I've had this same computer for over 25 years and it's as good as it ever was. It's only had 3 new cases, 4 new motherboards, 6 CPU changes, 4 memory updates, 12 new drives and and 5 graphics card upgrades.
Many thanks. I think that the algorythm is now kicking me for having no midrolls, but I've not plan to includue them, as they drive me mad as a viewer.
@doomtomb3 without vpn i could not watch this video because of cruel government censorship because our government thinks if they shut YT completely down nobody use these scammy apps just like you
Assuming your mobo even does that before going straight to the post screen. :-) My new one has a speaker attached, but I don't notice much of a beep when it boots.
The close-up shots of the tiny connectors even when the motherboard is sitting within the case is very impressive and of course very useful. Few channels can manage such tight shots with perfect clarity and camera stability.
I've done it more times than I care to remember. But for someone starting out, this is invaluable. Though Christopher did omit the blood sacrifice you must make when dealing with nice, sharp cases.
@@peterbrown6224 LOL, I've donated my share... one of my old cases has considerable duct tape along the inner edges, from sheer self-preservation... And yeah, I too was impressed with the nice clear shots of those tiny connectors. Good way to make them less intimidating for the newbie.
Maybe, but the board with the Pentium Dual-Core would have taken a Core 2 Quad or a 771-to-775-modded quad-core Xeon, which would have made an even greater video. Once the motherboard is replaced it's not the same PC anymore. At least the G4600 doesn't actually perform that much better... By the way (posting here because this got "lost" in the too many comments) the power supply happens to be good quality, made by CWT who makes some power supplies for Corsair.
@@spuds6423 It solely depends on your personal needs and what you exactly defines as "worth it". The epic need for speed will cost you a fortune however which way you look at it.
Other channels: "I had to spend $5000, bribe border guards and take the COO of FedEx hostage to build this MEGA GAMING RIG!!!" Explaining Computers: "This is the best I could get hold of at the moment without paying silly money." This is what we love about this channel. It's based in the real world. Any of us could go online, buy these components right now and follow the video to build exactly the same PC.
There's something relaxing and heartwarming about your videos. And this one looks like it could be a little toned down LowSpecGamer video regarding the capabilities of the PC. Looking forward to the next one, hope to see you again very soon!
Thank you for this clear explanation! I'm researching how to exactly the same thing....replace an old motherboard and processor, retaining as much of the old components as possible. This video showed me a number of things that hadn't occurred to me to consider.
You are a genuine tech teacher! Chris! Hopefully you should continue and keep up the good work. You are also a good founder to building up items perfectly. 😊
Sunday's morning coffee doesn't taste the same without your video Chris, greetings from Honduras. Has been many years since l don't do a computer upgrade like this one, thanks ! Loved seeing the old CPU with all expansion cards!!!
I appreciate the down to earth upgrade in terms of budget. We computer enthusiasts have a tendency to make a hole in our pockets, and actually most users don't really need all that computing power. A lot can be done with budget hardware and free software, and that's is why I'm looking forward to your next video. Those close-up shots are really good. Thanks a lot, I always forget what is the negative in the front panel connectors, but it won't happen again.
but the problem is if you are on the smaller budget why would you go for the new stuff over used, you are pretty much paying more for weaker hardware just so you can have that insurance
A superb video as always, Chris! As a longtime ago PC bench technician, this is one of the clearest explanations of upgrades for novices that I have ever seen. Now I know where to direct my less PC savvy but hands-on father if his old PC needs resurrection during lockdown. Those zoom shots of the connectors are terrific.
Excellent tutorial, I have been toying with the thought of doing exactly what you have done to the old 32 bit Desktop PC I have. I am going to to have a go, thank you. 👍
One tip to keep in mind is that some coolers have plastic over the thermal paste. Some it's like a sticker you have to remove, so just check before putting the cooler on. I have seen people put the cooler on like that (with the plastic sticker protector in place) and then wonder why their computer idles at 60 degrees F instead of a more reasonable 25-35 degrees.
although i also like other channels like LTT, EC is the only i one i know that builds PCs with affordable and realistic components (at least for me). So: Thanks!
The only difference I'd make on this build is to get the faster memory if you can afford it. The MB may support memory overclock and if the memory is rated faster it will be easier to overclock.
@@kevin34ct The H410 chipset is locked to 2666MHz for celeron-i5s and locked to 2933 for i7's and i9's I believe so it won't get past 2666MHz if I recall correctly. However, Intel doesn't really depend on RAM bandwidth as much as AMD Ryzen.
