Old PC Upgrade #1: Options & RAM

[@iankearns]

I find it personally annoying that people such as Christopher put time and effort into creating content and then people automatically just click the 'thumb down' button out of spite. Video was up for one minute and it got a dislike. Impossible for that person to have watched any of the 20-min video to form an opinion. Great work Christopher and certainly a great explanation to anyone young or old who are starting off with PC upgrades.

[@NicolasChapadosGirard]

Such is the pain of fame. Hater got to hate.

[@RustyBrakes]

I think some people have strong ideas about what kind of videos a youtuber "has to make", and if the video is not what they wanted to watch they down vote. Which is rather sad really

[@resrussia]

I agree. While I don't find all of the topics equally interesting (forgive me, Chris!). They are ALWAYS well put together, thought out and do an excellent of communicating the topic to the viewer. Often I think that KZbin should require viewers clicking Thumb down button to explain why they are making that choice.

[@_..---]

I like to think they just misclicked.

[@supahfly_uk]

They are what we call haters just ignore them, hopefully they'll fall down a big hole.

[@henhouseharry6193]

When I was a kid, Sundays meant waiting for the Top 30 on the radio. Now it means waiting for a notification from Chris.

[@ExplainingComputers]

Fantastic!

[@deechvogt1589]

Here in the states it was the top 40 but the same sentiment applies.

[@madandu]

When I was kid, Sundays meant going thru. hardware reviews on PC-magazines and install free software from DVDs came with magazine.

[@marksterling8286]

Absolutely agree. E.C. is as much part of my Sunday now as roast beef with all the trimmings. They have inspired a few projects at home along with some reminiscing. My first pc was an 8088 xt clone and I drifted away from technical work in about 2000. Found myself getting back up to speed with new computing hardware to help my son build a gaming pc, but now love raspberry pi projects and updating old hardware to a new lease of life.

[@anno5936]

When i was a kid we were out in the wild, no matter what the weather was up to, before returning home to our beloved C64s and procrastinate homework for another hour...

[@John900C]

Stage 1 complete on my PC 👍. Upgraded from 3 to 8 of GB RAM. Very happy with speed increase. The dust and fluff blocking the processor fan was a sight to behold. No wonder the fan was running so readily! All clean now and eagerly anticipating delivery of a SSD for stage 2. Thanks for your encouragement and advice.

[@ExplainingComputers]

Excellent. Sounds like the RAM upgrade went really well for you.

[@NightEagle256]

I love simple videos like this, no jargon and straight to the point! You've made my Sunday!

[@ctbinary42]

This is something I love doing. I'm interested in seeing your choices to complete the upgrade

[@MrIHADANACCOUNT]

What you call "an old PC" is what my 84 year old dad calls his "new PC". LOL

[@TheUglyGnome]

At least your father has a PC. My 82 year old dad refuses to use computers.

[@persona83]

I'm not a dad, but my current setup is a core2duo e4600 2GB RAM. And running strong. (no modern gaming, of course)

[@calinguga]

to be fair when i read "old pc" i thought 486, and i'm only 27.

[@rclarkstube]

I installed Xubuntu on mom's 16yo pc, gave it one icon to Firefox, and removed all menu access. It worked fine for her for 3 more years until it self destructed.

[@noblej7897]

I got a desktop that I went ahead and upgraded to max ram capacity... Due to budget and pack of knowledge I sorted by cheapest and got a bunch of 1333hrz ddr3 and used it with the one stick of a different brand already in the system.. realized later It prevent dual channel memory. Ooops. It has 32GB supported memory but still only uses SATA 2 3Gbps !? The more I learned about my system the more I realize how much they cheaped out on the motherboard and GPU

[@niallwood]

This is actually an excellent idea! Since the beginning of people working at home, I've been offering SSD and RAM upgrades to my friends and family's computer's/ laptops so they don't have to buy an entire new PC! Great video as always Chris, stay safe!

[@ExplainingComputers]

Sounds like you are offering a great service!

[@robert4you]

Greetings from Sweden. These videos, upgrading older PC's, are very satisfying to watch. Can't really explain why... My father passed away not long ago and I "inherited" his _very old_ HP desktop from 2009. Just for fun, during a weekend, I cleaned it, upgraded everything I could (kept the motherboard though). * New Corsair 430 W modular power supply. * More and faster RAM sticks. * Better and faster AMD CPU. * Samsung 860 EVO SSD, 500 GB (overkill, I know, but I had a few on the shelf). * Dedicated ASUS 730 GTX GPU with 2 GB GDDR5 memory. * Windows 10 (the machine came with Windows 7) * New cable management. * SATA DVD-ROM instead of the old IDE one... Believe it or not but my dad's old PC starts in 30 sec now and shuts down in 10 sec. It is responsive as h-ll, a perfect PC to surf on and use for lighter use. I gave it to my 81 year old mother and she is happy with it.

