PC for 14 year old

[janclaes47]

I have plenty of pc components laying around and considered to put together a pc for which my 14 year old son can use for his homework.

 

He likes to use adobe photoshop and illustrator and similar programs.

 

The motherboard I have is an Asus P5NSLI with a Pentium D 945 SL9QB processor.

 

https://www.asus.com/us/Motherboards/P5NSLI/

 

http://www.cpu-world.com/sspec/SL/SL9QB.html

 

I am aware that Pentium D is a historical processor today and the MB uses DDR2 and that there are much higher performance components available these days.

 

My only quest is if a PC with this MB and processor will still be of any use for him.

 

Thanks

[SteveK]

That's old stuff, but should be fine with Photoshop. Try and go for 4GB ram.

[johng]

If you fill the ram to capacity and maybe use a SSD drive it should be useable.

[janclaes47]

2 minutes ago, pr9spk said:

That's old stuff, but should be fine with Photoshop. Try and go for 4GB ram.

Thanks, I realise it's real old stuff, but can get him up and running for couple of hundred baht and upgrade later.

 

Can I run Windows 7 or 10 on a Pentium D processor?

[janclaes47]

Just now, johng said:

If you fill the ram to capacity and maybe use a SSD drive it should be useable.

You mean an ssd is necessary, as i have a load of 2 tb disks laying around?

[johng]

SSD not necessary but would speed things up...I'd go for Win 7

[KneeDeep]

Without SSD, I really wouldn't bother....unless you get a better CPU.

Luckily, you can for not a lot. https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Intel-Core-2-Duo-E7300-2-66-GHz-Dual-Core-UNBOXED-CPU-ONLY-/231346057006

 

Though postage costs put the price up somewhat.

 

But with the current CPU and no SSD, forget about Photoshop.

[janclaes47]

6 minutes ago, KneeDeep said:

Without SSD, I really wouldn't bother....unless you get a better CPU.

Luckily, you can for not a lot. https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Intel-Core-2-Duo-E7300-2-66-GHz-Dual-Core-UNBOXED-CPU-ONLY-/231346057006

 

Though postage costs put the price up somewhat.

 

But with the current CPU and no SSD, forget about Photoshop.

Is that so much faster than a 3.4Ghz pentium D?

[KneeDeep]

1 minute ago, janclaes47 said:

Is that so much faster than a 3.4Ghz pentium D?

 

 

More than twice as fast. Yours is too slow. Believe me, it's slower than the Celeron processor in my nine year old laptop.

It's from 2006 for goodness sake.

[KneeDeep]

https://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu.php?cpu=Intel+Pentium+D+950+%40+3.40GHz&id=1129

 

https://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu.php?cpu=Intel+Core2+Duo+E7300+%40+2.66GHz&id=945

[Get Real]

2 hours ago, janclaes47 said:

Thanks, I realise it's real old stuff, but can get him up and running for couple of hundred baht and upgrade later.

 

Can I run Windows 7 or 10 on a Pentium D processor?

You can run 7 okey, but I wouldn´t recommend 10.
However, this is no problem to use nither regarding processor, or windows if it´s only going to be used for photoshop and school work. Working very good for surfing Internet too.

Do not care about the comments about the need for SSD. You will not need that, and it will work fine with a S-ATA normal HDD.
You will need 4 MB though. If you do not have that, they are always giving you an overprice for them here. When I asked half year ago they wanted 500-600 for 2 MB stick, and you will need 2. Better order them online, and you only pay around 250-300 for the working ones.

Edited June 10, 2018 by Get Real

[KneeDeep]

I would advise that you update the BIOS. I have prepared it especially for you;

ASUS P5NSLI v1801 for Windows 7.zip

 

Download, un-zip and use EZ Flash 2 to update.

 

You have a PM.

 

 

 

[KneeDeep]

21 minutes ago, Get Real said:

You can run 7 okey, but I wouldn´t recommend 10.
However, this is no problem to use nither regarding processor, or windows if it´s only going to be used for photoshop and school work. Working very good for surfing Internet too.

Do not care about the comments about the need for SSD. You will not need that, and it will work fine with a S-ATA normal HDD.
You will need 4 MB though. If you do not have that, they are always giving you an overprice for them here. When I asked half year ago they wanted 500-600 for 2 MB stick, and you will need 2. Better order them online, and you only pay around 250-300 for the working ones.

 

Really? Maybe we have different ideas as to what is acceptable.

The machine will quickly become an annoyance, with both CPU and slow HDD contributing.

Most annoying when working. 

Even Adobe recommend a C2D as a minimum.

Clearly you mean 4 GB of RAM, not MB.

Are you utilising a similar CPU?

