I'm looking to put together a desktop build with a budget of up to $600—and I'd prefer to source everything specifically from Micro Center. The main goal here is just general web browsing; honestly, an SSD is more than enough since I won't be doing any heavy downloading or anything intensive. Also, if you could include a wired keyboard and mouse combo in the suggestions, that would be great.
Back on June 6, 2015, I had a moment of pure frustration—one of those days where you just lose it—and ended up punching a wall with my right hand. It hurt like hell at the time, obviously, though I was still able to move it. A small bump eventually formed right on my pinky knuckle; I initially figured it was just standard swelling or some kind of tendon strain from the impact, but honestly, it’s still there today and hasn't improved one bit. The thing doesn't actually ache unless I press on it, and my hand functions perfectly fine, but I went in for some imaging yesterday—only to find out the doctor reviewing my scans is away on vacation. Because of that delay, I was hoping someone here might be able to take a look at these photos and offer some insight or advice.
Yeah, thanks—but honestly, I’ll just check back in over the weekend. If the update happens to drop by Monday, then great, that's awesome. If not? No big deal. I'll just pick it up then instead.
Alright, thanks everyone—I really appreciate the help. It turns out the local Best Buy sold out of that DS3P yesterday; I was just sitting here thinking about pulling the trigger today, only to find it's already gone. That would have been my top pick, which is why I wanted to get your take on my next move. Honestly, I’ll just wait until Monday. If it shows up back in stock, great—if not, I'll probably just go with the ASUS M5A97 R2.0 instead.
I’ve gone through everything, and it turns out my power supply completely fried. I'm planning on keeping the current motherboard for now—maybe upgrade it down the road if I really need to—but I did pick up an extra 4GB of RAM and a brand-new PSU. Given that setup, I was wondering: what would be a solid motherboard choice to pair with this configuration?
After about four years, both the motherboard and the power supply finally gave up on me—so now I need to pick out a new board, and these are the options I'm looking at:
Hey everyone. We just got back from the ER, so I figured I’d give you all an update on what went down... Basically, they gave us a very polite explanation of why they couldn't admit us and sent us straight home. A lovely young nurse was kind enough to explain what the issue was—apparently, we need a referral from a primary care physician first. So, all that talk from some of you about how I'm incapable of looking after myself? Yeah, that completely falls flat now. I already scheduled an appointment with my doctor at Medford today to get all the necessary tests done. Turns out, I actually *can* handle my own business. It seems like some of you have clearly never been young and enjoyed a weekend out once in a while... Maybe things got a little carried away, but there was a reason to celebrate, and frankly, I don't think you have any right to be so judgmental. My boyfriend was actually being really sweet and asking for advice—it's not like I'm shaking every single day, but he was understandably worried. Honestly, I probably would have been turned away at the ER tonight regardless. A huge, huge thanks for the "helpful" advice; as for those of you who find it so scandalous that a young person wants to go out and live their life—you'll have kids one day too, and I can only hope you don't try to keep them on a leash just so they turn out as uptight as you. And for the record, my parents and my brother are perfectly happy with me, so there's no need for the extreme overreactions. Oh, and yeah—my boyfriend is amazing in bed. Best, girl
Alright, thanks everyone for the advice—I think I’m going to head over to the ER and get this sorted out once and for all.😉 Once she gets home from work...
This happened yesterday evening, I think... what should I have her checked for at the ER? In my opinion, it might not be anything serious—she was drinking for three days straight and barely eating, so her immune system likely just took a hit and her body gave out. But you can never be too sure, right? Maybe it’s better to get her over to the Mayo Clinic for a neurological exam or something similar—I'm honestly not sure what the best next step is...
We didn't rush straight to the ER, but are you suggesting we should take her to see her pediatrician instead—or perhaps it would be better to head to a place like Mayo Clinic for a more thorough checkup?
Hey everyone, I’m looking for some help and maybe a bit of advice here.
