New Old Computer

Hello all, first off thank you for taking time to read this and respond if your able to give support. Was given an older desktop and want to start learning more and upgrading. Ive downloaded some games but 80gigs is already ate up and idk where or why. I have thought about just reinstalling windows but I don't have a disk. I know I could format a part of the drive to reinstall but I don't want to ruin the drive. SO any advice about options on reinstalling windows. I been told I could do it from usb but I dont know if I have one big enough or the process. I know there is a ton of youtube videos but the little I looked into it was unhelpful. Looking to invest in this and belive ram should be my first purchase. But yet again a noob and unsure. PLZ help. Details follow:


Windows 7 home premium edition 64 bit
Processer AMD Phenom II X3 720 processor 3cpu 2.8ghz
ATi Radeon HD 4250.
4 gb of ram 148 gb hd

 

Need a bit more, like the make/model of the system board. Could you use a program like Speccy and get us full details?

http://www.majorgeeks.com/files/details/speccy.html

 

Operating System
Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit SP1
CPU
AMD Phenom II X3 720 19 °C
Heka 45nm Technology
RAM
4.00GB Single-Channel DDR3 @ 666MHz (9-9-9-24)
Motherboard
MSI 880GM-P51 (MS-7623) (CPU1) 23 °C
Graphics
SAMSUNG (1280x1024@75Hz)
ATI Radeon HD 4250 (ATI)
Storage
149GB Seagate ST3160021A ATA Device (ATA) 29 °C
Optical Drives
ATAPI iHAS124 B ATA Device
Audio
VIA High Definition Audio
plus has some type of water cooling system inside

 

Decent board, quite upgradable. It can also unlock the fourth core on your current CPU if possible.

https://us.msi.com/Motherboard/880GMP51/Specification


The Phenom II X6 1090T would be the most powerful processor supported by that board.

 

So what should I worry about first. I know there is alot of disk errors and have tried the basic windows repairs. It has two user with one password protected. I believe I'm logged into the admin. I want to remove all the useless stuff but I'm afraid of deleting vital things. Thought about reformat and reinstall but atlas no disk. do have window key for it though

 

Here is a link to a Windows 7 image. It can be downloaded an burned to a DVD.

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows7

If you don't need anything from the drive like data or software/license keys, you can just wipe the drive and start over. It's far more productive than trying to fix an old install that could have lord knows what come with it like malware or unwanted programs. You have an older hard drive, and replacing it with an SSD would be a good place to start. Additionally, you could still retain the old HDD as a data drive if it's not too far gone.

Plenty of space, and a reasonable price:

https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820147373

Half the storage for $30 less, but Pro not EVO:

https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820147360

 

Well Im off to try a reinstall then. Have no blank discs so off to store. Is there any major concerns i should have about the drivers for video card or anything. I also have a usb wifi stick but that shouldnt be a problem to reinstall

 

Nevermind I dont have the key just product id.

 

SO the orignal OS was XP but it has Windows 7 installed. Can i not reinstall windows 7 without the key

 

The board supports SATA II. Is the SSD (SATA III) a better buy than a traditional disk drive given the 3.0 GB/sec limitation of the board? The durability is ridiculous with the SSD, I suppose that could be justification enough, but are there performance benefits too?

Very cool motherboard and overall PC. Haven't ever owned an AMD based computer, but if I tried one, these would be great parts to work with for sure->32 GB RAM (not that all that is necessary but still cool) support and DDR 3, which is very good for the era of the PC...

If you can get the W7 iso burned and then get the key with JellyBean, you may still run into issues. That depends on whether the upgrade from XP was legit. It would have had to be a retail upgrade I believe, which is sort of rare. One thing you could look at is imaging the system and then copying the image over to a new drive. Cleaning up the drive would be a challenge, but if you don't have to enter the key, you don't have to risk finding out that MS has suddenly decided to retire it because someone changed hardware at some point or who knows what else. Simpler on the front end but more complicated on the back end. Cleanup isn't as bad as it seems though, especially if you are willing to start over anyway. Once you get the image imaged over, you just expand the partition size to fill the new disk in the disk management console, assuming you would be using a drive bigger than 148 GB. It would have to at least be the same size or larger to use an image.

Looks like the mechanic's processor upgrade might be worth it. Over twice the benchmark capacity over what you have now:

https://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu.php?cpu=AMD+Phenom+II+X3+720

https://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu.php?cpu=AMD+Phenom+II+X6+1090T

Kind of expensive, though, and you might need a hefty PSU for the 125w high end power usage of the X6, especially if you plan to add a nice graphics card:

https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_fr....H0.TRS0&_nkw=Phenom+II+X6+1090T&_sacat=58058

I dig this era of hardware. Good luck with it...

 

The advantage of the Pro is the use of Samsung's Magician. My ThinkPad is SATA II, but with a Samsung Pro SSD you wouldn't know by using the laptop.

To get the .iso file via the link provided, you need a working license key, so it won't take long to find out what type it is and if it's functional.