[@gordslater]

A *very* good vid - specifically because the type of person that only has a 2010-era PC often needs a lot of step-by-step advice on upgrading and has limited funds to do it and will be prone to massive cockups/incompatabilitly mistakes.

[@antoniiocaluso4387]

Absolutely the BEST presentation on the subject! Should be required-viewing...from schools to retirement homes :-) Clear vocals, superb visuals, complete technicals, references to further details,.... Should win an Oscar, if tbere was such a category (or if I watched TV)))! Thank you, from the many who appreciate this achievement, but lack the civility of telling you so. Buona fortuna, in all you do!

[@ExplainingComputers]

Wow, thank you!

[@derekp2674]

@@ExplainingComputers I was also going to comment that I though the close up photography of the motherboard (etc.) was excellent, so I'll do that here :D

[@EfficientTrout]

Can’t believe 2010 was 11 years ago. Feels like 5 years ago for me.

[@ExplainingComputers]

Time is scary.

[@daveseddon5227]

You are mistaken 2010 was only last year!

[@nathanaelsmith3553]

For me 2020 felt like 4 of those 11 years - and the others flew

[@Reziac]

@@ExplainingComputers Remember, time flies when you throw a clock. And time flies like wind, but fruit flies like pears. ;)

[@jay-gi9dk]

wait it gets worse the older you get .your parents were right lol

[@Chickenguy2]

Explaining computers is my favorite comfort youtube channel! Especially because I am enthusiastic about computers myself.

[@ecu4321]

since it's DDR3, you have a couple of options. 1) use 2x8gb ddr3 to max it out to 16gb. it's possible on the chipset. just not documented on the spec sheet 2) if you can try to play around and modify the bios file to allow it to --- use nvme via pci>nvme adaptor and boot natively on a faster than sata nvme native storage... then you might eke out more performance.

[@mc_sim]

Second option is a waste of time and money. Simply throwing in any 2.5 ssd is enough. Getting a faster cpu is much better idea.

[@Narfy_Tenkawa]

I have that PC case! My parents bought it for my brother and I from Tradex when we were teenagers, it had a much older configuration back then running windows Xp on a single core. It came bundled with a monitor, all the peripherals and two giant boxes of edutainment shovelware. It really blew our minds being able to use the internet at home!

[@cossakrose]

Honestly hearing Chris wittering on is one the loveliest things of this channel. Background music instead of him would be a serious downgrade. Lol

[@AdmiralBates2277]

What a perfect introductory video to PC upgrading. Even as a seasoned veteran for the PCMR I appreciate the effort and attention to detail this has gone into. A well worthwhile series to keep an eye.

[@StarsOfPleiades]

"Come on Google Chrome, you can do it!" (Motivational quotes from Chris)

[@junglemouse4585]

😂😂

[@blaugrun1012]

Chris please take vitamin D ( 4000 units per day) 4k international units /day Vitamin D3 . Chirs its important for health .

[@marcbensen8963]

Ugh please, chrome is such a resource hog

[@jrrslingshot1418]

Thank you for doing this, I’ve never been able to get a PC so I’m hoping to upgrade my family’s old one, and this is really helping.

[@ExplainingComputers]

Good luck.

[@jrrslingshot1418]

@@ExplainingComputers thank you

[@roelfbackus]

The anti-static wrap fitted easily around a radiator, but I found the clamp a bit painful on my skin during the upgrade.

[@erikdekoster4137]

I'll have to find another place to attach it to the woman I have chained to the radiator keeps kicking it off.

[@blaugrun1012]

Chris please take vitamin D ( 4000 units per day) 4k international units /day Vitamin D3 . Chirs its important for health .

[@d.barnette2687]

Actually, it's NOT the radiator that needs the upgrade -- it's the COMPUTER!!! :)

[@davidg7136]

😂🤣

[@abdulrahmanalmowafy5350]

@@erikdekoster4137 LMAO

[@TruthProvider]

For a used ebay computer, it was meticulously clean inside. The motherboard looked brand new in your video! What a great purchase!

[@mayhempatel]

Absolutely brilliant! I was soo waiting for something like this. I hope you fit a graphics card inside and see which games would it be able to run.

[@Lawesyp]

Upgraded many PC's in my lifetime and enjoy it. Still learned something new from this video and that's why I am here every Sunday. Thanks

[@jamiechampion299]

Older computers like these make for great budget systems to be used as thin client devices. I have retired nearly all of my Core 2 Duo era systems from traditional use and migrated them over to thin client duties and they're still doing great. They also make for decent NAS systems. My NAS is based on a Dell OptiPlex 755 from 2008, and apart from a failing PSU it's doing great.

[@thebeezkneez2557]

My NAS is the "desktop" variant of that computer. It runs truenas (recently upgraded) pretty well.

