Do I build a new pc or salvage a wasted once decent i7 laptop?

[JuJu78]

Hi everyone I need some help and advice please and any is appreciated!

Myself and my eldest daughter love gaming we have a steam account which we love to use and have a fair few games. She is more Minecraft and also has various online subscriptions for various games and I'm more into the Sims and various indie games.

Anyway trying to cut a really long story short, at the moment my kids and myself are juggling between my phone and the tablet I'm using now to type this, for all our entertainment needs. We have a TV but it's not used as we don't watch the BBC etc and that saves a few pennies! Also willing to use this as my PC monitor if I build a pc.

Due to various reasons we have lost 3 laptops in roughly 2 years and now have nothing.

I thought why not build my own little powerful micro ATX ideally i5 6600 z170. In an ideal world that would be lovely but will take a long time to save and get all the parts one at a time.

I feel confident enough to do this build on my own as I built a PC many years ago when the Sims 2 was released. I had the help and guidance of a good friend who was a professional PC engineer with a great workshop and a business account so it ended up costing peanuts and it flew like nothing I had seen before and lasted YEARS. Sadly my friend passed away a few years ago but he taught me more than I thought so yes I'm definitely willing and confident to build something again.

Whilst browsing all the lovely meaty Intel CPUs I suddenly thought I have a broken laptop in the cupboard from 2011 which is an i7 and all that's wrong with it is a broken screen. Someone had fallen asleep and failed to put my laptop away first and it fell on to the floor hence the screen damage. So I dug it out of the cupboard all excited as I had completely forgot about it only to open it up and found this person without my knowledge or consent had had a good go at screwing it up further as well as breaking the screen! Some people think they know everything and fail to research and dive in heavy handed. Anyway from what I can see I now need a whole new housing case and after trying to discuss what else he had done to it he tells me it needs a new motherboard too. when I opened the lid I found the keyboard missing but found it in another cupboard then i saw he had broken the large ribbon type connection on the motherboard it's still attached at one end and also one off the smaller ribbon cables won't slide in properly without a few teeth popping out I hope you understand what i mean by teeth. I'm no expert. So I'm not too sure which direction to head towards. Also it seems finding parts for an Acer aspire 5942 extremely difficult especially without pictures. I did however find this on eBay


..... Acer Aspire 5942G HD Laptop .....

Received in a job lot the first thing we noticed is that all the base screws have been removed so it was easy to pop apart and test why this unit has no power, from a quick test we can confirm the power is reaching the motherboard but at that point we decided not to go any further with it.

the screen looks intact but not tested.

the back lit keyboard looks intact but not tested

reported to have a ATI Radeon HD5650 1GB graphics card

shipped fast via 24 hour DPD interlink express tracked and insured



Please note this is an insurance write off laptop and we have done our best to test what we can however this is guide only and no further warranty is offered, no returns for spares or repair only.

Mike always warned me about buying anything for PCs of eBay so I have alarm bells ringing the size of buses. The seller want's 120 pounds for it or best offer.

I also forgot to mention that when I was removing the battery I noticed what looks like a slight cigarette burn melt on the outside of the battery and on the side of the battery near that area also looks deformed. The lower part of the case on the back corner by the hinge has been cracked I think by not putting everything back properly. Im willing to try replace the motherboard and put my parts on to it.

After feeling completely deflated over my broken Acer I thought well as a quick fix for something to use for now I could just replace the HD in a Dell laptop that died a few weeks back but then I found the screw holding it in is shredded and I thought well no guessing who did that! When telling him my discovery of the shredded cemented in screw he said yeah I know so obviously he had already got to it first to screw that up too. So as well as needing a hitman (jokes) I really don't know what to do! Would be nice to have something sorted out by Christmas THIS YEAR for my kids and me.

Thanks for reading and sorry this is my first time posting so if I'm in the wrong place apologies.

 

[Jeff Kaos]

I know this will probably get me burnt on a PC-centric forum but if you and your kids are desperate for some gaming AND on a tight budget I suggest looking at a last gen console to hold you over until you can get a decent gaming PC. I won't pretend to know what the conversion rate is between a pound and a dollar but I picked up a refurbished Xbox 360 for my kid for about $60.