So, basically, this involves my girlfriend. She went out this past Friday and had quite a few drinks. She didn't get home until about 8:00 AM on Saturday, slept until noon—so she only got about four hours of rest—and then we headed back out on Saturday evening to grab more drinks and hit some clubs. She seemed totally fine and was just as awake as I was all through Sunday afternoon. But then, last night, something happened for the very first time in her life, and honestly, it really scared me. We were lying in bed when she got a text message. She sat up to grab her phone from the nightstand, and suddenly, she just blacked out—she swayed and collapsed straight to the floor. She started shaking for what felt like maybe two seconds? I was by her side within a single second, shouting "Hey! Hey!" and trying to help her up. After those two seconds passed, she just came to. She’s pretty shaken up because she’s never experienced anything like this before. She told me everything just went black, and all she can remember is hearing me calling out to her and then being pulled up from the floor. One thing I should mention is that her last meal was on Saturday before we went out. After that, she was drinking all night, all morning, and most of the afternoon—probably until 2:00 PM—just constant drinking and dancing. So, I'm wondering: could this have happened because her immune system was completely wiped out, or is this a sign of an epileptic seizure or something similar?
Thanks in advance. Please, if you have any advice or similar experiences, let me know.
Alright, I’ve laid everything out on my desk to start fresh, but I'm running into the exact same issue. It’s not even hitting me with a Blue Screen of Death or shutting down entirely—the screen just completely freezes. Everything stays visible, but the system is totally unresponsive, leaving me with no choice but to force a hard shutdown...
darkowl72 said:Those chipset heatsinks on this motherboard aren't exactly rock solid—they're held on by just two flimsy plastic clips. It’s easy to accidentally nudge one while you're poking around inside the case, which can crack the thermal paste underneath. Maybe take a closer look to see if they feel loose? If they are, you should probably just clean them off and re-apply some fresh paste.
I had one board that absolutely drove me insane until I fixed the passive heatsink like that. See, besides the temperature sensors on your CPU and GPU, there are usually one or more sensors right on the motherboard itself—most often in the chipset, which tends to run a lot hotter.
Thanks
I took a look, and there is one passive heatsink held by two plastic clips; it feels really solid though—it doesn't seem loose or unstable at all.
I’ve already swapped out the power supply, but it still freezes up. I even tried running a live version of Windows XP, and the exact same thing happens—complete freeze. Then, I switched to a different processor, and while it didn't crash after two minutes like before, it still hangs after about 15 minutes. So, based on that, we can rule out the CPU being the culprit here...
I've got this PC that keeps freezing up after about 2 or 3 minutes while running OCCT. Specifically, it happens during the CPU:Linpack test—the actual CPU stress test runs fine, but then 😳 OCCT just freezes, or it happens about 10 minutes into a gaming session.
Specs:
- A 320GB WD Blue SATA drive; I've checked it with HDD Sentinel, CrystalDiskMark, and HDD Regenerator, and it shows as 100% healthy across the board.
- Power supply: I was using an old 400W MS Industrial unit—honestly, it was junk—so I swapped it out for a Corsair, but I'm still using the same thermal paste.
- HD6670 graphics card: Tested it, and it's working perfectly whether under load or idle.
- RAM: A mix of 1GB DDR3 and 2GB DDR3, totaling 3GB. I ran MemTest, and they seem to be performing without any issues.
- CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo. Temperatures look totally normal even under 100% load, but like I mentioned, OCCT causes the screen to freeze after two minutes. Then I have to hard-reset the computer, and you get that annoying "tzzzzzzz" buzzing sound. 😁
- Motherboard: MSI 770-C45—though I'm really not sure if the board itself is the culprit here.
If anyone has any suggestions on what else I should try testing, please let me know—I'd really appreciate the help.
I don't think it's a driver issue, since the exact same thing happens even after a fresh OS installation.
Hey everyone, Does anyone have any suggestions for a solid gaming build within a budget of $1000 (just the tower itself) ? Ideally, I’d love to put this together using something like Micro Center to make things easy. Thanks, best regards.