After having a Stream Deck and then installing Linux on an old laptop for my wife, I decided to try and resurrect an old desktop I built in 2016. Wondering if it worth upgrading the graphics card, or is the whole thing too old to be of much use.
Parts
| Type | Item | Price |
|---|---|---|
| CPU | AMD FX-8350 4 GHz 8-Core Processor | - |
| CPU Cooler | Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler | - |
| Motherboard | Asus M5A99FX PRO R2.0 ATX AM3+ Motherboard | - |
| Memory | Corsair Vengeance Pro 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR3-2133 CL9 Memory | - |
| Video Card | Sapphire 100292L Radeon HD 5450 1 GB Video Card | - |
| Case | Cooler Master HAF XB EVO ATX Desktop Case | - |
| Power Supply | EVGA 700 B1 700 W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply | - |
| Generated by PCPartPicker 2025-12-31 21:26 EST-0500 |
In case the above is not viewable
PCPartPicker Part List: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/BVTxh7
CPU: AMD FX-8350 4 GHz 8-Core Processor
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler
Motherboard: Asus M5A99FX PRO R2.0 ATX AM3+ Motherboard
Memory: Corsair Vengeance Pro 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR3-2133 CL9 Memory
Video Card: Sapphire 100292L Radeon HD 5450 1 GB Video Card
Case: Cooler Master HAF XB EVO ATX Desktop Case
Power Supply: EVGA 700 B1 700 W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply
Generated by PCPartPicker 2025-12-31 21:33 EST-0500
Edit to add: No Man’s Sky is my most played game. And I was looking at an 8gb Radeon card as an update, if that upgrade would make the system usable, then I will do that. Otherwise I will save for a Steam Machine.
Edit 2: I knew I had a better graphics card, when I got home from work I found it. It is a [ASUS GeForce GTX 970 4GB GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 SLI Support Graphics Card STRIX-GTX970-DC2OC-4GD5](https://www.newegg.com/asus-strix-gtx970-dc2oc-4gd5-geforce-gtx-970-4gb-graphics-card-double-fans/p/N82E16814121899?item=N82E16814121899)
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Warning, I’ve had an issue in the past where I couldn’t play a game (Deus Ex Mankind divided) because it needed a specific instruction set on the CPU (SSSE3). While not your specific case since the FX-8350 supports SSSE3 (I should know, that was the exact CPU I switched to to be able to play the game) there might be newer instructions sets that this old CPU does not support.
Also that GPU is older than what people like to remember, from a time where AMD was the worst GPU option on Linux. It’s very likely that the open source driver is good enough for that card by now, but there’s a good chance you might need to wrestle with the AMD proprietary GPU driver (fglrx) which is worse than the Nvidia one in some aspects and some distros don’t even package it anymore.
If you plug your Nvidia GPU that rig would be usable for gaming, I’m not sure what fps you would get as games keep getting updates and old hardware remains the same so old benchmarks might not be reliable, but I suppose it should run plenty of stuff.
This sounds almost like the build I’m upgrading from now. I have an i5-4690 4 core 3.5ghz with 16GB DDR3, and an MSI GTX 970. I picked up a radeon 5600xt and it’s been able to handle a number of newer games with lower settings. That got me to pull the trigger on a full upgrade this week. But I was playing BG3 on medium settings and even Expedition 33. It’s not great but it runs fine.
Your CPU is better than that and I’d see if you can get more ram in there, you can probably find DDR3 for a decent price. I’d also check for used equipment. I got that gpu for ~$100 from someone who just upgraded to something newer.
Currently the problem with more ram is my CPU cooler covers one of the ram slots. I could increase the ram I have by replacing the sticks.
It would probably be cheaper to get a new cooler then, if you find one that fits better.
I shudder at the thought of cleaning the paste off the cpu after 9 years lol.
As long as you didn’t cheap out on the paste, it shouldn’t be fully hardened yet. Some alcohol should clean it off without too much effort.
Arctic Silver 5 AS5-3.5G Thermal Paste,Black, Grey
Just run it through the dishwasher that gets it really clean.
Yes but don’t expect it to run the latest and greatest games. My previous machine was similarly equipped.
Especially with memory costs high that’s not a bad setup. I wouldn’t bother with anything older though.
No Man’s Sky is my most played game currently.
Would make a nice server for self-hosting things locally (including potentially game servers) if you’re into any of that. That graphics card is definitely going to hold it back for anything else gaming-related, though.
That graphics card is definitely going to hold it back for anything else gaming-related, though.
Yeah, I was looking at some 8gb Radeon cards today, if upgrading that would make the rest of the computer useable I will do that. Otherwise I am going to save for a Gabe cube.
It’s almost never worth it. 10 years have passed, everything uses magnitudes less power, and the bus on that thing wouldn’t even matter if you slapped something like an SSD into the PCIE (it won’t even have a slot for that).
Just recycle it unless you have a specific need for it.
A set of DDR5 RAM now costs nearly as much as a whole PC did a year ago. It’s still worth upgrading the GPU and getting more use out of an older machine. DDR3 RAM is still affordable. There are also M.2 to PCIe adapters if you want a modern SSD, you just can’t use it as a boot drive. If you’re running Linux, you can put everything except /boot on the NVMe SSD.
Something 10 years old wouldn’t even have lanes available for that to work in any meaningful way at all.
Whatchu smoking, son??
The Asus M5A99FX PRO R2.0 motherboard has two x16 PCIe 2.0 slots running x16/x16 and two running x4/x4. A mid range GPU will be fine. That’s still twice the bandwidth you get with an external GPU on Thunderbolt. NVMe drives will work fine as well. The speed will be limited, but they will still be much faster than SATA.