[@jamiechampion299]

@@thebeezkneez2557 I use the MT model because it's what I had sitting around and I used to have a large number of drives in it. I think I had about 10 drives in it at one point. The PSU (not the same one that's in it now) struggled a lot to spin them all up.

[@thebeezkneez2557]

I actually have a MT model case sitting around and have been considering moving my NAS to that. I didn't realize that you could fit so many drives in it. The PSU in my MT case is only a 305W so it would definitely need an upgrade.

[@jamiechampion299]

@@thebeezkneez2557 The MT case only properly supports 3x 3.5" drives, and that's only if you use the bay that is normally used for a floppy drive. I had drives tucked in the 5.25" bay area.

[@hugocardozo8685]

Great video, Mr. Barnatt. Even though I'm a computer techie and so I'm already used to the ways of upgrading old machines, it's still a very interesting episode to watch.

[@laneharder9993]

I love watching videos like this just because they oftentimes create even more connections to a subject I thought I already knew a ton about. Great work, Chris :)

[@josephrayle752]

I’ve been tinkering with an Optiplex 7010 I got second hand. Your videos are clear and easy to follow. Thanks.

[@crnlbwlawson]

Excellent video as always Chris! Been doing this exact thing for 20+ years and could not have said it better! Thank you so much for the hard work you put in helping others with explaining computers!!

[@ExplainingComputers]

Thanks Brian.

[@theproudlinuxer]

@@ExplainingComputers Is he your colleague?

[@MartinWolves]

I've been upgrading 20+ years as well but I still enjoyed this video. Also brilliant for any beginner!

[@blaugrun1012]

@@ExplainingComputers Christopher please take vitamin D ( 4000 units per day) 4k international units /day Vitamin D3 . Chirs its important for health .

[@SidebandSamurai]

My skill level with PCs is well beyond this video. Never the less, this was a brilliant video. It shows how a PC can be upgraded for someone who has never performed this operation. A couple of comments you might explore. Some system boards might have the capability to address more memory than specified. For instance, the specifications state that only 8GIG memory is supported but in some cases, as long as you have the correct RAM and are not over clocking, you can add upgrade to 8 gig sticks giving you 16 Gigs of RAM. This is undocumented but that option is sometimes available, though 8 gig is the low end standard for Windows 10 64 bit and will work fine. The other option you did not go cover is a processor upgrade. Some system boards were designed to support multiple processors, and system builders often fitted system boards with slower cheaper processors. I wonder if your system board can receive a processor upgrade. I did take the liberty to check to see if the processor can be upgraded and it can. According to Gigabytes website you and fit an Intel Core 2 QuadQ 9650 processor. Here is the link to that page. www.gigabyte.com/Motherboard/GA-G41MT-D3-rev-13/support#support-cpu. This would also be a considerable upgrade from your existing processor. Your existing processor falls right in the middle of the processor chart. So average performance.

[@mukulk5282]

Few weeks ago I upgrade my pc which has slightly lower spec than this Cpu - intel E4500 Ram - 2gb windows 10 pro I replace hard disk only with an SSD now it runs similar to 8GB pc as in video and copying & moving speed is impresive waiting for more upgrade This series is going to be interesting waiting for the next video :)

[@Chriswales]

Watching this on a similar Desktop PC. I've already upgraded the memory so looking forward to the rest of the series.

[@otavio30]

This is literally the same specs as my uncle's pc that he's asking me advice on upgrading, thank you for making this video!

[@ExplainingComputers]

No problem! Second episode posts on Sunday.

[@An.Individual]

Really great to have a tech tuber that isn't trying to sell me a VPN. Keep up the good work.

[@NoEgg4u]

For comparison, when you put in the new SSD, please put back the original 2GB of memory. This way, we can see which upgrade benefited which type of computer usage. Which one helped boot time the most, and which one helped applications launching the most, and are the differences significant? Of course, then that should all be compared to having both the memory uprade + the SSD upgrade. Thank you.

[@ExplainingComputers]

I will do various comparisons! :)

[@mikem9536]

While a system with 2 GB of ram and an SSD would be fairly snappy, I wouldn't reccommend it simply because you'll be relying on the swap file a lot and if it's also on the SSD it'll greatly shorten it's lifespan.

[@NicolasChapadosGirard]

Great ideas

[@NoEgg4u]

@@mikem9536 Since an SSD's lifespan is probably 5x your lifespan, the heavy use of the swap file will probably not ever be an issue. I have never heard of a SSD getting worn out (running out of its over-provisioning), even in commercial use, other than by someone deliberately running software designed to wear it out. Yes, there is a limit for "total bytes written" (TBW) that SSDs can endure. But the value is such that no normal use case will reach that limit, even for servers that routinely pound away on their SSDs. If anyone knows of an example of a SSD that has exceeded its rated TBW to its NAND fabric, please provide a link.

