Posts by Grace Flores80

Honestly, I don't care if it's in Germany, the Netherlands, or the UK—just wherever the hell it's cheapest.

If I can put this on a business expense account through the company, what’s a better move than grabbing an NVIDIA RTX 3060 Ti for around $400?

So, I’ve got this "old" NVIDIA GTX 1660 that I’m looking to swap out for a fresh NVIDIA RTX 3060 Ti. Does anyone have a clue what I could actually pull for it? It’s been running for almost three years now, but honestly, it still works perfectly fine without any issues. Maybe I could snag about $100 to help offset the cost of the new card?

So, look, is there any way this NVIDIA RTX 3060 Ti is actually gonna fit on my motherboard? I’m seriously stressing that I might run out of power connectors or something after dropping like $480 on this thing. 😁😁

wiredotter14 said:👍👍

If you're moving up in class, just go for a beefier GPU; honestly, you don't even need anything crazy beyond an Intel Core i5-12400 because at 1440p, you're mostly going to be hitting the limits of your graphics card anyway compared to when you're playing at 1080p.

I'm just a little iffy about that power supply, though.
If I were in your shoes, I'd probably hold off until January or February before pulling the trigger on a new GPU, but maybe grab a better CPU right now.

So, let's say I actually follow your advice and sort out the PSU and CPU situation first:
Corsair 650W G12 GC-650
Intel Core i5-12400.

Which GPU would be my best bet if I want to stay under $500?

RX 6650XT (around $350)
RX 6700XT (around $400)

Or should I aim for something even stronger? Just nothing over $500.

If this motherboard is actually up to snuff, what kind of power supply should I grab so I can just get this whole thing sorted once and for all? I want to knock out both the PSU and the CPU in one go and be done with it.

I'm rocking a 27" AOC monitor, 144Hz at 1440p, and honestly, I don't need anything better than this, haha

Look, let's say I pull the trigger on one of those two CPUs you guys suggested. If I end up with an extra $400 or $500 left over specifically to dump into a GPU, what else am I looking at? I'm trying to build something that isn't going to turn into a paperweight in two years; I want to be set for a good while without having to constantly worry about my frame rates dropping.

Alright, so the move here is basically stick with the current motherboard, flash the BIOS, and then just pick between those two CPUs. But let's talk cards—which GPU is actually worth my time? I'm looking for something that’s going to feel like a massive leap over my NVIDIA GTX 1660 SUPER GAMING OC GDDR6 6GB without me having to sell a kidney or anything crazy.

What kind of motherboard and CPU should I pair with this setup? Honestly, everything else in my rig is still solid enough, so I just want to swap out this ancient motherboard and processor for something modern. Any suggestions on what would work best?

ASUS ROG Strix B350M (S.AM4, 4xDDR4, RAID) mATX
AMD Ryzen 5 1600 AF (3.2/3.6GHz Boost,19MB,65W,AM4) box, Wraith Stealth
ARCTIC COOLING Freezer 34 cooler, fits 1150/1155/1156/2011/2011-3/2066/AM4, black
G.Skill Aegis 16GB (2x8GB) 3200MHz CL16 - F4-3200C16D-16GIS
NVIDIA GTX 1660 SUPER GAMING OC GDDR6 6GB/192bit, MHz/14 000 MHz
Crucial BX500 480GB 3D NAND SATA 2.5-inch SSD
500W Power Supply, ANTEC VP500P Plus EC, ATX, 120mm fan, PFC

Strictly for gaming.
Looking to spend around $500-$600 total on Amazon.
Thanks for any help, and sorry if I'm being repetitive here.

