Posts by Sean Garcia3

Brian Campbell36 said:Come on, quit joking. What "gaming rig" are we even talking about if this is your idea of a gaming PC? 🙏

I'm actually pretty happy with these two 7770s; they run fine together, and honestly, why drop more $1167 on a GPU.
A buddy gave me the power supply since he picked out something else for himself.
As far as the CPU goes, it handles all those new big titles just fine—I'm not crazy enough to dump serious cash $1000 into a processor, especially an Intel Core i7.

It looks like there isn't any hardware or software left for this old s.1155 socket.

My last resort is grabbing stuff through an online retailer once I sort out the motherboard, then I'll grab a 120GB SSD. I don't need anything else; I'm not building some massive beast up to $5000

So, the whole point of a build is to play games, right?
You're overthinking this. I was the first one telling you from the jump not to swap out that processor. Fine, if your friend gave you a PSU, lucky you—if I had friends like that, 😁
I've been telling you since the start: instead of wasting money on a new CPU and motherboard, take that cash and put it toward a beefier dedicated graphics card, then sell these two. In my opinion, spending on a better GPU makes way more sense than upgrading the CPU.
I don't know why you're making this such a headache. Just order the board along with the SSD from Micro Center like we already recommended: and the SSD

Honestly, hand on my heart, your whole build is completely unoptimized. You’ve got a motherboard from $567 paired with a basic i5 that doesn't even have overclocking capabilities. Then there's that 1000W 🤷 power supply—it's such massive overkill it's almost painful, and I bet it cost you just as much as the CPU itself. You're running 16GB of RAM for a "gaming" rig? And those two HD 7770 graphics cards are easily the weakest link in the entire setup. When you add it all up, if you had actually built this properly, you could have put together a beast of a machine. Instead, half of this stuff is just overpriced junk sitting there for no reason.

You really should've gone with the ASUS Z77 Extreme 4; it’s a bit more expensive $20 but honestly, it's way better. Plus, everyone already told you that MSI isn't exactly great if you're planning on running SLI

Robert Rodriguez2 said:lol
The guy’s got 12GB total if you count the 2x4 and 2x2 sticks 😁 he doesn't actually have 24 gigs

I caught that right away, I just couldn't be bothered to fix it lol

Larry Murphy83 said:12 GB of DDR3 RAM running at 1333 MHz
2x4 GB Mushkin Silver Line
2x2 GB Kingmax

Any idea what this is worth?

12GB total--$200

2x4GB at $350/$133

2x2GB at $150/$67

Forget overclocking. It’s honestly a waste of money to pay that $333 premium over a non-K i5 just to get an expensive motherboard, a beefy cooler, and a pricier CPU for some negligible performance bump. You’re way better off dumping that cash into a better GPU where you'll actually see the gains. The only time it makes sense is in those Apple builds where everything else is already top-tier and you basically have no other smart way to spend the money.
I'm talking about Intel here. An FX chip is basically just your standard mid-range processor; since you can overclock it anyway, you can just grab a decent motherboard and a mid-range cooler and push it to 4.2-4.4GHz.

Brian Campbell36 said:But you should see what they're trying to swap me with. I called them yesterday and they’re claiming they can't offer anything better than that ASUS ROG Maximus.

All I care about is the fact that I've got the upper hand here. They either have to give me an equal motherboard or my money back, since the board is worth roughly $333, and I already paid $567 🤔

Honestly, getting a refund would be the best move. I could just grab a brand new motherboard and a fresh 120 GB SSD with the cash.

Well, did you actually ask them if they'd just refund you since they don't have the board in stock?

If they do give you the money back, you can just order it from Chicago—it'll show up at your door in a day and you can just pay cash on delivery.

ASUS Z77 Extreme 4

240GB SSD

Total:$567 Futura it
It wouldn't be a bad idea to pick up a decent cooler with a 5-year warranty right now too so if you decide to upgrade to a beefier chip later, like an Intel Core i7-2600, you're already set for overclocking. Plus, you get free shipping on orders over $667!

From what I know, the company is legally obligated to give you a full refund if they can't provide an equivalent replacement for your part. At the very least, they should offer you store credit for other components equal to the value of your product. I was just looking over a warranty policy from AMD where I bought my rig, and it explicitly states they’re bound by law to issue a refund if a new or suitable replacement isn't provided within 45 days.

Robert Rodriguez2 said:my bad, meant to say Smartic xD

All 5 👍

Adam Moore3 said:Actually, no, that’s just an H61 s1155 motherboard. Sure, it's pretty budget—no SATA3 or USB 3.0—but it gets the job done. Still, wouldn't be my move. Pairing a GTX 970 and an i5 on the absolute bottom-tier board possible? Nah. It’ll work fine, but the whole build is just totally unbalanced.