[@heyarno]

This comes at the right time, as more people do home office. I answered so many questions of people I know lately, that such a clean video surely helps. Especially with how hard it is to get new hardware at the moment. And without a easy to understand solution, it's hard to talk people out of buying a gtx 3090, to make their spreadsheets work faster on a old box, because "that is what my son told me makes a computer fast".

[@Reziac]

That's a very nice system for this project. Perfect start for the absolute beginner who had no idea they weren't necessarily stuck with whatever came with the PC, or that its performance can be radically improved at little expense. Especially so when starting with a flexible case and a good motherboard, as this one does. Upgrade CPU and give it a small heatpipe cooler, swap the mechanical HD for an SSD, and give it a USB3 add-on card, and it'll be ready for a long and useful new life. You could even go all out and give it an M.2 drive on a PCIe adapter card, and perhaps a Blu-ray optical drive! I've got several of this class myself (some still in everyday use) and more RAM is definitely the best first step. I've also found that a quad-core CPU makes a big difference -- mainly that CPU-intensive apps don't get clogged up near as easily. (By about a factor of four compared to the core2duo CPU, even tho the latter had a higher clock speed.) Great way to start my morning!

[@ExplainingComputers]

Thanks for this! I chose the PC with care to have decent upgrade options.

[@qasimjebran2687]

The best thing about this channel is how thoroughly he explains even the most basic of things

[@nicholastotoro7721]

Bravo!!! I’m going to recommend this video series to everyone I know who thinks it’s a waste to update old systems for daily use (read: not playing the latest games at the max settings) and wants something that just plain old works.

[@ExplainingComputers]

We clearly share a mindset. :)

[@nicholastotoro7721]

@@ExplainingComputers Exactly! I’m still using a 2008 Mac Pro that I refuse to let go because... well... it works... 🤣

[@retroretiree2086]

I haven't seen all the video yet but that is the cleanest 10 year old PC I've ever seen! It looks brand new.

[@SeanBZA]

One thing to add, when upgrading memory often you will find the slots are full of dust, so a can of contact cleaner is very useful, and often a non woven wipe soaked with it used to gently clean the inside of the slot and the memory module will result in good contact, as you wipe off the dust and the film of dirt that has built up there. Same for adding in cards, the slot can easily have a build up of dirt in it, which is not visible easily, but a spray and wipe with the non woven cloth and contact cleaner does wonders.

[@ExplainingComputers]

A good tip, thanks for sharing. :)

[@djzio]

Professor Barnatt, besides the highest quality information you dispense, your extemporaneous reparteé makes it that much more worthwhile.

[@Pekitos]

In São Paulo - Brazil we normally use those OLD PC in Point-of-sale. It works very well for it... but with Linux. Very good infos...

[@pibbles-a-plenty1105]

Additional static charge dissipation technique is to first grasp the computer case to equalize the charge between yourself and the goodies inside the case. If using a wrist strap connect the alligator clip the the computer case. When handling the motherboard, ram and drives outside of the case always equalize the charge the same way before installing and connecting cables.

[@jinty83]

Great video Chris. Upgrading an older pc for daily tasks and web browsing is easy and stops more e-waste from being created. You can still play some great older games with a modest gpu and I'm sure the ssd will make it even snappier, especially the boot time 😁

[@antonionabais6506]

great video, brings back some memories. when my laptop broke in 2015, a friend gave me his old desktop, and it was like that one. the first thing I did was replace the power supply. the original 250W had been working for 5 years, I got a new 500W PSU for just 15€. then I reinstalled Win7 and used it until 2019. because of win7 EOL, I upgraded to 4GB ram and installed win10 64bit. it still works, but really shows it's age. last month, I finally retired it and bought a new PC, with Ryzen 9 5900X

[@kjcolewelle]

Not only is the machine really neat and clean but it's a socket 775 board with DDR3 slots. Not as rare as hen's teeth but not that easy to find for a reasonable price in my experience. Nice catch 😊

[@FirstLastOne]

Another great video for teaching those that want to learn more about what they have and what they can do to keep an old PC going. Chris, I wish videos like yours had existed back in 1991 when I was first learning to build my own white boxes. That was a whole other world, DIP switches, jumpers and DOS, oh my! Flash forward to the last ten years and PnP 'almost' works out of the box. And once you toss the old M$ ball and chain out, upgrading is really down to two groups... Just going from M$ Winblows to say... Linux Mint will breathe new life into 95% of the PCs out there.

[@dinocorreia1202]

I need to share this with a friend. He is completely out of this world....An SSD could improve speed by boot times

[@madandu]

Thanks Chris, can connect with this. Did similar in 2016 when installed new components in my old AMD-box like: MSI lga1150 mbd, Intel G3240 3.1Ghz cpu, 8GB ddr3 ram. Also had to buy new 400W 24pin PSU. Total cost ~150 USD. Installed Linux-Mint XFCE on it.