Alright folks, here's the lowdown on how this whole situation wrapped up. I finally got my rig back from the guys over at Future IT today after the repair, and man, you won't believe the way they handled this. I went in thinking the issue was tucked away in either the RAM slots, the motherboard, or maybe even the CPU, right? Well, get this—these guys were apparently in such a massive rush during their testing phase that instead of actually doing the legwork to pinpoint the specific culprit, they just swapped out basically every single component for brand-new ones. It’s like if you take your car to a mechanic because the engine makes a weird clicking sound, and instead of checking the belt, they just replace the entire engine, transmission, and exhaust system all at once. I honestly don't know if this is just their standard "we don't have time for deep diagnostics" playbook, but I figured I'd give you all a heads-up.
The PC is running smooth as silk now and hasn't given me any grief whatsoever.

Honestly, I’ve decided I’m done messing around with this thing myself. I’m just gonna haul it down to the repair shop after work today and let them deal with the headache. Diagnostics are free there, so it shouldn't be a big deal unless they try to pull some nonsense about needing to buy a brand new, high-end Motherboard to fix it.

So, I just went through the whole hassle of doing a totally clean Windows installation today. I wiped everything, grabbed all the latest GPU drivers and the chipset drivers for my motherboard, then downloaded a game from Steam. Now, the game crashes even when I have everything set to optimal settings. This time, unlike last time, I actually made sure to install those AMD chipset drivers for the B350 chipset. But the real kicker is that instead of just crashing silently in the background, I'm getting hit with BSODs left and right now. The game barely survives 10 minutes before it goes down. I even had another BSOD happen while I wasn't even gaming, accompanied by this loud, annoying noise coming from inside the case. Here’s what I’m seeing in the Event Viewer: "The computer has rebooted from a bugcheck. The bugcheck was: 0x00000050 (0xffffffffffffffff, 0x0000000000000010, 0xffffffffffffffffffff, 0x0000000000000002). A dump was saved in: C:\Windows\MEMORY.DMP. Report ID"

"The following boot-start or system-start driver(s) did not load:
dam
EhStorClass"

When things go south and the system hits those critical levels that trigger the crash, the source points back to Kernel-Power.
I’m honestly starting to think this isn't some software glitch at all—it feels like a hardware nightmare. Like, we're looking at either a failing power supply or some other component just giving up the ghost.

I’m getting kicked straight back to my desktop constantly, and lately, it’s even escalated to full-blown Blue Screens of Death. It feels like if I’m not crashing to the desktop, I'm hitting a BSOD instead.
Honestly, I’m at my wit's end here and have no clue what's going on anymore.
If anyone can help me figure this mess out, please do.

It’s not even like some ancient, outdated titles causing me grief here:
Hitman 2
Mafia 3
Metro Exodus
etc.

Here’s the breakdown of my CPU and GPU temps along with the voltage readings.

View on imgur
View on imgur

And I haven't even bothered checking my CPU or GPU temps yet. Honestly, I didn't even realize that could be part of the whole mess.

So, I went ahead and nuked my GPU drivers using DDU, then tried a clean install through GeForce Experience. Now, whenever I'm gaming—doesn't matter what settings I've got dialed in—the whole thing just falls apart. Sometimes it's a silent crash straight back to the desktop, and other times the entire PC just gives up the ghost and restarts itself. I dug through the Event Viewer to see what was going on, and these are the errors popping up:
1. "Dump file creation failed"
2. "The system has rebooted without cleanly shutting down first. This error could be caused if the system stopped responding, crashed, or lost power unexpectedly."
Basically, these are the exact messages hitting the Event Viewer right when the crash happens. The sources are listed as Kernel-Power and volmgr.

Yeah, that's the "AntiMalware service executable" right there. This thing is absolutely devouring my RAM, just eating through it like crazy. Is it actually normal for it to be hogging this much system resources?

Bryan Taylor6 said:Just kill the AntiMalware and see what happens.

The GPU pulls its full wattage during gaming regardless of whatever tiny settings you tweak.

If some fan is acting up, you’re probably looking at overheating issues with either your CPU or your GPU.

If it's still under warranty, let them deal with it.

Duh, obviously it's under warranty—I literally just picked this rig up three weeks ago.