I know you have a nice library of games on your Steam account and it seems like investing in a last gen console is a waste of money but keep in mind that: games are cheap (especially used), it can play DVD's, you can stream Netflix and other services through it fairly easily and you can get a few free games every month if you sign up for the consoles "gold" or "plus" or whatever service. Oh, and it has Minecraft. And if your kids are anything like mine it's pretty much the only game you need to have. And Maybe Skylanders.

But whatever you do don't invest any money in trying to fix up a 7 year old laptop. Unless you're doing as a tinkering project with the firm idea that you most likely will fail. Laptops are notoriously difficult to repair. I worked for over a year building and repairing PC's for corporate clients, mostly hospitals and large office based businesses, and I never once repaired a laptop. The only thing I repaired that would come close to a laptop as far as difficulty would be a touchscreen controller for a CT scanner. I can only assume that's because a non-working laptop is almost always considered a write-off. Especially one as old as the one you're contemplating fixing.

 

[JuJu78]

Hi Jeff thanks for the reply and don't worry about the console suggestion. I did dig out an old ps3 but I need to go get a new controller we have a second hand store near by and I saw one for 30 pound so that's roughly near 60 dollars I'm probably way off in that guesstimate.

Yes I'm not overly worried if I was to totally mess up changing over the motherboard and case but it would be a huge achievement and great to practice and learn on too.

If I buy the parts I want for that micro atx I want then it would be a different story.

The laptop wasn't overly used as I was out alot around that time and only really used it for music and light gaming as I'm fairly new to steam. Just seems like a huge waste.

Typing on phone is hard

 

[g-unit1111]

Hi Jeff thanks for the reply and don't worry about the console suggestion. I did dig out an old ps3 but I need to go get a new controller we have a second hand store near by and I saw one for 30 pound so that's roughly near 60 dollars I'm probably way off in that guesstimate.

The console vs PC argument has been done to death and we're mainly against it here because in reality building your own PC is better.

So in regards to salvaging your laptop, the bad thing about laptops is just about the only thing you can salvage from dead laptops is the primary hard drive. Nothing else really works on desktops - CPUs and GPUs won't carry over and the parts that work on your laptop are made for that specific laptop. Building a gaming PC is definitely the best route and nothing else compares. Consoles and tablets are not replacements for dedicated gaming hardware no matter what the fanboys will try to argue. How much are you looking to spend on a PC if you were to build one?

 

[JuJu78]

I want something that's going to last and it would be really nice to play sims safely at ultra doesn't have to be all the time but now and again crank up the settings. My daughter and I have been talking about recording speed builds and posting them on her yt page that she wants to start so has to be fairly decent. Liquid cooler possibly would be nice and I can save on a smaller HD, ram... Z170 as I wouldn't mind looking into overclocking once I've researched it inside out but I have been looking at pre clocked I5 6600k I want everything new as I am worried about life span and getting ripped off. I would be going for a micro build and as silent as possible. Seems part picker has become a new hobby. Any suggestions on the processor as I'd love to spend out on the graphics card more. Thanks for the reply
.

 

[g-unit1111]

I want something that's going to last and it would be really nice to play sims safely at ultra doesn't have to be all the time but now and again crank up the settings. My daughter and I have been talking about recording speed builds and posting them on her yt page that she wants to start so has to be fairly decent. Liquid cooler possibly would be nice and I can save on a smaller HD, ram... Z170 as I wouldn't mind looking into overclocking once I've researched it inside out but I have been looking at pre clocked I5 6600k I want everything new as I am worried about life span and getting ripped off. I would be going for a micro build and as silent as possible. Seems part picker has become a new hobby. Any suggestions on the processor as I'd love to spend out on the graphics card more. Thanks for the reply
.

You won't get ripped off if you build it yourself. Building it yourself is really the only way to ensure you get a clean install of the operating system and that you know exactly what's going into your system. If you buy something from the likes of Cyberpower and iBUYPOWER you won't get a good idea of what is going into your system because of generic parts and poor assembly. But if you were to build it yourself I could post a few builds but I would have to know what your budget is and what kind of monitor we're going to be working with (like 24" 1080P or 30" 1440P, etc) because that will determine CPU and GPU.

 

[JuJu78]

Yeah over past few weeks when the last laptop died I did look into a quick fix and buying something really cheap just as an all round entertainment system but the more browsing and think I then looked at gaming pcs and I knew from stupid price differences for parts that don't cost the earth it would be stupid to buy one at them prices I could build one much better.