[@madandu]

Chris your video brings-out inquisitive lad who loved reading, playing computers in the 90's while pursuing engineering.

[@LukaFontain]

Wow, I literally sat down with a salvaged Dell Optiplex today and started to give it a once-over. It was a dog to begin with but I replaced the HDD with a SSD, and popped in an i5 3470s in place of the i3 2120. Now it's been resurrected. I've ordered an extra stick of RAM second hand from CEX for £6. Hopefully it's actually a stick of RAM and now a piece of burger cheese. All in all it's going to be a complete makeover for less than £40. A nice little project for the lockdown!

[@electrotsmishar]

Old is gold. Really started missing those days watching this video

[@jackcameback]

Excellent content once again, I have been doing PC upgrades for years and never knew you could use faster memory than the MB states. Thanks, a gem of info for a Sunday evening here in Denmark :-)

[@sid_gm1949]

Learned a lot from you Chris . Now I am planning to upgrade my old PC which is 12yrs old.

[@ExplainingComputers]

Great to hear!

[@Kenzo9063]

lga775 that was hella nostalgic along with the core 2 duo i used to have and then the core i7. Now using AMD ryzen 7 on my laptop

[@LordWillyGee]

AMD Ryzen 7 server, 5G/Wi-Fi turn thing on/off?, my friend is using. Scar me, it hooks up to his cellphone and his home/Tesla Car. AI called him, it told him I came over/package/911? Plus a lot of movie stores on it. It great. Kids tell it what movie want to watch, or Games?

[@abdulrahmanalmowafy5350]

This thorough explanation of the upgrade options available and what goes with what is basically non-existent anywhere else on KZbin. Thank you SO MUCH you've helped me understand exactly how to tackle upgrading old PCs

[@FantasySports101]

Thanks for following through with this series. Always interested in tinkering options. I hope you discuss graphics cards and worth upgrading in the current tight market. Also, whether to upgrade or buy a new system.

[@bigsky1970]

Looking forward to this series Chris. I spent most of 2020 upgrading a 10 year old PC. Went from 2GB to 16GB of RAM, added SSD, and dedicated graphics card (one less task for the CPU to do). Also had some unexpected "upgrades", as the old CPU fan on this PC I have died on me, so that got replaced as well, and the power supply I had was a 500W power supply, it got replaced with a 700W supply, because the dedicated graphics card pushed the consumption up to about 600W, so 700W gives the overall PC a bit of head room to work with. Fortunately for my upgrade, my motherboard would take RAM speeds up to 1866, so I installed a pair of 8GB 1866 DDR3. Other than that, the motherboard specifications for my Asrock board are similar, as it too has 4 SATA II ports as well.

[@jonasasare5775]

You always give the best explanation I can find on KZbin thank you for always bringing us great videos

[@gwmattos]

I have been given free Dell PC computers, which l rescue, because I hate to see them go to the city dump. I know they're useful life can be extended and I prefer a PC versus a laptop. I love the better keyboards which I typically get from Logitech and I prefer the mice from Logitech too . I prefer to have my monitor on a floating arm connected to my table with plenty of workspace. I have an old Lenovo PC that I am now retiring after 15 to 17 years which moves slower than a garden snail. I've replaced it with an Intel i7 chip on a Dell Optiplex 7040 with Windows 10 Pro. After watching several of your episodes with professional content and quality, I have used that information to rescue 2 older Dell machines and installed MX 19 Linux. My goal is to learn Linux and ultimately become comfortable enough with it to walk away from Windows. Your presentations have given me the courage to explore and rescue machines that should never be put to pasture. Thank you for sharing your knowledge with the rest of us as education is a very powerful tool.

[@danieledwards3376]

Second hand-dual core PCs seem to have actually substantially risen in price over recent years. I have a couple of dual core HP ex-corporate desktops with 4GB RAM which I bought for about £25-£30 each delivered, which was the going price at the time on eBay.

[@braddl9442]

There are a lot of RETRO games and such that run better on older hardware cause the older CPUs have instruction sets some of those old games and programs need that are not on the newer CPUs. Its a weird thing that many games have workarounds for. But when you run into that one game you really want to run well and it wants a Pentium 4 from 2010 to run, there you go. Same reason some people hunt down original PCjr, apple II, and such. sometimes emulation cant do the job.

[@FlyboyHelosim]

@@braddl9442 Since when are games from 2010 'retro'? I consider retro games to be from the '80s and '90s.

[@mopeer1]

Fantastic video. Very logical approach. Shows the value of doing the homework before rushing into buying parts that might not be compatible.

[@6581punk]

Sometimes the older machines are so inefficient with power that it actually makes more sense to retire them. Maybe less of an issue with more recent machines. But I remember the case of someone wanting to run his Power Mac G5 as a spare machine for some server purposes, but that machine was so massively power hungry that it was cheaper to buy a Mac Mini (which also was faster).