Edited June 10, 2018 by KneeDeep

[jenny2017]

35 minutes ago, Get Real said:

You can run 7 okey, but I wouldn´t recommend 10.
However, this is no problem to use nither regarding processor, or windows if it´s only going to be used for photoshop and school work. Working very good for surfing Internet too.

Do not care about the comments about the need for SSD. You will not need that, and it will work fine with a S-ATA normal HDD.
You will need 4 MB though. If you do not have that, they are always giving you an overprice for them here. When I asked half year ago they wanted 500-600 for 2 MB stick, and you will need 2. Better order them online, and you only pay around 250-300 for the working ones.

Let's talk about GB, please. My older PC is running fine on Windows 10 Pro, but I've got 4 slots and could get it up to 8GB DDR 2 memory.

 

   Please do not underestimate Photoshop, you'll need at least 4 GB of Ram.

 

  OP, if your PC has got only two slots, 4 GB is maximum. 2 x 2 GB, it seems there are no bigger ones available. 

 

 What speed are your memory cards, as I might have some sitting around? 

 

P.S. I think you can run W 10 with 4 GB. 

Edited June 10, 2018 by jenny2017

[KneeDeep]

3 hours ago, janclaes47 said:

Thanks, I realise it's real old stuff, but can get him up and running for couple of hundred baht and upgrade later.

 

Can I run Windows 7 or 10 on a Pentium D processor?

 

It will definitely run, if that is your only issue. Just don't expect much in the way of performance

[KneeDeep]

1 minute ago, jenny2017 said:

Let's talk about GB, please. My older PC is running fine on Windows 10 Pro, but I've got 4 slots and could get it up to 8GB DDR 2 memory.

 

   Please do not underestimate Photoshop, you'll need at least 4 GB of Ram.

 

  OP, if your PC has got only two slots, 4 GB is maximum. 2 x 2 GB, it seems there are no bigger ones available. 

 

What CPU do you have running? Something less than a Core 2 Duo?

[jenny2017]

2 minutes ago, KneeDeep said:

 

What CPU do you have running? Something less than a Core 2 Duo?

Core 2 Duo, but I only assumed that W 10 would run on a Celeron (d) processor? 

[KneeDeep]

2 minutes ago, jenny2017 said:

Core 2 Duo, but I only assumed that W 10 would run on a Celeron (d) processor? 

 

Celeron D is single core. Won't run anything these days.

Pentium D can, but it is really scraping the barrel.

Core 2 Duo onwards is ok.

[Get Real]

18 minutes ago, jenny2017 said:

Let's talk about GB, please. My older PC is running fine on Windows 10 Pro, but I've got 4 slots and could get it up to 8GB DDR 2 memory.

 

   Please do not underestimate Photoshop, you'll need at least 4 GB of Ram.

 

  OP, if your PC has got only two slots, 4 GB is maximum. 2 x 2 GB, it seems there are no bigger ones available. 

 

 What speed are your memory cards, as I might have some sitting around? 

 

P.S. I think you can run W 10 with 4 GB. 

Sorry, saw that I signed 4 mb. It should of course be 4 gb. What he have is 2 x 2 GB slots.
You should not run win 10, because it will slow down the computer drastically compared to win 7.

[Get Real]

35 minutes ago, KneeDeep said:

 

Really? Maybe we have different ideas as to what is acceptable.

The machine will quickly become an annoyance, with both CPU and slow HDD contributing.

Most annoying when working. 

Even Adobe recommend a C2D as a minimum.

Clearly you mean 4 GB of RAM, not MB.

Are you utilising a similar CPU?

Yes, I meant 4 GB. No I am not using a similar CPU. Just knowledge of the computer business both in hardware and software as wells as development for about 20 years.

Ok, I can agree it will not be quick, but as I understand it. OP do not want to buy much extra for be able to use it. It will be able to use.

[KneeDeep]

4 minutes ago, Get Real said:

Yes, I meant 4 GB. No I am not using a similar CPU. Just knowledge of the computer business both in hardware and software as wells as development for about 20 years.

Ok, I can agree it will not be quick, but as I understand it. OP do not want to buy much extra for be able to use it. It will be able to use.

 

9 minutes ago, Get Real said:

Sorry, saw that I signed 4 mb. It should of course be 4 gb. What he have is 2 x 2 GB slots.
You should not run win 10, because it will slow down the computer drastically compared to win 7.

 

Actually it has four slots and can address up to 16 GB or RAM.

So with that processor, he needs to throw as much RAM at it as he can.

But really, update the BIOS and upgrade the CPU asap unless you want the boy to pull his hair out.

SSD will be the final touch. use as a Boot drive and the HDD for extra storage.

[jenny2017]

16 minutes ago, KneeDeep said:

 

 

Actually it has four slots and can address up to 16 GB or RAM.

So with that processor, he needs to throw as much RAM at it as he can.

