Posts by Mark Adams17

@gogoklepci: There's a power supply available, here's the link

@implosive: Honestly, it’s weird to me too that it’s the motherboard, but I wanted to double-check everything. I mean, having two motherboards die on me in just a couple of months... it felt suspicious. The PSU is a Cooler Master, so I'm really hoping it isn't the culprit. That's a decent enough brand, right?

I actually baked my GTX 460 in the oven. It’s still running for now, though it’s only been two days...

The power supply is pretty much new, maybe a year and a half or two years old at most... haven't really tried pushing any GPUs to the limit with it yet.

The case was wide open on all sides—super breezy... the fans on the GPUs were spinning just fine and weren't even overclocked

Hey there,
I’ve had two different graphics cards die on me just three months apart. First, my GTX 460 bit the dust about four months ago... out of nowhere, I started getting blue screens and constant resets, or that annoying "your graphics driver has crashed" message. After that, it wouldn't even function properly in Windows unless I stripped out all the drivers and used the basic defaults... and by the time Windows was booting up, the artifacts were already appearing on the screen. Total junk.

Then, after that one died, I put in an older HD 3850. It worked perfectly for three months—it had been fine for years before that—but then suddenly, the exact same thing happened. Resets, blue screens, driver issues, you name it. Now, when I boot into Windows, the image is all distorted... not exactly artifacts, but these weird white lines everywhere.

So, my question is... could my motherboard be the culprit behind all this? I really don't want to go out and buy a third card if it's just going to fry in a couple of months too.

My setup is an MSI 760 GM-P23, running an AMD Athlon x445, with a Cooler Master RS500 power supply.

Hey there,

I'm looking to pick up a new graphics card, maybe around the $160-$$600 mark. It looks like the GTX 960 and the R9 380 are the top contenders in that price bracket right now if you're buying new. Any thoughts on which one I should grab? Right now, I'm running an HD 7850 that I've overclocked to perform like a 7870... I am a little worried about whether my power supply can actually handle an R9 380, though. I've heard those things are total power hogs. My current 450W Corsair PSU handles this overclocked 7850 just fine alongside my AMD FX-6350 proc...

So, here's what I'm wondering:
Between those two cards, since they're basically the same price, which one is the better bet?
Is there anything used out there in this price range that would be a massive upgrade over both?
Should I even bother buying anything right now? Or is it smarter to wait until the fall when all the new cards are supposed to drop... maybe prices will dip then?

One more thing—has anyone here ordered stuff online from shops in the EU and had it shipped to the US without getting hit with a $30 shipping fee? Any recommendations for a solid online retailer based in the EU?

Thanks in advance!

All set, ordered, and delivered.

Thanks so much for the help, really appreciate it...

I get that the i5 is probably overkill here. If I swapped it out for a solid i3 instead, would I be looking at saving maybe $500-$200? I just want to make sure the PC stays high-end enough for what I need to do... you know, so it actually lasts a few years and doesn't just feel fast for a week.

Hey there,

I'm looking to put together a build for everyday stuff. Budget is around $3,000-$1167, mostly just working in Excel, doing a bit of SketchUp on the side, nothing too crazy...
I was thinking about grabbing an i5 so I can feel set for at least the next 3 or 4 years. I'd love to get some thoughts on this setup:



I'm guessing the processor might be overkill for what I actually need, but since I want this thing to last without needing an upgrade, I figured I'd go with it. Definitely open to suggestions, though—especially if there's a better "best buy" out there for CPUs...

Thanks!

Hmm, alright then. I'll probably just go with the AMD FX-6300... I guess there isn't much else to be done at this point 😁

Thanks for all the help, everyone 🙂

Yeah, I didn't mention that. There's an ASRock motherboard that's almost identical to mine, except it uses an Intel chipset. On her board, they added support for the AMD FX-4130 with BIOS version 1.30. But for this AMD one... nothing in the 1.30 patch mentions what was actually added...

I mean, that’s not really much of a discount. And honestly, moving from an AMD Athlon II X3 445 up to a 945 doesn't feel like much of an upgrade. Or am I totally missing something here?...

Right now I'm running an AMD Athlon II X3 445. I'm just not sure if jumping up to a Phenom 945 is actually worth it... and then there's the 6300, but hmm, I really wasn't planning on dropping that much cash right now.

It’s not showing up on the CPU list, but then again, I don't see any processors listed that were added using P1.30 anyway...

I already have the motherboard, so I'm thinking about picking up the processor since it's a newer $187, and honestly, the performance looks solid. Seems like a pretty smart move to me...

Hey there,

I was wondering if the motherboard mentioned above works with an AMD FX-4130? The ASRock website says it isn't compatible, but I noticed they released a P1.30 BIOS update... so now I'm curious if that specific update fixed the compatibility issue?

Best,