Just like what Timothy Kim60 said above—I’m looking to pick up a brand-new graphics card for around $667... any suggestions on what I should grab? I was checking out the one mentioned at Best Buy earlier, but when I called them this morning, they told me it was already sold out... Any advice would be huge. Thanks, everyone.
I've been hunting for a solid 27-inch monitor for myself lately. Is this one really the best bang for my buck? (I've got about $1000 roughly $15-$30 extra to play with)
Give MP3 Cutter a shot—it’s a tiny, straightforward little tool. I used to use it all the time to trim down huge mixes. You really can't get any simpler than that.
It’s a solid choice for you. It fits right into your budget, the Radeon R9 270 is honestly one of those all-time best-buy cards, and it's pretty much the sweet spot for your CPU. 3/3
I asked for some GPU suggestions a little while back, and now I've found this one at a really decent price:
Timothy Kim60 said:I'm usually pretty hesitant about recommending random used listings because you never really know if they're reliable: - though I have to wonder why this one hasn't sold yet. If the description is legit, it’s an incredible deal.
A few other backup options:
Just a heads up, those three above are only worth it if you're running a high-quality power supply.
If you want something new with a warranty, maybe something slightly weaker like this:
Thanks so much for all the detailed help.
An Arctic Cooling R550 power supply (that's 550W)
Is that considered decent enough? I'll look into everything closely before making a call. 👏
Thanks! If I were to shave some money off that budget for $167 and used that extra 500 to grab an SSD instead --- what kind of used card would you pick for 750-$267? Feel free to just drop a link to a Craigslist listing if you have a spare minute!
Hey everyone! I need some solid advice here. Any ideas? This is the motherboard I've got— Gigabyte P55A-UD3. Anyone else playing around with this board lately? Just looking at it again. It’s an interesting piece of hardware. Makes you wonder how much mileage is left in these older chipsets. Still holds up, I guess. What do you think?
As for the rest of the setup, I've got 2X2GB Gskill Ripjaws memory and a 1TB Samsung drive. For power, there's an Arctic Cooling R550 PSU—it's a 550W unit. The CPU is an Intel Core i5-750 running at 3281 MHz. That about covers it.
I'm looking for a graphics card that hits that sweet spot between price and performance. It’s not like I have crazy high-end demands or anything, but since I'm spending the money anyway, I really want something decent. I just want to be able to pick up a game and actually play it. Up until now, I've been running an XFX Radeon 4870.
Looking for some recommendations? I'm open to both brand new cards and used ones. What do you think? Thanks in advance.
Money - cash flow. $400 Maybe a little higher? Or honestly, maybe even lower would be better.
Just an update—the monitor I'm using is a Fujitsu 23 P23T-6. It’s running at 1920x1080 resolution.
What really bugs me is looking at that photo and seeing it running at 200 MHz. I haven't come across a single one for sale at that speed anywhere else... everything I find is 400 MHz. 😢 Thanks so much for being patient and for all the help.
Alright, I'll check with the guys at the university tech lab about the original Windows. Actually, this memory stuff has me a bit worried because I really want to figure out how to read those spec photos properly. Is this definitely DDR PC3200 running at 200 MHz? It seems like most shops are stocking sticks that run at 400 MHz. I'm planning to drop by a local repair shop, but I'd rather just learn how to do it myself first. thanks
Thanks for breaking all that down for me. I’ll give it a listen and then probably just install Windows 7 32-bit. I won't jump on it right away, though. I definitely need to upgrade my RAM first. My rig is about 6 years old now... things are what they are, I guess. I'm not really a heavy user or anything; I just need to run stuff like MATLAB and AutoCAD for the assignments they throw at me at college. The memory I should be looking for is DDR400 PC3200, right?
Thanks, jadesurfer5. I think I'll go with Windows 7 then. Since I'm a total amateur at this, looking at the photo, I know I need to hunt down some DDR memory. But what else should I be looking for before I buy? And how much is an extra 2 GB actually going to set me back?
Does anyone else have any advice regarding the OS? Are we all in agreement on Windows 7?
Hey everyone, I’m looking for some insight from anyone who’s actually dealt with this before. I have a machine here that needs a fresh OS install. Would it be better to go with Windows XP or Windows 7? And does it really matter which version of 7 I pick—like Home versus Professional Edition or Enterprise Edition?
Also, what kind of antivirus should I run on a setup like this? The plan is to use this for MATLAB, AutoCAD, and just general web browsing.
Thomas Hernandez21 & Joshua Ramos14, thanks! Thanks to everyone else who took the time to help me troubleshoot this issue, too.
Thomas Hernandez21, I had no idea about that. I can't get to my laptop right now, but as soon as I have a chance, I'll definitely try that method... It's good to know for the future. If I hit another wall... I'll reach out! Joshua Ramos14, I brought the laptop back with that little hiccup. I told them if they notice anything else acting up, just bring it back in—I'll see what I can do, but I'm not going to go through the hassle of a full reinstall just for that!
So, I actually stumbled upon this really interesting model just now. But then, of course, it’s totally unavailable in any of our local stores here in the States. Typical, right? 😢
Hey everyone, this is my girlfriend's laptop. It seemed totally fine all day yesterday, but now that blinking light is acting up again... I haven't quite figured out what's causing it yet. I gave her an HP and told her if she notices anything glitching, we’ll just reinstall Windows. Honestly, good to know about HP Support Assistance... I hadn't heard of that before, so I'll try using it to fix this.
How do you actually disable a component? Is it just a right-click or something like that?!