[@Manian488]

I really respect the fact that of all "great pc pro KZbinrs" out there, you are the only one who uses the antistatic wrist strap. If you check all these most viewed PC builds videos on other channels, none of these guys ever wears that as if the antistatic discharge was some kind of a myth. I once broke a laptop motherboard while upgrading it due to that. It's good to know there is someone out there who practices good habits.

[@derekp2674]

I recently coached a 10 year old through building his first desktop gaming PC and I made sure that I set him up with a wrist strap so none of his expensive new hardware would get zapped.

[@TheTechieScientist]

I haven't even watched the video completely....But the title kindled the curiosity in me

[@4t0m5k]

With hardware stocks across the world being critically low (laptops, graphics card, monitors, processors, only SSD's and RAM are somewhat available to me atm), it's definitely a good idea to consider all of the old hardware we have laying around. I see so many machines forgotten, neglected and collecting dust in the archives of companies and homes, it's a crime not to put them to use. Getting a Win10 key is about 10-15 euros if you google right, a fully featured O365 for home or professional users is about as cheap as your netflix account and both run pretty wel on upgraded motherboards from a decade ago. With some PCI-Express bays there might even be room for a neglected GTX### that could get you Minecraft or Fortnite going. I find great joy in giving new life to an old machine, with parts from derelict machines. Great video!

[@resrussia]

Great video. I enjoyed the video very much. I often inherit computers from friends and family. The only thing I do differently during the planning stage is I try a get the motherboard's manual. Sometimes there is useful information in the manuals.

[@ExplainingComputers]

Oh I agree on manuals, they can be very useful! :)

[@hasansalim1868]

All the right steps to upgrade a PC. Thanks Chris

[@therealvbw]

Definitely needs a zip drive, and a 72x DVD rewriter with lightscribe. So many people leave those essential upgrades out.

[@NicolasChapadosGirard]

Or multiple card expensition too

[@plica06]

Go for the 250MB version... 100MB just not enough anymore.

[@thegeforce6625]

Maybe a SCSI tape drive while your at it, too?

[@vertujoe2886]

don't forget your math coprocessor.

[@ElmerFuddGun]

Honestly, LightScribe was the best! It made professional looking DVDs instead of using a hand written label. I've still got an LG LightScribe DVD writer that I should move from the old PC to the newer PC but I think it uses IDE.

[@jefffarrington5352]

Thanks

[@ExplainingComputers]

Thanks for your supportJeff, most appreciated.

[@jefffarrington5352]

@@ExplainingComputers Chris, It would be helpful to see a list 0f your other videos on the You Tube presentations please

[@ExplainingComputers]

I'll see what I can do. :)

[@MicrobyteAlan]

Excellent hardware. I’m upgrading an old computer. So far I’ve maxed out the memory and installed an SSD. Running Ubuntu. Thanks

[@NicolasChapadosGirard]

Also add SSD is my first thought to do to make a computer faster.

[@rexjuggler19]

Another good one, Chris. Not a surprise that the PC had only one DIMM. Supply for RAM at that time was lagging demand so RAM was at a premium. As you pointed out in your video, insufficient RAM means the computer will use the pagefile to swap to disk for lack of memory. When people bought PCs at that time, it was all about the GHz of the CPU and other specs. So for an OEM to be price competitive and still be able to compare on specs, the RAM was a typical compromise. Windows 7 didn't require quite as much RAM as WIndows 10 does, but the PCs were still underpowered. Adding the RAM is a very good first step on an upgrade for a PC of that vintage in most cases. We bought my daughter a MacBook Pro 2009 for graduation that year and a few years ago she told me it was probably end of life. I told her for Christmas that year I would upgrade the RAM and replace the HDD with a SSD. A totally new MacBook was born, and now 11 years later she is still using it and happy with it for most applications. Of course, some people think that more RAM is always the answer to higher performance. It all depends on how much RAM is being used by OS and applications running. As long as the system isn't swapping to disk, the PC is fine on RAM most likely. A show of the Task Manager might be useful to demonstrate and visually see RAM in use as more applications are running. An added bonus is if the motherboard/chipset support dual channel, you greatly increase performance by having 2 modules instead of one. But not all boards/chipsets support dual channel, so it's something to investigate to know for sure.

[@dfs-comedy]

I have a computer from 2011 (that's the date on the BIOS, at any rate) but it was a pretty high-end box in 2011: 16GB of RAM, 4-core (8 threads) i7-2700K CPU at 3.5GHz and dual 1TB drives in software RAID. It's my living-room computer and very usable still, though running Debian and not Windows. I really don't understand people who get new computers every 3-5 years. I find even 10-year-old computers still perfectly fine.

[@ExplainingComputers]

That was indeed a good spec for 2011 -- and still perfectly good today! :) Until last January all of the videos for this channel were edited on a 10 year old Core 2 Quad.

