Yes, you can repurpose the old hardware for various uses.
Yes, you can repurpose the old hardware for various uses.
I have this old CPU, RAM, and motherboard lying around. I was thinking about using it for web browsing and light gaming—things like Minecraft (Java Edition) or some less demanding indie titles. I don’t have pictures yet; I’ll add them later. My setup was an AMD Phenom II X6 1090T Mobo with ASUS M4A78-EM RAM, 8GB 4x2 DDR2 at 800MHz. I used these in my main system until early 2020, and they still function perfectly. I’m not sure if they’ll work with Windows 10 now, though—I last ran Windows 7 64-bit Home Premium on them. I might use it as a secondary PC for basic tasks like schoolwork, since they’re not super fast. I’m good at tweaking Windows for better performance—removing unnecessary processes, adjusting settings, and using an SSD would make it more efficient.
Plex or a file server works well if you can run it without a display, otherwise a basic second-hand card is suitable for video output.
I don’t usually do that kind of work—I’m planning to upgrade my GPU soon and will be using a new main rig. I think it supports IGPU, so I can use it now. It should still handle gaming well, even though I used to get fast frame rates in some titles.
You might also consider selling it, though OC could boost its worth. I managed to sell a mediocre p5q pro + e8400 by only overclocking it to 3.8g—this unit performed poorly, maxing out at 430 stable even with my modbios. The best you can get from old hardware is by pushing it to its limits, so if you’re not sure, go ahead and overclock. Before you start, I recommend flashing the BIOS to a newer version, as ASUS often damages older boards. A simple 4$ programmer like the Ch341A works well; I can prepare a modbios with M4A79T Deluxe and Maximus II formulas if you’d like. Rebuilding from scratch is straightforward once you replace the BIOS chip. Bricking isn’t an issue since you can revert to your original firmware by removing the chip and re-flashing. I’ve done this myself on my p5q using a P5Q Turbo BIOS and swapping the EBB for Maximus II formulas. The boot file improved from around 530 to 570, thanks to just two BIOS files and mmtool 3.21 BKmod. I’m not very comfortable with AMD OC because their chips are costly, but you can find threads online. For safe voltages, aim for about 1.6V overall—except for components like DRAM, where 1.56–1.58V is fine. For these older platforms (45nm or lower), all three can handle it safely. On 32nm, it’s around 1.55V for all three, and I’ve seen my X5660 run at 1.48–1.55V VBT for extended sessions (probably weeks now). No major degradation has been noticed, though stress tests with Prime95 large FFTs are possible.