Maximizing Frankenstein

Olentzero

Member
Hello everyone - I got tipped off to this forum by Ex_Brit and am hoping some of you good folks might be able to help. I recently inherited my old work computer as the entire office got hardware upgrades, and I'd like to see what I can do with it.

Until I lobotomized it using CCleaner (I'll spare you all the details and ask about that issue in a more appropriate forum), Frankenstein was running some form of Vista 32bit on an Asus P5B Plus Vista Edition motherboard. By all appearances, it doesn't look to be a factory-made rig, as there are no identifying corporate logos on the case, just a cryptic "Cooler Master" down the front. The motherboard and the CPU - an Intel Core 2 type - are the only thing I've been able to positively identify (mostly because I'm a complete novice at tinkering with the insides of computers) so I have no idea about anything else on the inside except for the two DIMMs in the 'A' slots.

So I guess first - how do I go about identifying what's in there?

And second - I know it's an old rig, but what can I do even at this late date to maximize its potential, especially as regards gaming? I know the Asus motherboards are generally good for that kind of thing; do I have something I can work with here or is it just better as a paperweight by now?

Thanks in advance for all your time and help!
 

My Computer

System One

  • Manufacturer/Model
    Unknown
    CPU
    Intel Core 2
    Motherboard
    ASUS P5B Plus Vista Edition
    Memory
    WD 75 GB master, 2 slaves (1 WD, 1 Samsung)
    Graphics Card(s)
    Unknown
    Sound Card
    Unknown

My Computer

System One

  • CPU
    Dual L5639 // i7 950 @ 4.0Ghz
    Motherboard
    Evga SR-2 // Gigabyte x58a-ud3r
    Memory
    12Gig Corsair XMS3 // 6Gig OCZ Gold
    Graphics Card(s)
    gtx 560 ti // gtx 260-216
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Dual 22" // Headless
    Hard Drives
    OCZ aGILITY 3, 120Gig + Seagate 500Gig x 2
    PSU
    Silverstone da700 // Corsair 520hx
    Case
    Rosewill BlackHawk Ultra // Antec 900v1
    Cooling
    Twin CM Hyper 212+ // Noctua NH-u12
    Other Info
    Acer 8930 laptop with x9100...
Hi Patonb - thanks for your response. Before I can get into all that, I need to rescue Frankenstein from the accidental lobotomy I performed on it. There's a separate thread in "Crashes and Debugging" on that particular subject if you think you might be able to help.
 

My Computer

System One

  • Manufacturer/Model
    Unknown
    CPU
    Intel Core 2
    Motherboard
    ASUS P5B Plus Vista Edition
    Memory
    WD 75 GB master, 2 slaves (1 WD, 1 Samsung)
    Graphics Card(s)
    Unknown
    Sound Card
    Unknown
While I'm trying to figure out how to undo the lobotomy, what information am I looking for on the power supply?

Also, I'm an extremely casual gamer and the stuff I use most is Minecraft and a few older games like SPORE, but I'd like to be able to get back into a couple online games like Allods, and maybe pick up Skyrim at some point.
 

My Computer

System One

  • Manufacturer/Model
    Unknown
    CPU
    Intel Core 2
    Motherboard
    ASUS P5B Plus Vista Edition
    Memory
    WD 75 GB master, 2 slaves (1 WD, 1 Samsung)
    Graphics Card(s)
    Unknown
    Sound Card
    Unknown

My Computer

System One

  • CPU
    Dual L5639 // i7 950 @ 4.0Ghz
    Motherboard
    Evga SR-2 // Gigabyte x58a-ud3r
    Memory
    12Gig Corsair XMS3 // 6Gig OCZ Gold
    Graphics Card(s)
    gtx 560 ti // gtx 260-216
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Dual 22" // Headless
    Hard Drives
    OCZ aGILITY 3, 120Gig + Seagate 500Gig x 2
    PSU
    Silverstone da700 // Corsair 520hx
    Case
    Rosewill BlackHawk Ultra // Antec 900v1
    Cooling
    Twin CM Hyper 212+ // Noctua NH-u12
    Other Info
    Acer 8930 laptop with x9100...
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