[SOLVED] Please help me choose between these two systems

[housecarl2066]

I have two PCs, current build....

HP 280 G2
Intel Pentium G4400 3.3ghz
Geforce GT 710 2gb DDR3
1 tb HDD
8gb RAM
Windows 10

It is a standard ATX case and currently has a 180w PSU

I was planning to replace the PSU with a Corsair 550TX, and the GPU with a GTX 1050 ti 4gb GDDR5 at a total cost of about £210. Then perhaps I could think about replacing the Processor.

However I also have this computer

Dell Optiplex 790
Intel i5-2400 3.1ghz
500gb HDD
4gb RAM
Ubuntu

It's a slimmer case and has a 250w PSU and cannot be replaced with a standard ATX like the HP. I have just installed Linux on this machine.

I also have a non-working HP Pro (powers up but no picture) which has 2x 4b RAM sticks, a 500gb HDD and an i3 processor at 3.3ghz and a 300w PSU.

Should I just take the 1 tb HDD, RAM sticks, and GPU out of my HP and put it into the Dell and use that instead?

Still not sure what I want to do, please advise!

 

[housecarl2066]

I put the 2x 4gb sticks that I have from the old HP Pro and put them into the Dell so now the Dell has 12gb RAM.

I might be better off putting my 1tb HDD with Windows 10 and the GT 710 into the Dell aswell, and just use that instead of the HP 280 g2, as it would mean I have an i5-2400 3.1 ghz processor, instead of the Pentium G4400 3.3ghz. I could also use the 8gb RAM stick to upgrade the Dell to 18gb over 4 channels (8gb/4gb/4gb/2gb)

I've could then upgrade the Dell to a GT1030 4gb DDR5 to keep me going until I have built a proper computer.

 

[Archaic59]

I put the 2x 4gb sticks that I have from the old HP Pro and put them into the Dell so now the Dell has 12gb RAM.

I might be better off putting my 1tb HDD with Windows 10 and the GT 710 into the Dell aswell, and just use that instead of the HP 280 g2, as it would mean I have an i5-2400 3.1 ghz processor, instead of the Pentium G4400 3.3ghz. I could also use the 8gb RAM stick to upgrade the Dell to 18gb over 4 channels (8gb/4gb/4gb/2gb)

I've could then upgrade the Dell to a GT1030 4gb DDR5 to keep me going until I have built a proper computer.

If you move the drive with windows to a system with a different motherboard you'll need to do a clean windows install. You'll need access to drivers the motherboard needs. I would not bet on your chances of finding them but you could get lucky. If you don't do a clean install of windows you could end up chasing instability issues forever. Again, you could get lucky with that but the odds are not in your favor when it comes to prebuilt systems.

 

[housecarl2066]

If you move the drive with windows to a system with a different motherboard you'll need to do a clean windows install. You'll need access to drivers the motherboard needs. I would not bet on your chances of finding them but you could get lucky. If you don't do a clean install of windows you could end up chasing instability issues forever. Again, you could get lucky with that but the odds are not in your favor when it comes to prebuilt systems.

Thanks for the info. I was debating whether switch over but now I wont. I am planning to build up my own PC but it will be over about 6 months. For the mean time I am planning to get either a GT1030 or a GTX 1060 when it becomes available and use it in one of the systems I have. I could take the 240w power supply from the HP Pro and put it into the G2 (it has just 180w) and run a GT 1030 off that at no cost other than for the GPU.

The HP Pro i3-3.3ghz used to boot up, but now it doesn't, or I would try to use that instead.