Upgrade advice please (for Linux based system)

[NewComer999]

Hi all,

Hoping you might be able to make some helpful suggestions.

I have inherited a tower PC built in 2011 by ********. Perfectly good machine for its time.

I run one of the Arch based Linux distros. Very happy with that. I get decent performance from old hardware, it being not resource hungry for one thing, and have added a few new bits of hardware over the years, for example the blu ray optical drive I recently installed, a decent PCi wireless card etc.

That said, 2011 is quite old really, and I'm seeing a few hardware errors creeping in. I've looked online at lots of 'custom build' sites but to be honest, their specs seem WAY over what I think I'd need for a machine to play DVDs without screen tear, and a game no more 'demanding' than something like Far Cry 4.

I don't see the need to buy a new case, PSU (this has a 1200w Corsair PSU in it!) optical drive. I have three HDDs in here, including a Samsung Evo SSD, so again no need to purchase those.

I tend to feel I've no great need to buy the latest and greatest. I'm sure a decent Intel quad core i-5 or i-7, 8Gb or maybe 16Gb of DDR3 RAM would work fine... and I'm sure I don't need the cutting edge in graphics cards?

I plan to simply re-mount my existing HDDs into the new system. Anyone have any advice as to the sorts of Mainboard, chip, memory I should be using - again, can recycle the case - and where to find them?

The thing about me simply picking parts at random (e.g. Ebay) is that of course I've no idea how well they would work together.

Any help or suggestions here much appreciated

 

[Rainmaker]

This forum belongs to the Overclockers UK shop, so you'll only get recommendations to buy here. Talking about competitors is against the rules, understandably. Which Arch derived distro do you run? Antergos? Manjaro? I run all three in one way or another lol. These requirements suggest Ryzen tbh. Is your usage literally web/email/DVDs? Are you wanting ATX, mATX or other? Do you have cooling?

 

[NewComer999]

Hi Rainmaker,

Thanks for your reply. Apologies - all names will in future be avoided. Happy to shop here.

I run Manjaro - I love it.

Thanks for the recommendation already. Will look into that. Let me put it this way with regard to usage: I like games, but only play a very few, and even then do not expect to ramp the settings up to max. Happy to compromise as long as it runs smoothly, but yes other than this, DVDs - I will be buying a 40 inch 1080 monitor - and general useage, hence why I couldn't see the point in spending four figures on some state of the art box.