[SOLVED] recently was gifted an old motherboard.

[mpere805]

Recently I was gifted an ASUS Sabertooth 990FX R2.0 motherboard, AMD FX 8-core FX 8350 cpu, an a Radeon HD 7850. I was wondering if it was worth it to obtain additional parts to completely create a back up system for myself.

 

[drea.drechsler]

What will you use it for? It's fairly dated and even in it's day it was a bit disappointing. That said, it will game moderately OK if you keep settings low enough, and be good as a web browsing/socials/youtube machine.

EDIT: oh, and make for some fun overclocking if you put it under a good enough cooler.

 

[King_V]

I sort of did something similar, cobbling together old parts. If you've got the money and are just looking at something to play with, it couldn't hurt. Just don't expect it to be anything impressive. The GPU will perform on average slightly slower than a GTX 1050, and the CPU will be something akin to 2nd or 3rd gen Intel i5, give or take, but consuming a ton more power to do it.

As @drea.drechsler said, you'll need some good cooling for that CPU. But, get a cheap case, an HDD, and, depending on how recently that board was used, there's a chance that an OEM Windows 7 or 10 license is tied to that motherboard. Just try to do a clean install of Windows 10 using the Microsoft installer tool on a bootable USB, and choose no license. If you're lucky, you just might wind up with a valid OEM Windows 10 license, even if it was running Windows 7 before.

Check out what I did with mine - click on the Spoiler in my sig, and look at Old Ironsides. Granted, I had a bit more in free parts thrown at me by various friend whose names shall remain unknown to protect the guilty and my only splurge was the GTX 1650, which I probably didn't need to do.

 

[USAFRet]

Recently I was gifted an ASUS Sabertooth 990FX R2.0 motherboard, AMD FX 8-core FX 8350 cpu, an a Radeon HD 7850. I was wondering if it was worth it to obtain additional parts to completely create a back up system for myself.

You'll need RAM, PSU, case, storage.

If you have an actual use for it, then maybe.
If it is going to just sit around after booting up, then no.

 

[Math Geek]

i have an 8350 system myself that i use in house. it's not a gaming powerhouse but those 8 cores are useful for other work. i use it as a testbed and vm host. throw 16 gb ram on it and you'll easily be able to run at least 2 vm's at a time, especially if you run linux on it.

as needed, i fire up vm's and rdp or ssh into them from my main system. it's got net access so i often infect vm's with viruses and malware to see what happens.

but you could use it for all day to day work no problem, especially if it is a second system not expected to handle AAA games. it may be an older system but it's still plenty good enough for the majority of day to day tasks.

 

[mpere805]

What will you use it for? It's fairly dated and even in it's day it was a bit disappointing. That said, it will game moderately OK if you keep settings low enough, and be good as a web browsing/socials/youtube machine.

EDIT: oh, and make for some fun overclocking if you put it under a good enough cooler.

I was thinking to use it as you said for browsing the web, everyday use, and youtube viewing. Also, in case my main rig craps out on me to have on hand. But like you said it is fairly dated. I'll see what it going to cost to purchase some parts. I do have some spare parts. Thanks for the advise.

 

[King_V]

If you need a case, I've been seeing some sales pop up for cheap, basic cases on NewEgg recently. They're not going to be great cases, but if you don't already have one, some of them will be good enough.