For the last few years my daily driver has been an Intel dg31pr motherboard with a Intel Q8400 quad core cpu and 4gb of ddr2 ram. It struggled with only two task:
1. Remastering Puppy, the cpu temp could go to 70C+, sometimes freezing the system. I could put Puppy in "powersave" mode to fix this.
2. Running Virtualbox machines, the 4gb of ram was just not enough. The MB has only two slots and I found that two 4gb ddr2 ram boards were both scarce and really expensive.
So, on a trip to deposit trash in a trash dumpster I spotted a more modern looking motherboard and its cpu fan. No cpu, no ram. Now, finding a computer complete in its case has good odds of being OK, I've saved many. A bare motherboard means only two things, one, the owner upgraded and discarded, or two, the MB stopped working and was replaced.
Anyhow, it followed me home. An Intel dh61cr (from about 2011), cpu socket 1155 which could use 3rd generation "I" series cpu and two ddr3 ram slots. Dropped it in an empty 1/2 high case, connect to the power supply, installed an old I3 cpu and two, 2gb ram boards. Attached a monitor, keyboard and mouse, punched the "on" button and NOTHING.
The usual rule for troubleshooting a system that will not POST (start displaying on the monitor) is disconnect EVERYTHING not required for a minimum boot. That means all external devices and internal cards.
I had violated that rule by inserting TWO ram boards, so I removed one, pressed the button and it posted. Turns out the MB has a bad memory channel B. Next, I booted Puppy from USB to test all the other sub-systems, all working.
Off to Ebay and bought a I5-3340s and one 8gb ddr3 ram board. The I5-3340s was chosen since it has a low wattage requirement of 65w compared to the Q8400's 95w. This would help control the heating issue when remastering.
The Q8400 had a CPU Passmark v9 score = 3188, I5-3340s = 6153, almost double.
Total expenditure $US:
CPU = $7
Ram = $13
Now operating with a noticeably faster "dumpster special". You can note in the photo I bring the sata connections out through the front panel which lets me easily swap drives.
- dh61cr2.jpg (68.02 KiB) Viewed 1050 times
wizard