Thanks for yet another great video!! When I started watching your channel about a year ago I was a life-long but very disillusioned Apple 'fan boy' looking to move onto an open source platform, and not knowing where to start. I'm pleased to say that I watched this latest video on my newly self-built, silent, compact, desktop machine running Linux Mint. Thanks for showing me the way, by making it all so understandable and look so easy.
as always, an excellent video. The pacing, script and footage is spot on an makes understanding the whole process perfectly clear. Glad to see some love for the Pentium G6400, it's amazing how capable the entry level cpus have become. Looking forward to the next video testing on linux and opensource software.
its 2 years old comment but i have to ask when you sayed "it's amazing how capable the entry level cpus have become" what did you mean since they are pretty much uselless outside of using them for net browsing, whats more entry level cpus become uselless like back in the day entry level cpus were the same as the higher tier one but just with a lower clock
Nice video. Just did an updated of my 12 year old system, a z600 workstation. Added an SSD, USB3 card and a 2nd hand Xeon 5675. Still running just fine and keeping my room nice and warm. 😅
I remember watching this channel around three years ago and then two years ago with Techquickie, it taught me what I needed to build my first computer and since then I haven't watched your video's since, it was interesting getting one of your videos recommended to be after almost two years.
22:45 A word of WARNING on Passmark Scores!: Version 9.0 of Passmark Performance test is used on the video but score number scale has changed since version 10 came out, at least with the CPU test. I've tried both versions as a quick test before posting this (hence the CPU test only, sorry). If you look up the mean submitted score for this Pentium Gold CPU on the Passmark website, based on Version 10 as I suspected, you can see it now gets 4161 points. This is quite relevant for people who compare CPU's relying on the said website (me for one).
This basically how my PCs evolve over time. Incremental upgrades over time. The best thing to do of course is to figure out whether a big jump spending a bit more money in the end is more cost effective than all those incremental upgrades. But then again - taking restrictions on time and money considering something chosen at one point in time might be different at another point in time. It's all relative. Thanks for sharing this.
Yep... I have some that have crawled into the near-present through 3 or 4 upgrades, vastly extending their useful life. But once in a while the jump can't be made, or isn't really economical... and then we start the process again with a newer base. But I still have parts in everyday service that were made in 1992.
@@ElmerFuddGun Actually, some of my still-installed floppy drives are older than that, tho see little use. But the P4 with ISA slots still has my 486's old original sound card -- bought in 1994, but manufacture date is 1992... it makes sound in DOS, and that's its job, so everybody happy. DFI now makes an i7-9th-gen board with ISA slots, but they didn't think it would support a sound card. Still, if I were buying new....
@@Reziac - Wow a new motherboard with ISA slots. Maybe for those few companies that use some old (obviously) interfacing hardware that doesn't have a more modern implementation at reasonable cost.
@@ElmerFuddGun Yep, and DFI makes very nice quality boards (when I was building custom systems, I used them for my clients), and actual humans with real clues answer your questions. If I were buying a new modern board, their latest is seriously on my radar. (And you can buy direct cheaper than via any vendor.) And yeah, there are tons of industrial setups that rely on ISA interface boards (which commonly cost 10 grand or more) that still do the work required, and replacing all that with "modern" equipment would be prohibitively expensive. So there's still a small but steady market for ISA slots. But it gets worse... up through the late 1990s a friend scrounged every XT motherboard he could find, because his work needed them to interface with their garment cutting machines.... a better solution than coughing up six figures apiece for new cutting machines. I have a P4-3GHz with ISA slots, an iBase MB800, that I got as a DOS gaming rig specifically for the ISA slots. It is now 18 years old, but still does the job. Tho I think its boot drive is even older. :)
Cheeky little cameo from a 386 there, sporting a math coprocessor. Very nice! 😍 I couldn't see if you had removed the battery or not. Rifas, Vartas, tantalums, and other ticking timebombs 😆
I subscribe to most of the Tech channels and I am happy to admit this one is my favorite. We are close in age, I took my first programming class in 1981, my first real computer was an Osborne running CP/M and was the only pre-built system I have ever owned, I have built every one of my PC's since. I am proud of only owning one Intel CPU and that was a 286/12 that was the first PC I built, since then every one has been an Intel alternative. It does my old heart good to see you build with less than state of the art, mega buck components. Please continue on as you always have, it is content that is invaluable and I salute you for producing it.