[@lawrenceallwright7041]

I'd imagine that an i7 with 16GB RAM and 2xTerrabyte drives would have been a small fortune back in 2011?

[@dfs-comedy]

@@lawrenceallwright7041 I bought it through my company. It wasn't *that* expensive; I think under $2K (Canadian dollars). I tend to buy white-label rather than big-name brands, so that saves some money.

[@lawrenceallwright7041]

@@dfs-comedy Sounds expensive enough to me, probably would have been about my month's salary 10 years ago!

[@adventureridergirl]

I always look forward to your videos on Sunday morning, even ones like this, where I am already a subject matter expert on the topic being discussed. It's always good to have a refresher every now and then. Keep up the good work!

[@ExplainingComputers]

Thanks for watching. :)

[@blaugrun1012]

@@ExplainingComputers please take vitamin D daily 4000 units atleast

[@digitastic]

Love this video, great to see some old hardware again as it made me feel nostalgic and your instructions are truly excellent. Look forward to seeing an SSD in there and that boot time coming down significantly. As a minor piece of constructive feedback it may be worth mentioning the QVL as some of these older board can be picky about RAM......Asus springs to mind here particularly. Many thanks for the wonderful content as always Chris.

[@BertieJasokie]

Oh my god, I have that exact same cabinet. I never let it go cause it was a gift from my uncle. Mine was originally an eSys branded prebuilt with a P4 2.66ghz, 256 mb ram, an 80gb HDD and a CD only drive. Later upgrades included an additional DVD burner, an nVidia 6200LE and 512mb extra ram. Now its running an old i3 system harvested from another PC.

[@kenhukushi1637]

When putting an old computer back in operation, good idea to write the bios settings down and replace the CMOS battery.

[@tomfleming6622]

NOW you tell me! Guess I'm not as smart as I tell everyone I am.

[@X05Radar]

Brilliant tutorial

[@lungaro]

Thanks Chris. If I may, I would also suggest reapplying cpu thermal paste in the next video. I find it makes a huge difference, especially for older hardware. My 10 year old i7 2600K used to reach 99C during games. After reapplying thermal paste it never exceeds 60C.

[@ExplainingComputers]

Good tip. :)

[@blaugrun1012]

@@ExplainingComputers also take Vitamin D christopher , its important for the human body

[@blaugrun1012]

4000 units per day ,vitamin D3

[@blaugrun1012]

@@ExplainingComputers 4000 units per day, vitamin D3

[@arensonz55]

I legit upgraded my old rig after watching this. Replaced E2160 1.8GHz cpu with Pentium E6600 3.06GHz by just changing motherboard and keeping other parts. It cost me 20$ total. I'm very happy how it turned out, thanks for this video.

[@ExplainingComputers]

Fantastic! :) This is great to hear. A good value upgrade.

[@ashketchum9566]

Ah yes, another soothing video! You just made my day, Chris

[@kamilsmlr2088]

What a wonderful day to hear this video and working on my ps1

[@dreammfyre]

Watched even tho I knew all this because you’re such a pleasant human being.

[@jba2048]

I recently did an upgrade to a system of similar age and specs. My sister needed a system for teaching distant learning classes that could offer more capabilities than her issued chrome book. I upgraded it to a Core 2 Quad, 8GB of RAM, 256GB SSD, and a Radeon HD 6750; it runs like a dream for a desktop I originally bought in 2009. I wouldn’t try to do anything intensive like video editing or games on it, but it is perfect for teaching online classes.

[@rogerkoh1979]

Upgrading Ram helps. I think SSD will further improve the boot time.

[@ExplainingComputers]

Agreed! As we shall see.

[@Mini-z1994]

@@ExplainingComputers Yeah ram, ssd, gpu for modern webbrowser hardware acceleration like a gt 730 should make this fairly snappy. Maybe a core 2 quad processor as well like a q8400 with a small overclock too 3.0 ghz or so, or if you want too get a bit more in depth on modifications go with a 771 xeon & mod the bios for a cheaper quad core processor like a xeon e5450 a 80w tdp quadcore cpu with the closest equivalent being the q9650. Ofc a more modern processor like a 3rd gen I5 is ofc running circles around this. I'm still doing some gaming in 1080p on a I5 2500 running at max turbo of 4.1 ghz single core & 3.9 - 3.8 ghz on quad core usage with 16 gb ram & a gtx 1660 super. (Was previously using a r9 280 & wasn't planning on upgrading gpu for a while longer honestly but gpu died after 5.5 years of nearly daily usage in August 2020, id guess thanks too me running a fps limiter it was more the weight of the cooler bending the pcb over time that eventually caused a failure, it still lasted a while for me.)

[@blaugrun1012]

@@ExplainingComputers Vitamin D is important for healing and for health in general , take 4000 units per day

[@MattExzy]

Oddly enough, I got away with running a low-spec C2D system for a good while with an SSD upgrade - even though it pegs the SSD and is 'bad' for it, the virtual memory performance from having the page file on it was enough to keep it pretty usable.

