Posts by Larry Ortiz5

What exactly am I looking at here? 🤔

http://h20566.www2.hp.com/portal/sit...4892.199480143

A low-end power supply can usually handle an NVIDIA GeForce without much trouble since those cards don't pull much juice. But if you're stepping up to something more powerful, you really want to look at high-quality units from brands like EVGA, Corsair, or Seasonic... better safe than sorry, right?

I’d probably lean toward Microsoft. I don't really have a specific reason—it's just a gut feeling. Honestly, though, you can't really go wrong with any of them.

It’s totally normal—I’m running an Intel Core i5-4670K myself (which is a bit more powerful than yours), and even then, watching 1080p videos on YouTube puts my CPU usage at around 50%. Honestly, don't sweat it if your games are running smoothly; if there's no stuttering, you've got nothing to worry about. If you do happen to have some extra cash lying around, though, you could easily swap out your GPU—your i5 can definitely handle much beefier graphics cards.

Correction Ryan Fowler53 regarding the RAM memory.

Ryan Fowler53

Hey, let's not be too hard on him—you can tell he's still weighing his options. Plus, the way this build is put together just doesn't quite click... he's working with an $80 budget, yet he's trying to squeeze in a GTX 760 and only 4GB of RAM? That’s a tough balance to strike. And honestly, that power supply isn't really up to the task either—when I see the VS label, I think of basic office desktops rather than anything meant for gaming. If he had gone with a CX, we'd be talking about a completely different story..

Exactly—it’s just way too much money 😁

I'm running an i5 4670k paired with an XFX AMD Radeon HD 7870 double dissipation and 8 gigs of RAM—all at a resolution of 1680x1050. I’ve pretty much cranked everything up to ultra, though I skip the anti-aliasing and all that other extra junk. Even then, during some of the heavier firefights, there's no way I can maintain a steady 60 fps; it tends to dip down to around 45-50. And honestly, why would I even bother maxing out the anti-aliasing or those other settings that just choke the CPU and GPU? This setup definitely needs a little extra love if I want to see a decent framerate...

If you don't mind shelling out $167 a bit more for either the R9 280 x TOXIC or the GTX 770, then honestly, go that route—you'll have much more peace of mind in the long run. As for picking between them, it really just comes down to your personal preference—do you lean more toward AMD or NVIDIA? They’re both solid cards, so you can't really go wrong with either one. Just keep in mind that you’re going to need a high-quality power supply; compared to an Asus HD7770, both the GTX 770 and the R9 280 x TOXIC pull about three times as much power. Plus, you'll need a decent CPU to actually keep up with a card that powerful.

So, to get started, why don't you list out your full PC specs? Make sure to include your power supply too—if you aren't sure what it is, just pop the case open and check the model number printed right on the unit itself.

People on eBay are asking for insane amounts of money for mediocre computers—I guess since they paid top dollar a few years ago, they’re trying to claw back an 80% profit. Honestly, I sold my 5770 graphics card about two years ago for $133 you know how much? It didn't even take 15 minutes, dammit. Maybe I should have held out for $500-$200 but what's the point if I'm stuck waiting months just to move it? Looking at the listings now, people are asking $450-$167 for that same 5770. 🤣 Sure, they might eventually find a buyer, but they'll be sitting on it for a long time.

Haha, let her trudge through the snow in those brand new boots—you just sit back and enjoy your new rig 😁

Angela Hall89 said:I was wondering if anyone knows which graphics cards are compatible with the miscellaneous motherboard?

Technically, you could run just about any modern card in there—but before you go shopping, what does the rest of your setup look like? I mean, what kind of CPU, RAM, and power supply are we talking about? Also, what's your budget looking like for this upgrade? It’s worth keeping in mind that you don't want to drop a ton on a high-end card if your processor or power supply can't actually handle the load...

If you could just drop the TV model number here, it would make things a whole lot easier 😉

That's true, but I’m pricing this relatively low compared to what people are asking on eBay—so I'm expecting to get a pretty significant boost from that.

Richard Nelson2 said:Since I'm not really an expert when it comes to pricing out builds like this—could use some help from the pros here—is this setup worth $333?

CPU Intel Pentium E6500 @ 2.93GHz Wolfdale 45nm Technology
RAM 4.0GB Dual-Channel DDR2 @ 333MHz 5-5-5-15
Motherboard ASUSTeK Computer Inc. P5B SE (LGA775)
Graphics ATI Radeon HD 2600 Pro (ASUStek Computer Inc)
Hard Drives Western Digital Hard Drive

Personally, I’d probably offer around 850-$300.

Henry Campbell4, would you be interested in an i5 750 paired with an ASRock H55M-LE and a Corsair cooler?

I’ve never overclocked the i5 750—just kept it at stock speeds—but I picked up the ASRock motherboard last year, and I'll throw in the Corsair CPU cooler for free. If it sounds like something you'd want, just shoot me a DM. I'm based out in Chicago... Honestly, you'd see a pretty decent boost if you decided to jump over to this processor or the platform in general.

Whoops, my bad—I totally misread your post because I was just skimming through it too fast. 🤣

Anyway, don't quote me on this since I'm not 100% certain, so if I've got it wrong, please forgive me. (I'm pretty wiped out right now and honestly can't be bothered to Google everything.) I think when you're buying high-end graphics cards, they don't really come with passive heatsinks anymore? It seems like they aren't built that way from the factory, so you'd have to go out, buy a separate cooler at a shop like Best Buy, and install it yourself. Though, now that I think about it, I'm not entirely sure if that specific cooler is designed strictly for liquid cooling or if it's actually possible to set up some kind of passive cooling on the card itself. Sorry again if I'm off base—please feel free to set me straight.

Personally, I’d lean toward the AMD Radeon HD 7850 2 GB, though it does cost a bit more than the $433 option. If that’s out of reach, honestly, just grab the 1 GB version from MSI—it comes with $408 extra perks. You get a 3-year warranty plus their silver reward, which is basically a voucher for two games
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http://www.newegg.com/p/product_info.php?c...ducts_id=12031

To be fair, nothing is really worse about the HD 7790—plus, you get Far Cry 3 bundled with it
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http://www.newegg.com/p/product_info.php?c...ducts_id=13346

In that case, just grab this and you'll be all set 😉

ASUS P5G41T-M LX BIOS 1101
Enhancements to overall system stability.
File size 628.74 KBytes — updated June 27, 2012
Download from Global

I can't seem to track it down either—though honestly, they’re probably just two identical boards with the exact same specs. Anyway, don't sweat downloading the wrong firmware for that board; nothing bad is going to happen. You'll likely just get an "ERROR" message saying the BIOS installation failed because the software isn't compatible with your motherboard, so there's no real risk there. But the real question is... why are you even looking to update the BIOS? Are you doing this just out of boredom or something? 😁