Posts by Rebecca Parker

You can honestly stop worrying—the HX Series CMPSU-650HXEU from Corsair is seriously top-tier quality.👍

driftingpilot8 said:Yeah, sure, let's go there. Or maybe they're just lost in the woods. 🙄 I'd bet anything my rig is cleaner than yours ever was. When someone suddenly drops a mountain of junk out of nowhere instead of actually sticking to the topic—junk that you can only get if you're part of that clueless crowd surfing sketchy sites and blindly clicking "OK" until you've installed half a dozen viruses—well, it makes me wonder why I bother running AV, Spybot, and Malwarebytes in the first place...
Sorry for the OT, but... what the hell?

Based on your posts, it wasn't exactly obvious that you were some kind of "IT wizard," so I was just trying to offer a solution that might help (and maybe $167) in case the PC hasn't been properly maintained.

I apologize if I insulted your IT intelligence; that definitely wasn't my intention.🙄

It just doesn't make sense. I was running an HD 4250 with 1GB of DDR3 memory on an Athlon 64, and I could play HD video and YouTube without any issues at all. Honestly, I think you might have some other junk clogging up your system—viruses, toolbars, malware, who knows? Just clean out your PC and see what happens. That computer should be more than enough to handle movies...

It might not actually be the graphics card... maybe things just got scrambled in the BIOS? Try pulling the battery again to reset the CMOS, then give it another shot. Honestly, though, you should probably test it in another PC first just to be absolutely sure it's still working okay.

Man, sounds like the GPU might be dead. Have you tried plugging it into a different PC yet? I know, it's a stupid question, but did you actually double-check that all the power cables are fully seated?

So, I ran into this nightmare where my motherboard and graphics card just wouldn't play nice together, constantly throwing BSODs at me. The motherboard was from one of those branded HP desktops—I think it was a rebranded Matsonic if I recall correctly—and the GPU was an AMD Radeon HD 4350. They just refused to work as a pair. After doing some digging online, I actually found out that this specific motherboard paired with AMD cards is known to cause issues, but I couldn't even get into the BIOS to try a firmware update.

Eventually, I picked up a GeForce GT 220 and swapped it in, and boom—it worked perfectly. That PC has been sitting with a buddy of mine for a few months now without a single hiccup, and honestly, my AMD card has been working fine on its own ever since...🤷

Lawrence Ortiz6 said:and I updated the BIOS (it wasn't compatible with the new GPU).

😕

Usually, you're better off just going for whatever has the biggest GPU at the lowest price point, right? 🙂

loneraven15 said:I know you guys already warned me about checking if it's PCI or AGP, making sure it fits the 16x slot, and ensuring the power supply can handle it, but does the SDDR vs GDDR stuff actually matter?

It doesn't really matter... though GDDR5 is obviously better. As for the amount of memory, it isn't a huge deal, at least not in this low-end bracket. But like crimsonstag84 said, you aren't going to get any serious gaming done with any of these. Better to save up for a $67, or just look for something used...

Yeah, I’m on the same page... I used to see those things popping up all over $167, but honestly, if I found one now, I’d have to sleep on it pretty hard. Right now I’m running a 4890, but I might be able to offload it soon. I've been browsing eBay to see what's actually worth my time and money, and these two are really the only options standing out. Do you think grabbing an NVIDIA GeForce GT 630 that’s only a year old for $700—maybe even $600 if I'm lucky—would actually be a solid move?

That’s exactly what I was thinking too... It feels a bit more powerful, doesn't it? Plus, from everything I've been reading, WOT seems to lean toward Nvidia, and honestly, that's my main priority right now.

Should I grab the Sapphire Radeon HD7770 GHz edition for $133 without any warranty, or just go with the GTX 650 that still has a year left on its warranty for $167?

It would honestly be better to just upgrade the power supply too. It’s basically on the same level as those cheap Verizon or LC Power units you see everywhere. Even though it says Cooler Master on the outside, my digging suggests it's just some generic Chinese shit once you look inside 😁.

Angela Hall89 said:My old card was an HD 3870 with 1GB of GDDR4, and I could actually play quite a bit with it.

You're making a mistake by equating memory capacity with actual performance. They don't always go hand in hand! Isn't 1GB of GDDR5 way better than 2GB or 4GB of slow GDDR2 or GDDR3?

Just listen to what people are telling you. No one here is trying to screw you over.🙂

Since that board is some prehistoric 775 relic—especially since it’s trying to juggle both AGP and PCIe—I honestly doubt any high-end 775 processor is actually going to work on it. Why take the risk? He really needs to check the CPU support list to see what's actually compatible... though if you ask me, why would anyone even waste their money on this? 🤷

It’s almost certainly a GPU issue... you should probably monitor your temperatures for a bit and try installing some fresh drivers. You can download HP software to check out both your GPU and PCB temps.

Maybe try opening up the case and dusting everything off?

Maybe you're right, but I'll always feel a little bad for ASRock when compared to ASUS(vw)😁

Not really... 🤷

I think it’s just common knowledge at this point that brands like ASUS, Gigabyte, or MSI sit a tier above ASRock or ECS when you're looking at motherboards. Back in the day, I probably would've prioritized a longer warranty over the brand name alone. But honestly? If I were staring down two identical boards from ASRock and Gigabyte at the exact same price point, I wouldn't give it a second thought. It's just a reality of the market—ASRock tends to be the more budget-friendly option on average, so you end up getting more bang for your buck.

the reputation of a Gigabyte or ASUS🙂

crimsonstag84 said:An i7 3770K paired with a Noctua NH-D12... an ASUS ROG Maximus Z77... 8GB of RAM total... some decent 600-700W modular PSU... maybe an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 Ti with a custom cooler once they drop... just pick whatever case and HDD/SSD you want.😛

Honestly, leaving ASRock out of this build would be a crime.😁