and a decent GPU would probably be better than 60% of PCs people use daily.
Anyways OP, get the best i7 or Xeon that thing can take and buy an used 1650 or whatever you can find. Will probably run esports titles, old AAAs and emulators up to WiiU just fine.
For $12, I’d pay someone to remove it from my property. This cannot be turned into a ‘gaming’ PC without a few hundred bucks, and at that point, this hardware is useless.
Straight to the point,
Get the intel 3rd gen i5 of i7 cpu, ditch the ram and buy 2 sticks of 8gb ddr3 1600mhz
Add an SSD, for windows installation and get a decent cpu cooler if you don’t already have one.
With all these, it will be a usable pc
For a gaming pc, you can add an rx 580 or gtx 1060 or gtx 1650. But it will go way over your 100$ budget
Make it a server lol, do not waste your money with such an old ass rig..
Define “gaming/usable”
Bro is referencing Foxconn as unrecognisable company 💀💀💀
Something my mom always said is “you’re too broke to be cheap” spend the 200-400 on a solid PC and just forget about it, unless reviving old hardware is your thing I guess.
So your entire PC budget you’re willing to spend to build is $62-$112.
Doesn’t leave much room for options.
Congrats you paid someone to haul away their trash🤣
Good luck. You can’t expect much for $12 with a $50 budget. I’d suggest saving up for an Xbox if money is tight.
Ya cant make a silk purse from sow ears!
That’s the neat part, you don’t!
This is satire right?
Like I guess if you could on theory get your hands on compatible hardware you might could Doom but I wouldn’t make any promises. I’m not even sure a non-Linux modern os would run on such hardware
If your goal is to to use it for school/work, browse the web or play some popular, but older or less demanding games like Minecraft, GTA V, CS2 and you only have a very tight budget then don’t listen to all of the comments claiming that the PC is too old.
Get a 256GB SSD (~$15), 8GB of ddr3 (~$10) ram, an i7 2600 (~$20) and then put the rest of your budget towards a GPU. Try to get a cheap RX480/580 or GTX 970. Don’t bother with cards any older than that (R9 or GTX 700).
If you’re ok with spending more than ~$100 you should just get another PC. You can install an OS onto the box you have and clean it up a little and try to sell it for a little more than what you got it for.
I see bent pins
You can start by throwing everything you bought here in the trash. The next step is buying up to date, quality equipment
Your board looks like the Foxconn H61MXE
Drivers? BIOS? Not gonna be easy since it doesn’t look like they have any motherboard support anymore.
You could theoretically put up to a 3rd-gen i7 in here, but you’re not going to be able to get a lot out of a 10-year old board.
No.
By spending $50 on gasoline and other flammable materials.
Gaming? Prob won’t even run minesweeper.
Best you’ll be able to do on this is check your email.