[SOLVED] New (to me, but old) system. Opinions please.

[mike the car guy]

I needed a replacement for my old spare that recently died, I do use it some. Prices seem sky high for junk, or near non existent on Craigslist where they used to be common and cheap. This seemed like a deal for $200 and he said most of the components are not new, but have been replaced. Now I wonder. Still not a bad deal IMO. Kind of seemed like he built it, or at least upgraded it and it's the flat VCR style, not a tower. Something puzzling is there is no Manufacturer ID anywhere on the box. And it seems unlikely someone would home build in such a cramped enclosure. And crammed full which concerns me. I'm thinking of putting it all in my old mid tower, which I think I can do as the MB says MicroATX. The HDD is an 1T WD Green apparently, which I believe are noted for short lives, and already old. The PSU is only 300 watts and tiny in physical size, powering a i7 as well as a graphics card. It will mostly be used for music recording with Audacity, and some internet usage, no more demanding games than Freecell.

Is this thing a ticking bomb, should I put in another HD and PSU right now, or just go with it? I've got a case and new PSU so the only cost would be the HDD. Also Win 11 FWIW. Not sure if that's good or not, but as much as I hate 10 it can't be much worse. Oh, one more thing, under computer management, or whatever it's called now, it shows the CPU 8 times, suggesting 8 cores? But the specs only say 4 cores. What does that mean?

Anyway, it's got the following basic specs,

CPU	Intel	Core i7-2600K
SSD	Samsung	JZ7LN128HCHP-000L1
HDD	WD	WDC WD10AEDS-00P8B0
Graphics	ATI	ATI FireGL V
Optical	Blu Ray
PSU	Power Man	IP-P300DF-01

 

[USAFRet]

No matter what OS you want on it, you personally need to do a full wipe and reinstall.

For that thing, Win 10.

 

[punkncat]

2600K is a 4c/8t CPU so no issue showing that way in device manager.

Silverstone, among others, make some pretty small console type cases, so that in itself may not be issue. The PSU is likely going to be some whack-a-do format for said small case and the selection for replacements may be limited simply by form.

I would not continue to use a WD green as primary/OS drive in any manner of configuration. They have terrible latency, have firmware that makes it "efficient" by going to sleep in spite of power settings...just overall a pretty terrible drive for anything aside from infrequently used backup type storage.

IMO if you don't need the form factor, it certainly isn't going to hurt to move the system to a bigger case. If nothing else it should get more air flow. Having the spare case on hand is ideal. I would change the drive and PSU, particularly if you have something suitable on hand already. Even a cheap SSD would go a long way for seat of the pants responsiveness.

 

[mike the car guy]

It's got a SSD for the OS, but I would use the WD green for storage. It does boot up really quick.

It has been wiped, there's actually a nice assortment of software on it, from Office to Adobe Acrobat, full, not reader, but no files at all. The guy was pretty knowledgeable, maybe not an expert, but no dummy. Why 10 and not 11? I'd need a license I believe, which I'd have to buy, and if I was going to do that I'd go with 7.

 

[USAFRet]

It's got a SSD for the OS, but I would use the WD green for storage. It does boot up really quick.

It has been wiped, there's actually a nice assortment of software on it, from Office to Adobe Acrobat, full, not reader, but no files at all. The guy was pretty knowledgeable, maybe not an expert, but no dummy. Why 10 and not 11? I'd need a license I believe, which I'd have to buy, and if I was going to do that I'd go with 7.

1. Win10 vs Win 11: i7-2600K is not natively Win 11 capable. Your dude may have done some whatever to get Win 11 installed on this, or it may be a prerelease version.
I would not expect that Win 11 to last long.

2. You personally need to do a full wipe and reinstall. No matter how good the previous user is. You have NO idea where that software came from, and whatever else is in there.
ANY used system needs a full wipe and reinstall, even if the seller said he did it 5 minutes before money changed hands.
Just as an example..Windows and Office are paid licenses. Did the seller provide you with the license keys for those? Where did the Office install come from?

No question....full wipe and reinstall.

 

[mike the car guy]

Win10 vs Win 11: i7-2600K is not natively Win 11 capable. Your dude may have done some whatever to get Win 11 installed on this, or it may be a prerelease version.
I would not expect that Win 11 to last long.

It had crossed my mind as to how he got it installed given that bit of security that's supposed to be on the MOBO. And while not a deal killer, I'd rather not lose the software installed or buy a new OS. As far as a license, I've never heard of one being supplied with a used computer, at least not if it's not on a sticker on the side of the box, and that's only the OS, not anything else. Given my conversation with him I'd actually be a little surprised if it was bootlegged, but you never know.

However, it's not like Microsoft has made any pretense about fairness, tanking things intentionally and support, besides Win 10 unavoidable updates that crash the system. Legal perhaps, but it's not like they have any high moral ground to stand on.

 

[USAFRet]

It had crossed my mind as to how he got it installed given that bit of security that's supposed to be on the MOBO. And while not a deal killer, I'd rather not lose the software installed or buy a new OS. As far as a license, I've never heard of one being supplied with a used computer, at least not if it's not on a sticker on the side of the box, and that's only the OS, not anything else. Given my conversation with him I'd actually be a little surprised if it was bootlegged, but you never know.

However, it's not like Microsoft has made any pretense about fairness, tanking things intentionally and support, besides Win 10 unavoidable updates that crash the system. Legal perhaps, but it's not like they have any high moral ground to stand on.

In the transfer of a used system, transfer of the license key is actually a required part.
Yes, really.

Otherwise, he may be using that same license on a system he is still using.

And one license key == one system. You and he can't both use it.

besides Win 10 unavoidable updates that crash the system

That's a whole different thing. No reason Win 11 would be any different.
But the number of times a Win 10 Update has crashed any of my systems is exactly zero. And I've been running Win 10 since Day 1 of the original Tech Preview.

A Win 10 update causing issues is NOT a typical outcome.

 

[mike the car guy]

USAFRet I sincerely appreciate your input and advice here, and this isn't the first time you've helped me. But my experiences with MS appear to be somewhat different than yours. Thank you again.