Look, my advice was to grab this board, the SSD, and the cooler right now since there isn't anything else in the link worth picking up. He should clear those out while they're still offering the trade-in deal, then sell those two HD 7770s for $333 and toss in $500 more for the GTX 970. He can always flip that motherboard later for maybe 150-$67 and pick up something like this from Best Buy; it wouldn't even be a huge hit to his wallet, maybe 250-$100 tops. Honestly, he should just take the deal before they change their minds. The motherboard is a minor issue in the grand scheme of things.

Robert Rodriguez2 said:Max, are you actually listening to yourself? Why on earth would he swap out a whole platform that barely offers any real advantage over what he’s already running right now?

He's sitting on an LGA 1155 CPU, and you're trying to push an LGA 1150 setup on him... sure, he can get the board, the SSD, and the rest of the rig 😁 but what the hell is he supposed to do with his processor?

I think you got your wires crossed a bit. I was actually the first one to tell him *not* to ditch his current platform. This board is socket 1155—you're probably thinking of Smartic, who was the one pitching him a completely new platform.

Brian Campbell36 said:The guys at Best Buy are saying this:

1.) you can take an Intel Core i7-3770K Motherboard (S.1155)

http://www.asus.com/Motherboards/P8Z77V_LX/

That’s what the repair shop is offering as a replacement board, but if I take it, I don't get to apply the price difference toward an SSD or whatever. (They keep saying they'll give me a 24-month warranty, which isn't even a big deal)

2.) switch to the newer s.1150 socket, but I'd have to shell out even more $667 just for the CPU since the motherboard alone is costing me about $433

3.) they won't give me any cash back. They claim they have to check with the repair shop first, but I didn't buy the motherboard from them—I bought it from Best Buy. Everyone's acting like they're "clueless."

This whole situation is driving me insane 🤦

Look, just be smart and save yourself the headache!

You mentioned you could pick out $500 whatever you want from Best Buy to make up the difference.

Do it like this:

Motherboard http://www.bestbuy.com/motherboard-example

Cooler http://www.bestbuy.com/cooler-example

240GB SSD http://www.bestbuy.com/ssd-example

Total:$504 Best Buy
Take those items as compensation for the board.

Next, sell both of those HD 7770s for $333 total, and put that extra cash toward $500 for http://www.newegg.com/graphics-card-example. Shipping is free, it'll show up at your door in a day, and you can just pay COD.
Then all your problems are solved, and you'll still have a beastly rig that'll crush games on max settings for a few more years. Not to mention, this single card is easily 3 or 4 times more powerful than your dual HD 7770 Crossfire setup.
Honestly, this is your best bet because upgrading your CPU right now isn't worth it—moving to another i5 won't even feel different. If you don't want to go this route, then there's nothing else I can do for you. Do what you want, we already told you the best way to handle this.

It’s honestly not worth throwing money at this anymore. Time has already done its thing, and frankly, it's better if they just save up their $1000 and move on to something completely new.

Kenneth Jackson3 said:It’s probably not even a hardware issue 100% of the time. It's pretty new, and honestly, it won't even boot if I just shut this one down and leave the other two alone. That clicking sound? It sounds just like when you force-shutdown a PC. Now it’s doing that—like it's trying to restart itself but getting stuck on something. I think I'll try swapping in my old processor tomorrow. Only thing is, dealing with this Cooler Master Hyper 212 is such a massive pain in the neck to take on and off. Anyway, I’m gonna head out, grab some air, clear my head, and we'll see what happens in the morning.

P.S. Just wanted to check off a few more things. I pulled the battery, popped out the graphics card... no beeping without the card, which is weird because there should be a beep. Tried a bunch of different drive combinations too. Everything fails except for when I use the old processor. I'll tackle that tomorrow. Man, I really hope the motherboard didn't just fry out on me...

We'll have a better idea once you pop that old Processor back in to see if everything runs smoothly. If it does, then it’s not the motherboard, the graphics card, or the storage—it's just that new Processor. You could also try testing it with a different graphics card before you go through the hassle of tearing everything apart.

Kenneth Jackson3 said:Specs:
M5A97 R 2.0
Corsair CX500
R7770
4 GB 1333 RAM

Swapped out my Intel Core i5-2500K for an Intel Core i7-3770K and now it just won't POST.

