- Joined
- Feb 13, 2016
- Messages
- 3,454 (1.01/day)
- Location
- Buenos Aires
| System Name | Ryzen Monster |
|---|---|
| Processor | Ryzen 7 5700X3D |
| Motherboard | Asus ROG Crosshair Hero VII WiFi |
| Cooling | Corsair H100i RGB Platinum |
| Memory | Corsair Vengeance RGB Pro 32GB (4x8GB) 3200Mhz CMW16GX4M2C3200C16 |
| Video Card(s) | Asus ROG Strix RX5700XT OC 8Gb |
| Storage | WD Black 500GB NVMe 250Gb Samsung SSD, OCZ 500Gb SSD WD M.2 500Gb, plus three spinners up to 1.5Tb |
| Display(s) | LG 32GK650F-B 32" UltraGear™ QHD |
| Case | Cooler Master Storm Trooper |
| Audio Device(s) | Supreme FX on board |
| Power Supply | Corsair RM850X full modular |
| Mouse | Corsair Ironclaw wireless |
| Keyboard | Logitech G213 |
| VR HMD | Headphones Logitech G533 wireless |
| Software | Windows 11 Start 11 |
| Benchmark Scores | 3DMark Time Spy 4532 (9258 March 2021, 9399 July 2021) |
About ten years ago my mother in law took advantage of a government scheme to buy a PC on zero interest payments. Shame she didn't consult me, because she ended up with an Intel E2140 on a Biostar P4M-890-M7SE mobo, with 512Mb RAM and Vista Starter.
To say that it ran like a slug would be doing it justice and so I upped the RAM to 2.5Gb and eventually the OS to Win7. Anyway, she didn't seem to mind the limitations and at the grand age of 82, began to teach herself how to use the machine and she's done very well indeed.
Fast forward to this week and I remembered that I still had the Asus F1A75-M (A4-3420 CPU) mobo that my brother gave me, after upgrading his PC when I was in the UK last year, so, rather than sell that for peanuts, I built it up with 8Gb DDR3 and a 250Gb HDD, using a very nice case I've had for ages and could never throw away for sentimental reasons. Now she's tearing along with Windows 10, a wireless mouse and a much improved keyboard (you could no longer see the writing on the keys on the old kbd).
I took the old Biostar PC back home with a view to upgrading it to sell on as usual, only to find that it has a max memory limit of 4Gb. I have to admit that this took me aback somewhat and maybe I'm showing my ignorance here, but I haven't seen that kind of limit since the days of Pentium 4.
I'm aware that Biostar motherboards tend to be lower down the scale in terms of features and are generally at the cheaper end, but 4Gb? In its day, it was touted as a gaming PC motherboard, but that memory limit really got me scratching my head. I even had a look to see if a newer BIOS had addressed that issue, but since the latest BIOS info page gives no info on what, if any, major changes had been applied, I decided to leave well alone. Besides, the only option is floppy BIOS update, which really isn't worth the risk, if there's no perceived advantage
Suffice to say that she got a pretty good deal and I ended up with a crappy Biostar, and three buckets of pebbles as consolation (which are probably worth more than the mobo). At least pebbles are always handy.
To say that it ran like a slug would be doing it justice and so I upped the RAM to 2.5Gb and eventually the OS to Win7. Anyway, she didn't seem to mind the limitations and at the grand age of 82, began to teach herself how to use the machine and she's done very well indeed.
Fast forward to this week and I remembered that I still had the Asus F1A75-M (A4-3420 CPU) mobo that my brother gave me, after upgrading his PC when I was in the UK last year, so, rather than sell that for peanuts, I built it up with 8Gb DDR3 and a 250Gb HDD, using a very nice case I've had for ages and could never throw away for sentimental reasons. Now she's tearing along with Windows 10, a wireless mouse and a much improved keyboard (you could no longer see the writing on the keys on the old kbd).
I took the old Biostar PC back home with a view to upgrading it to sell on as usual, only to find that it has a max memory limit of 4Gb. I have to admit that this took me aback somewhat and maybe I'm showing my ignorance here, but I haven't seen that kind of limit since the days of Pentium 4.
I'm aware that Biostar motherboards tend to be lower down the scale in terms of features and are generally at the cheaper end, but 4Gb? In its day, it was touted as a gaming PC motherboard, but that memory limit really got me scratching my head. I even had a look to see if a newer BIOS had addressed that issue, but since the latest BIOS info page gives no info on what, if any, major changes had been applied, I decided to leave well alone. Besides, the only option is floppy BIOS update, which really isn't worth the risk, if there's no perceived advantage
Suffice to say that she got a pretty good deal and I ended up with a crappy Biostar, and three buckets of pebbles as consolation (which are probably worth more than the mobo). At least pebbles are always handy.