But really, update the BIOS and upgrade the CPU asap unless you want the boy to pull his hair out.

SSD will be the final touch. use as a Boot drive and the HDD for extra storage.

I was trying to find 4 GB DDR 2- 800 memory sticks at Advice, but the fastest they had were 2 GB. That would limit it to 8 GB but should be fast enough for a 14-year-old. Running 2018 Photoshop could be a problem, the processor isn't really good for such programs. I'd look at some photo programs that use less capacity. 

Edited June 10, 2018 by jenny2017

[janclaes47]

@jenny2017 @KneeDeep @Get Real

 

My motherboard has 4 memory card slots.

 

I can use 667 Mhz memory or 533 Mhz, I understand with 667 Mhz 1Gb is the largest available and with 533Mhz 2Gb. The Mb is not 800 Mhz compatible according to the Asus website

[Get Real]

1 hour ago, janclaes47 said:

@jenny2017 @KneeDeep @Get Real

 

My motherboard has 4 memory card slots.

 

I can use 667 Mhz memory or 533 Mhz, I understand with 667 Mhz 1Gb is the largest available and with 533Mhz 2Gb. The Mb is not 800 Mhz compatible according to the Asus website

Nah, 667 Mhz have 2 Gb and 4 Gb too. The 4 Gb version is mostly SO-Dimm PC-2 5300 DDR2

[janclaes47]

15 minutes ago, Get Real said:

Nah, 667 Mhz have 2 Gb and 4 Gb too. The 4 Gb version is mostly SO-Dimm PC-2 5300 DDR2

 

You are correct, found 2Gb pc-s 5300 on Lazada for 300 Baht/piece, but shouldn't I stick with what Asus lists?

 

http://dlcdnet.asus.com/pub/ASUS/mb/socket775/P5NSLI/P5NSLI_QVL.pdf

Edited June 10, 2018 by janclaes47

[jenny2017]

34 minutes ago, Get Real said:

Nah, 667 Mhz have 2 Gb and 4 Gb too. The 4 Gb version is mostly SO-Dimm PC-2 5300 DDR2

Not so sure if you'll get a 4 GB for them. When I upgraded my old PC I could only find 2 GB, not 4/ They are quite expensive, should the OP need some, I must have a few GB somewhere. DDR II, 667 and 800.

 

  But it's important to be careful when mixing DDR Ram. 

[jenny2017]

30 minutes ago, janclaes47 said:

 

You are correct, found 2Gb pc-s 5300 on Lazada for 300 Baht/piece, but shouldn't I stick with what Asus lists?

 

http://dlcdnet.asus.com/pub/ASUS/mb/socket775/P5NSLI/P5NSLI_QVL.pdf

Please try the crucial scanner. It will show you exactly what products you may use and which you shouldn't use. 

 

  http://www.crucial.com/usa/en/support-memory-motherboard-compatibility

 

P.S. A good place to buy DDR 2 seem to be Advice shops. They usually have some in stock and aren't that expensive.

 Advice stores are in all provinces- white blue signs 

 

  Please check here: https://www.advice.co.th/product/ram-for-pc

Edited June 10, 2018 by jenny2017

[janclaes47]

6 minutes ago, jenny2017 said:

Please try the crucial scanner. It will show you exactly what products you may use and which you shouldn't use. 

 

  http://www.crucial.com/usa/en/support-memory-motherboard-compatibility

It states that 800 Mhz memory is compatible, but I have read plenty thread on the major technical forums from people who get frequent blue screens when installing 800 Mhz memory.

 

So I will stick with 667Mhz, at 300 Baht per 2Gb they are affordable to me. Think there are even cheaper available, but have to check them out.

 

I will look for 4 piece 2Gb.

[KneeDeep]

55 minutes ago, janclaes47 said:

It states that 800 Mhz memory is compatible, but I have read plenty thread on the major technical forums from people who get frequent blue screens when installing 800 Mhz memory.

 

So I will stick with 667Mhz, at 300 Baht per 2Gb they are affordable to me. Think there are even cheaper available, but have to check them out.

 

I will look for 4 piece 2Gb.

 

Hmmm...the spending is going up for this very old Motherboard. 

I'm concerned about the reliability of something twelve years old.

[janclaes47]

4 minutes ago, KneeDeep said:

 

Hmmm...the spending is going up for this very old Motherboard. 

I'm concerned about the reliability of something twelve years old.

Yes but with 4 dimms and a refurbished cpu, I'm still under 2000 Baht.

 

I had set my budget at 3000 Baht, but had actually thought the MB accepted ddr3 Ram, so I could probably still use it after upgrade.

 

Not sure if I can find refurbished MB-cpu and ddr3 ram for 3000 Baht.

Edited June 10, 2018 by janclaes47