The Intel Core i5 750 is a solid processor, but let's be honest—it’s four years old now. That means the warranty has long since expired, and it's really the same story for the motherboard, the graphics card, and most of the other components. Maybe the power supply and the hard drive are relatively new and still covered, but you can't count on much else...
EDIT: Oh, wait—I just noticed they're throwing in a monitor too. In that case, I'd probably set the price somewhere between $250 and $867.
I’m still missing a decent graphics card... everything else in my rig is actually pretty solid. But man, it’s impossible to scrape together enough cash when there are so many other things pulling at my wallet—between going out on the weekends, keeping up with shoes, and just general clothes, I'm basically broke.🤣 I’ve been eyeing a GTX 780 specifically. I saw someone listing one on eBay for $300 with a warranty, and honestly, I bet I could talk them down to maybe 200--$100 but what's the point? I don't even have enough spare change for a snack right now.
Adam Moore3 said:Look, let’s not talk down my processor, okay? 😬 Honestly—I actually have an identical setup myself—I'd go as far as saying you might have even picked yours from one of my old threads 😬 and look, say we take Battlefield 3, The Witcher 2, or Dishonored... they all run perfectly fine at 1080p. Sure, they aren't exactly the cutting-edge titles hitting the market right now, but they still work as a decent benchmark, don't they? I think with this (my 😁) build, you could play pretty much anything—maybe with higher settings here or lower there, obviously—but it’ll definitely get the job done for gaming. There are certainly cases where that i5 is totally sufficient, like playing multiplayer games such as Battlefield 4, or even running Dead Rising 3 in single-player where a GTX 570 paired with an FX 6300 at 720p on low settings manages about 30 FPS, which is honestly kind of laughable. That’s just an extreme example, but generally speaking, if you're hunting for a budget gaming rig, I don't think you can do much better. If you could scrape together a few more bucks and jump up to the i5 mentioned earlier, that would be the ideal move. If not the i5, then at least a quad-core Athlon. You can easily pull that together for $300. 🙂
I agree with everything said, really. My only concern is that it would be a shame for someone to build a brand-new rig only to realize later they should have spent a little extra upfront. If there's any spare cash at the start, just put it toward an i5. It'll give you peace of mind down the road—plus, if you ever decide to grab a beefier graphics card later, you won't have to deal with a massive bottleneck. Otherwise, you'll end up having to pay for both a new GPU and a new CPU at once, which is a huge hit to the wallet all at once. But hey, if he doesn't plan on upgrading... then it's probably fine as is. 👍
When you're rocking a gaming graphics card, I really think it’s worth grabbing the latest driver updates as soon as they drop—there's almost always some kind of performance boost waiting for you. It’s especially true when big new titles launch; remember how NVIDIA released a specific update just to optimize things for Watch Dogs? It makes a huge difference.
Well, I guess it really just depends... If you're a gamer running an NVIDIA GTX 970, you're probably going to want to reinstall those drivers every once in a while. Most of the time, when a newer version drops, it's actually an improvement over the last one—so why not? It's worth the effort. But if you're just using your computer to browse the web or check your email, then honestly, it’s not something you even need to worry about. You can just install the drivers once and call it a day.
If you're asking me, I’d probably save up a bit more cash first and just grab an i5 processor... I mean, honestly, trying to play anything decent with an $133 is going to be a struggle—especially when it comes to all the newer titles hitting the market lately. 🤷 You might get away with it if you're okay playing at a tiny 800x600 resolution, but who really wants that? 😁
Without the right drivers, your computer or laptop just isn't going to perform the way it was actually designed to—it's stuck in limbo. Take your graphics card, for example; if you haven't installed the specific driver yet, you might find yourself stuck at a tiny resolution, even if you have a high-end 1080p monitor sitting right there. You won't even be able to toggle those settings until the software is in place. It’s the same story with your connection, too—if you haven't set up your LAN or Wi-Fi drivers, you're basically cut off from the world, whether you're trying to plug in or go wireless. It really goes without saying, but drivers are always a necessity 🙂
Exactly—you’ve already got a solid CPU and motherboard combo. If I were in your shoes and had the extra cash lying around, I'd probably grab a GTX 970 when it drops, or maybe even push for a GTX 980—though I'm honestly not sure if your processor would end up bottlenecking you without some serious overclocking if you went with the 980. Also, definitely look into an SSD, whether you go with Samsung Evo or something from Intel... you can usually find them for under $200 🙂. That single upgrade would give your rig a massive boost.
The x99 chipset uses DDR4 RAM (for the most part)... And regarding what Benjamin King2 mentioned about the laptop, I'm 110% with him on that.
Exactly—if you’re planning on upgrading to Broadwell processors down the road, you'll end up needing a new motherboard anyway.. I'm actually running an Intel Core i5-4670K paired with a Gigabyte Z87 HD3 right now, and honestly, it works like a charm. 👍
This is a solid power supply for high-end graphics cards—plus, you get a 5-year warranty. Dice is definitely the better way to go here. 🙂
EDIT: I just took another look at your post... the Intel Core i5-4670K is a great processor, but if you haven't pulled the trigger yet, you might want to consider stepping up to the Intel Core i5-4690K paired with a Z97 motherboard. Honestly, the prices are pretty much neck and neck anyway.
It’s most likely an issue with the power jack soldered right onto the motherboard... 🤷 Honestly, if someone sells you a broken laptop, they should either give you your money back or swap it out for a working one.
So, you're actually considering trading in your PlayStation 2 for this piece of junk? If you're planning on doing any actual gaming on this computer, honestly, just don't do it... But hey, if all you want to do is hop on Facebook or browse some websites, then sure, make the swap if you really want to.
Nah, you’d actually have to install Windows 7 x64 first and then run an upgrade to Windows 8.1 x64... which, let's be honest, would be a total joke to try. It's much better to just wipe the hard drive and go straight to a clean Windows 8.1 installation. See? This is exactly why I told you to grab the x64 version from the start! 😬
I actually ended up installing both the Atheros and Broadcom wireless drivers myself—it really just comes down to which specific chipset manufacturer your hardware uses. My suggestion? Try the one from Atheros first. If you find yourself without any Wi-Fi access, just uninstall it, give the computer a quick restart, and then try the Broadcom version instead. You can follow that same logic for : Bluetooth_Atheros_8.0.1.305_W7x64_A * Bluetooth_Broadcom_6.5.1.4500_W7x64_A
After everything is installed, just pop into the Device Manager to see if there are any yellow exclamation marks hanging around...
Are you getting some kind of specific error message right when the download finishes or something? Maybe give me a few more details... Anyway, you could always just grab Norton and run a scan to clear out whatever junk is messing with your system.