[@LiLBitsDK]

@@MattExzy ya should have upgraded the memory too then, less pagefile need ;-)

[@johncnorris]

A very smart video to make with a lot of people updating their PCs to work from home. PS - When I first saw the processor type I was thinking you were going to the deep-end of the pool with a Socket 771 Xeon upgrade. No pressure but those were fun to do back when X5460 processors were flooding E-Bay.

[@rudge3speed]

Keeping it out of the trash is the best part, not to mention learning how it works.

[@Zelectrocutica]

Watching on PC that use DDR2 and Yorkfield LGA 775. Also your channel is as always gold.

[@colewiebe3385]

What a mad lad, hearting everyone's comment! Awesome video!

[@blacksmock445]

Apologies if someone has already mentioned this, but laptops and lower-end desktop systems from this era often had 32-bit Windows installed even though they were 64-bit machines. Even if they had 64-bit Windows, their memory usage was limited to just over 3GB as memory addresses in the 3-4GB range were used by the on-board graphics cards. I discovered this when I upgraded my laptop to 4GB, but it could only use just over 3GB. There were still 32-bit machines around then as well, so as you say, gathering as much info at the start is good advice.

[@Bengadeer]

One option not included is if you replace the motherboard, you can install Ubuntu versus Windows and avoid an expensive upgrade and actually be a bit ahead of the curve for future uses.

[@ExplainingComputers]

Certainly the case -- I've many videos here on such installs. :)

[@BilisNegra]

Except if you replace motherboard, and hence processor and probably RAM as well, what's left of the original computer (in a simple configuration like this, with no expansion cards and only a hard drive)? Might as well buid a new one from scratch.

[@MrBrianms]

Great presentation style. Clear descriptions. I enjoyed building my own computer to get things going for the first time is an achievement. Thanks.

[@iosilver9920]

Wasn’t there a scam on ebay, etc. where a guy was selling laptops with spyware pre-installed on? Might be a good idea for a future video showing people how to buy safely.

[@MacAndSwiss]

I would say that the simplest way is to completely swap out the hard drive (especially if it was pre-owned) and use a fresh HDD/SSD and a copy of Windows. If that's not possible (especially since you would need your own copy of Windows), you could consider using Windows' resetting tool, or some anti-virus software such as Malwarebytes to scan for any potential dangers.

[@DigitalJedi]

If I ever buy a used system, the first thing to be replaced is the storage.

[@bitelaserkhalif]

Solution is to reinstall Windows and everything by yourself

[@myfridayproject3257]

I know what you mean. I always scrub Windows off and install Linux! I never even boot to that pre-installed spyware.

[@bland9876]

@@MacAndSwiss you do not need a copy of windows. the pc will just know if win 7 or newer was on the computer befor and auto activate. all you need is an 8GB thumb drive and some knowledge of how to make a bootable thumb drive. I do not know if you can use the pc you just bought to do this or if that is a bad idea.

[@chriholt]

I have upgraded many of my clients' PCs with additional memory and SSDs and the performance improvements are obvious, but it's nice to see it actually quantified as you have done. Swapping the spinning hard drive for an SSD will make an enormous difference in boot time. Looking forward to the next episode!

[@ronnyb5890]

hey Christopher,this brings back "memories" no pun intended lol,to get a more responsive system i also uncheck animations,then your window panes will open instantly boot time may be increased if you change some settings in the advanced options (system settings), like use all cores at bootup,etc

[@AnotherAperture]

You are the salt of the earth, so kind, clear, and thorough, really saved my bacon ! 💜

[@umblapag]

Running (simultaneous) programs faster is what really speeds up when you increase RAM size. Doing simultaneous test, such as loading a dozen tabs with different media-rich websites would show even greater performance gains from this upgrade.

[@ThePetje06]

Since a couple of days I’m cleaning and restoring my old “game pc” from 2008. An AMD Athlon 64 X2 system that still runs great on Debian. I decided to make a NAS and media server of it. So this guide comes at the right time👍🏻

[@LetsGoBowlingNiko]

Great video Sir. I would want to see you upgrade the CPU to a C2Q model just for the benefit of 4 cores.

[@BubbaBigDude]

This "old PC" is older than the free "old PC" they gave me at my last job before quarantine to take home... a HP EliteDesk 800 with Intel Gen 4 i5 CPU and USB 3.0. I have since upgraded RAM to 16GB and installed a nvme SSD, my next upgrade will be a decent graphics card.

[@mulligatawnysoup6722]

Good morning, Mr Barnatt

[@ExplainingComputers]

Greetings! :)

[@Antonio-fl3nr]

I already know this, but it is certainly better if our dearest fifth Beatle teaches us all the small details. Great video, Chris. Missed you a lot.