So, before I swapped the Processor, I updated the BIOS—everything was working fine then. Checked the settings too, made sure the Processor settings were on auto, all good. Then came the actual swap. Took the old one out, popped the new one in. The socket felt solid, so I don't think I messed that part up. Everything else stayed plugged in where it should be. Applied some thermal paste, mounted the cooler...

But when I try to boot it up, the hard drive acts like it's resetting constantly (it didn't die on me during those 15-20 minutes of trying). There's this weird clicking sound whenever the computer resets, I have no clue what it is. Here's a video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PW1Y...ature=youtu.be

I tried clearing the CMOS, moving jumpers around following the manual. Messed with the RAM too... Niente, nothing. Always the same thing. If you guys have any ideas, please... I really hope it's not the Processor... No beep codes, keyboard isn't responding. Nothing.
If I can't figure it out, I'll probably just take it down to the guys at Micro Center and let them take a look.

EDIT: Been messing with it a bit more just now. Sometimes it actually boots, but other times it just flat out refuses. And without those clicking sounds.

If you're feeling up to it, try tearing it all down again and putting the old processor back in to see if it works. To me, it sounds like the hard drive is making a weird noise and skipping; if you can borrow a drive from someone to test it, try that. I think the drive is definitely the culprit. But hey, try putting the old processor back in first—if it boots with that, then the drive is fine and the new Processor is likely the problem.

Gregory Ward said:CPU - Intel Core i5-7500
Package Socket 775 LGA

Motherboard - ASUStek P5G41T-M SI
Chipset Intel G41
DDR3 RAM 2GB

So, I'm looking at this basic office rig (small form factor 😁) with some crappy integrated graphics, and I'm wondering if there's any way to actually upgrade it.
I just want to run Call of Duty 2—an old-school game that shouldn't need much juice—and maybe Call of Duty 4. The PC isn't used for anything heavy, just some YouTube browsing here and there.

This is pretty much your best bet right now; anything cheaper is going to be a massive step down without saving you much money.

Brian Campbell36 said:Wait, so it doesn't support the MSI B95 - G43, but it does work with the MSI Z77A-G43? 🤔

And I really need a mobo that supports Crossfire and actually comes with a passive heatsink, instead of them trying to hand me one without it.

Tomorrow Best Buy service will give me an answer—or whatever they call it, "customer response."

I can't say anything definitive right now. Based on what the guy in the link said, I'm just waiting to hear from Best Buy tomorrow if they'll actually refund my money or not. Honestly, I'm not even sure if they're legally required to cough up the cash if they can't fix the component (the mobo).

If it turns out there's no refund and they still try to push this Asus P8Z77 - VLX on me, I'll have to go with Option B and just grab a new socket mobo and processor.

Like I mentioned before, I'm looking at the Asus Z97 and an Intel I5 4690 k box.

I'll shoot you a DM about the CPU; we can figure it out easily once I get this mess sorted.

The thing is, that B85 board uses the 1150 socket, which won't run your CPU, whereas the Z77 uses the 1155 socket, which it does support. If you're dead set on running dual cards with Crossfire, you're gonna need an Asrock z77 Extreme 4 or something even beefier.
Though, I don't really get why you're so obsessed with Crossfire. Your current CPU is still plenty powerful enough to handle basically any game, and you could pair it with almost any GPU.
If you buy a new motherboard and a new processor, you'll see a slight bump in gaming performance, but honestly? Just take the cheaper board they're offering you—it doesn't matter if it lacks the passive heatsink since you aren't planning on overclocking anyway. Grab a 250GB SSD, and instead of a new CPU, just put that money toward a gtx 970. You'll see a massive jump in actual gaming performance that way.

Brian Campbell36 said:Links has graciously extended an offer allowing me to select whatever I desire for $500.

I have decided to secure both a processor and a motherboard;

The motherboard is an ASUS Z97-A

Specifically, the ASUS Z97-A motherboard

As for the processor;

How much would you sell that old i5 for? Would you take $267 for it, and does it still have any warranty left? Just asking because a buddy might be interested.

Solid choices here. You could always grab a decent cooler to overclock the CPU if you don't have enough left over for anything else Have you even thought about just selling those two GPUs and picking up a GTX 970 instead of a new CPU Your FPS would be way better than trying to run a new CPU paired with that Crossfire
setup.

What do you think I could get for that old i5? Would it be worth trading up for the $267? Also, any idea if there's still some warranty left on it? A buddy might be interested, so just checking.

Honestly, if I were you, I’d skip the new CPU entirely. I'd grab that Dell motherboard they offered you and toss in a 250GB SSD instead. Then, just keep your current processor on that new board and sell off those two HD 7770 Vapor-X cards to fund a GTX 970. You’d see way better performance that way.