I think I'm definitely going to go for an i5 and definitely going to be a micro atx. I like the idea of oc so as I'm still learning I've read I need a k series and a motherboard that starts with a z I also like the idea off ddr4 as I want it to last awhile.... I just don't want to buy a processor that costs alot that won't perform and after getting excited when I see a good price then reading elsewhere it won't perform I end up going back to the i56600k.... Any idea what I can get that will perform that won't need oc and won't cost as much? And if ddr3 is ok then I guess I could keep costs down although other things then come into it too that I would like ssd and I've been learning about cache and now understand why things would slow down to a near halt... If I could get some advice on processors then I would get more of an idea off cost.

I will keep looking around for a cheap laptop that I can swap parts with and try save it just as a project and always good to have a spare computer around.

 

[g-unit1111]

Yeah over past few weeks when the last laptop died I did look into a quick fix and buying something really cheap just as an all round entertainment system but the more browsing and think I then looked at gaming pcs and I knew from stupid price differences for parts that don't cost the earth it would be stupid to buy one at them prices I could build one much better.

I think I'm definitely going to go for an i5 and definitely going to be a micro atx. I like the idea of oc so as I'm still learning I've read I need a k series and a motherboard that starts with a z I also like the idea off ddr4 as I want it to last awhile.... I just don't want to buy a processor that costs alot that won't perform and after getting excited when I see a good price then reading elsewhere it won't perform I end up going back to the i56600k.... Any idea what I can get that will perform that won't need oc and won't cost as much? And if ddr3 is ok then I guess I could keep costs down although other things then come into it too that I would like ssd and I've been learning about cache and now understand why things would slow down to a near halt... If I could get some advice on processors then I would get more of an idea off cost.

I will keep looking around for a cheap laptop that I can swap parts with and try save it just as a project and always good to have a spare computer around.

So if you're not going to overclock, then you don't need a 6600K. You should look at getting an i5-6500. Here's an example of a system like that:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-6500 3.2GHz Quad-Core Processor (£188.49 @ Amazon UK)
Motherboard: ASRock H170 Pro4 ATX LGA1151 Motherboard (£100.61 @ Amazon UK)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance LPX 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-2133 Memory (£74.99 @ Novatech)
Storage: Samsung 850 EVO-Series 250GB 2.5" Solid State Drive (£91.98 @ Ebuyer)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£41.89 @ Amazon UK)
Video Card: MSI GeForce GTX 1060 6GB 6GB 6GT OC Video Card (£260.49 @ CCL Computers)
Case: Corsair 200R ATX Mid Tower Case (£54.98 @ Novatech)
Power Supply: SeaSonic S12II 620W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply (£64.76 @ CCL Computers)
Total: £878.19
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-11-18 23:32 GMT+0000

 

[JuJu78]

See this is were I'm torn as the 6600k I found for 206 which I would rather save up that little bit more for also I have seen the Asus maximus gene matx on a sale price which I was thinking of buying if I had enough left after Christmas is paid for ... just keeping close eye on prices and really appreciate all your advice.

 

[JuJu78]

Putting the smart TV to use so glad I bought one few years back!

 

[g-unit1111]

See this is were I'm torn as the 6600k I found for 206 which I would rather save up that little bit more for also I have seen the Asus maximus gene matx on a sale price which I was thinking of buying if I had enough left after Christmas is paid for ... just keeping close eye on prices and really appreciate all your advice.

Again the best advice I can give is that if you're not going to overclock then there's no point in purchasing the 6600K or the Maximus. You're overpaying for not a lot gained. Do you want to build an mATX system?

 

[JuJu78]

See this is were I'm torn as the 6600k I found for 206 which I would rather save up that little bit more for also I have seen the Asus maximus gene matx on a sale price which I was thinking of buying if I had enough left after Christmas is paid for ... just keeping close eye on prices and really appreciate all your advice.

Again the best advice I can give is that if you're not going to overclock then there's no point in purchasing the 6600K or the Maximus. You're overpaying for not a lot gained. Do you want to build an mATX system?

Yes would love to keep it small as possible... Was also looking at the gigabyte gaming 5 board.