Dear reader,
Thank you for taking the time to consider my questions. Last night i ran into a series of videos on youtube called scrapheap challenge on linus tech tips channel, and it opened my eyes a bit. 4,5 years ago i built a PC for 1130 euro that ran like what was at the time considered a 1300 euro machine when bought from a pc builder.
I was pretty happy with myself and the help i get from the good people on tom's hardware, right up untill last night. Today i watched episode 2 and 3 and they basically built a modern gaming rig worth 800 euro for 300.
Today i am a student in my second year, and like so many other students, i find myself short on money, ALL THE TIME. However, computers and gaming are still passions of mine. So here are some questions to start this topic off:
Does anyone have any experience with the LGA771 server boards that can house 2 LGA771 quadcore Xeon processors? You can get 2 xeon's @ 3ghz, a mobo and a stupid amount of RAM for under 200 euro on ebay very easily today, but i'm wondering about compatibility with a number of things, to name a few: Windows, Power supplies, Graphics cards etc etc.
A second question one might ask themselves about these deals is how long will this hardware continue on working? If anyone can come up with anything that resembles an estimate, it would be greatly appreciated.
Third, how easy is it to break a cpu / gpu through overclocking experiments? If i where to go the way of a second hand q6600 for example, can it just stop working before it hits 90 degrees celcius for example? What do i watch out for, specifically regarding second hand parts?
What parts should i buy new even though there may be deals to be had on the internet? a power supply? GPU? HDD?
Anyone here willing to share their experience with regards to purchasing / using second hand parts will be loved
P.S. This is not my first build, nor my first time overclocking, however it would be the first time using second hand parts, especially if the server parts turn out to be a good idea.
Thank you for taking the time to consider my questions. Last night i ran into a series of videos on youtube called scrapheap challenge on linus tech tips channel, and it opened my eyes a bit. 4,5 years ago i built a PC for 1130 euro that ran like what was at the time considered a 1300 euro machine when bought from a pc builder.
I was pretty happy with myself and the help i get from the good people on tom's hardware, right up untill last night. Today i watched episode 2 and 3 and they basically built a modern gaming rig worth 800 euro for 300.
Today i am a student in my second year, and like so many other students, i find myself short on money, ALL THE TIME. However, computers and gaming are still passions of mine. So here are some questions to start this topic off:
Does anyone have any experience with the LGA771 server boards that can house 2 LGA771 quadcore Xeon processors? You can get 2 xeon's @ 3ghz, a mobo and a stupid amount of RAM for under 200 euro on ebay very easily today, but i'm wondering about compatibility with a number of things, to name a few: Windows, Power supplies, Graphics cards etc etc.
A second question one might ask themselves about these deals is how long will this hardware continue on working? If anyone can come up with anything that resembles an estimate, it would be greatly appreciated.
Third, how easy is it to break a cpu / gpu through overclocking experiments? If i where to go the way of a second hand q6600 for example, can it just stop working before it hits 90 degrees celcius for example? What do i watch out for, specifically regarding second hand parts?
What parts should i buy new even though there may be deals to be had on the internet? a power supply? GPU? HDD?
Anyone here willing to share their experience with regards to purchasing / using second hand parts will be loved

P.S. This is not my first build, nor my first time overclocking, however it would be the first time using second hand parts, especially if the server parts turn out to be a good idea.