18:25 You have part of the HDMI I/O shield bracket (earth connector) tucked inside the HDMI socket where as it should be resting on top of the socket. Don't worry, I have done this many times before on various different motherboard connectors and it's something I now specifically look out for when building new machines, as the only way to fix it is to remove and re-seat the motherboard, and you don't want to do that once you've continued to build the rest of the machine!
Do remember this is not real life -- it is a video shot single camera! :) On the B-roll take where the motherboard pokes through the back it is indeed a little offset. But this is not the case in the build.
Well spotted! You have a good eye for detail. Those metal earth tabs are always a pain when inserting a motherboard. I often tweak the angles of the tabs before assembly, as they often get flattened in the packaging (causing this “into the socket” assembly error).
Those old midi tower cases with their HDD stack at the front are few and far between these days. Always useful to keep hold of a case with plenty of space for spinning rust :) they make great NAS/Server cases on the cheap.
@@ExplainingComputers After I was shocked to see you wearing some other color, it occurred to me the black shirt is for greenscreening... it still looks really cool. Also a slick fit. I've never seen a nice shirt offered as merch, only T-shirts.
Perfect video tutorial. I've learned alot. I'm going to attempt my first build with older used parts and wanting to install them into an HP Elitedesk 800 G1 MT, if at all possible. No doubt that I will come across some difficulties but channels like this are a big help. Thank you.
Excellent video as always Chris! I would add that there are also ways to extract the windows 10 key from bios, and if your lucky enough to have a windows 7 sticker key on the side of an old PC that you no longer use, as of right now, it still activates windows 10.
A good, cost effective upgrade that will be more than adequate for the usual things like RU-vid, email, and buying stuff from Amazon. 😊 My own favourite upgrade for old hardware is a reasonably priced SSD and Linux Mint, which invariably gives a great performance boost, though I appreciate that many feel that leaving Windows is a step too far for them.
Transforming an outdated computer into a new powerful one is one of the most exciting hobby. Watching a freshly installed operating system start is also a moment of joy.
This actually looks like a mini-ITX motherboard rather than micro ATX. Also maximizing the chance of a new machine working by applying all relevant stickers has been standard practice for me for years :D
@@jb31842 There are a few DTX boards out there, and unless you know the differences to look for it's very easy to think they are ITX. Some cases sold for ITX will take them too, but many don't so you need to check.
Great upgrade series. It reminds me of an axe that was in my family for 160 years. In that time, it has had three head and seven handle replacements. I've been a Mac user for a decade and the two computers I own are heavily proprietary and unupgradeable. One wasn't eligible for the newest OS upgrade. The next PC will be a Windows/Linux model. It's amazing how much things have changed in the past decade and a bit, but also how much remained the same.
Thank your Chris. It is always a joy to have a new video each Sunday. I often wonder what your new space after renovations look like now? Maybe just a quick update like your 750k video. Congratulations on that btw. You are well on your way to one million I am sure.
Great video as always! I do want to give a small note that if you are going from an Intel CPU to AMD or vice versa, you _definitely_ want to reinstall Windows anyway, as the old installation will bluescreen every now and again due to having preinstalled drivers from the previous platform
@ExplainingComputers Wow, just wow! Only recently found your channel and knew instantly that this is a rare gem. You are crystal clear, precise, insightful and entertaining. I wish you had been my IT and/or English teacher! Keep up the good work! Pentium Gold G6400 is an interesting pick, with only two cores I would not use it for anything other than office work.
with all the new people in the classroom, it's almost impossible to be first every week! Even with constantly refreshing, but I'll show up every week, even being pushed to the back of the auditorium!
@@saintuk70 Yeah unfortunately RU-vid has become more like social media than a video platform where everyone has to be first, be the first to like and comment, etc. It all means nothing. Just enjoy the content, which is timeless.
Thanks! Always fun and relaxing watching your videos. Fun to see this upgrade, made me think if I would upgrade some of my old computets too. Lately I have mostly used SBC. ”Superhappy” fin!
I would also strongly advise checking for a BIOS update when you install a new motherboard. For example, the BIOS you have installed is v1.0 which is the release BIOS from June 2020. There have been 2 additional BIOS updates since then, 3 if you include the latest Beta BIOS dated April 2021.
Love your; details ,speed, clarity, and this makes you my go to to understand a new topic. Other new builders videos can assume The audience has some knowledge, and understand terms.
Great video. It was nice to see a non-bleeding edge PC being updated. I upgraded my current PC a few years back with a new graphics card and several extra hard drives, but the old computer (it's 5 years old now) is starting to get on a bit. I'll probably go for a full new PC, even in this crazy priced hard ware market, as I can't see that being fixed in terms of supply in the next two years. It's good to see upgrades being not as scary as people might think. ;-)
This was good to watch, and amazing how things have progressed. That heat sink alone was fascinating. You can tell they wanted to spiral out the heated air from the design, which is a massive change from the original Pentium processors. Thanks for uploading this!
That's the one piece I wouldn't keep... they're adequate HSFs, but I'd swap it for just about anything with a copper foot and a more-captive fan. The blades out there where a strayed wire could hit 'em always gives me the heebie-jeebies.
People may scoff at the logic of upgrading to a G6400 but it's single thread performance is on par with a 3rd generation i7 and multi thread performance with 3rd generation i5.
Well that was very informative. I had always assumed, obviously wrongly, that when you change the motherboard as long as you keep the drive with Windows on it, there would be no problem. That could be quite an additional cost. It keeps mounting up. Thank you for posting that, excellent as always.
Love the way you explain things and the good closeups. I built some new computers for myself and family recently and with parts left from their old builds I built another as a spare. GA-MA770-UD3 motherboard, Athlon 7750 2 core/2.7GHz and 8GB PC2-6400 DDR2. A new 250GB WD SSD and a cheap case. It is running Windows 10 Pro exceptionally well for general office work and internet Browsing (RU-vid mostly). For a 12 year old MB and CPU I think this is great.
I did a very similar build upgrade a few years back Gigabyte H110m motherboard and Kaby Lake Pentium. Noticed that my old Intel CPU cooler had a copper insert so re used it instead of the new one, with a $5 tube of Arctic MX-4 and it runs reasonably cool even under load.
You could use an M.2 SSD if you wanted to with a x4 adapter card since the PCIe slots aren't populated. Handy for when the motherboard doesn't have an M.2 slot.
I am so glad you remembered the all important sticker. We all know the processor would have crossed it's arms, "hurrumphed" and refused to work if you hadn't. Great work, as always.
Really nice video. Great photo. I would have replaced that stock power supply from CWT though. The older ones have a somewhat bad reputation, they tend to start fires... Their newer PSU are of much better quality.
I am watching this video on a laptop with a Pentium Gold processor. I paid $150 USD on Black Friday 2020. This has become my daily driver as it is hands down the best PC I have at this time. I am an AMD fanboy. but I cannot beat this price performance of this 14 inch laptop!. Great video showcasing the strengths of this CPU.
Hi Chris. Thanks for this, I did n't realise that UHD graphics support came on such CPU's. I may need a transcode/render machine and this had been a considerable help. BobUK.
I wonder how you got 3050 for a passmark as my ac version of this motherboard with the updated version of the same CPU as yours plus 16GB of RAM at 2666Mhz with a samsung SSD only gave me 1866 :(
@@ExplainingComputers Windows 10 home 64bit. Yes I did that. The CPU is the Intel Pentium Gold G6405 version so 4.1 Ghz as opposed to your 4.0 Ghz one, using with the H410m/ac mb. Is this mb one not quite the same ? Bought it for the M.2 option. Btw with crystel disk mark about 550. The SSD is a samsung evo 250GB
@@digitalmediafan This is very strange. You clearly have a slightly better CPU, and the motherboard has exactly the same chipset (H410) so should give the same performance. Your SSD is also at least as good at the one I used (you can never go fromt with a Samsung EVO). So this kind of suggests some kind of driver issue to me, or something not set in the BIOS. I would take a look at the individual passmark scores (for CPU, RAM, etc) -- which you can see in the video on the left hand side at around 24:45 -- to find out where your lower score is coming from. Please do report back on this.
@@ExplainingComputers I see you are using a registered version (?) 9. I am using the 10.1 evaluation version. I tried clocking the ram speed down to 2400 but same result...
@@digitalmediafan Yes, I am using a registered version of version 9. But I think we have nailed this -- they apparently changed the algorithm between versions 9 and 10, so results are no longer comparable(!): see www.passmark.com/support/performancetest_faq/v10-results.php As they say "So the new individual PT10 results can't at least on the surface be compared to the PT9 results. They are really different."
This is brilliant, someone else who calls the mouse a rodent! I also like to fire the system up before connecting drives for the first time, though if I'm honest not so much now with M.2. Subscribed!
this is exactly what i need to be doing on a on old PC with a micro ATX from 2008 its still working but ya gotta love all the new small tech of today it's too tempting
