Posts by Andrew Hill18

And this one too

Yeah, I’ve got one 4GB stick. Thanks for the tip. If anything else pops up, I'll be around tomorrow. 👍

Christmas is coming up, which means it's gift time, so I just want to double-check my specs. For this build:
ASRock FM2A55M-DGS
Intel Core i3, 3500MHz (35x100)
NVIDIA GeForce GT 730 (Jamaica)
4GB DDR3 RAM
450w PSU

is this GPU >
still the absolute best bang for your buck, or is there something else out there that's even cheaper for playing Minecraft, Grand Theft Auto V, Fortnite, Roblox, Overwatch, or Subnautica??
Also, does it actually matter which brand of RAM I grab, or is there a "better" manufacturer I should look for? And what speed should I be aiming for? Thanks!

Hey everyone. Quick question for you all—you guys already helped me out once before, so here I am again... I’ve got this old junker sitting here with an NVIDIA GeForce 210 1GB, but I also have a GIGABYTE GV-NX76G256D-RH and an ATI Radeon VX5670 tucked away in storage. Which one of these three is actually the best? I’m not asking for much, honestly, even the current one works fine for me, but if I’ve got something better lying around, it feels like a waste to let it just collect dust. 😁
rest of the build:
Gigabyte GA-M55S-S3
AMD Phenom x4 9850
8GB Samsung DDR2
Samsung/Maxtor HDD 160GB
Power supply is unknown, probably around 450w

Thanks, guys. 👍

I’ve been scrolling through this thread and noticed everyone keeps obsessing over how much power a GPU pulls. Can someone break down why that actually matters? Thanks!

Timothy Kim60 said:Honestly, you could probably swing a beefier CPU and more RAM too...

What kind of CPU would be a solid upgrade without totally breaking the bank? And any specific brand of RAM you guys swear by? Thanks again!

That’s awesome. I'll just grab some more RAM and a new GPU then and let the machine rip. Thanks for everything.

I feel like I might’ve wandered into the wrong thread, but hey, since I'm already stuck here... My kid spends all his time playing Minecraft, GTA 5, Fortnite, Roblox, Overwatch, and Subnautica.

Alright, just wanted to pick your brain before I pull the trigger... How long do you think this build is actually gonna last?? If it’s got enough juice to stay relevant for another two or three years, then grabbing a new GPU is definitely worth the cash. But if it's just gonna be a total letdown that can't handle anything soon, I might be better off hunting for something used instead.

Timothy Kim60 said:That Radeon HD 7750 in there is the beast of the bunch, then you've got the Radeon HD 5670 right behind it, followed by that old 7600GS.

If I were buying something new, honestly, looking at that PC, there’s zero point trying to push anything harder than this

Price is solid and the card probably is too. Is buying used even worth it? Probably not. Most of those gaming cards have been overclocked to death and who knows what kind of abuse they've seen.

Hey everyone. So, I handed over my old rig to my kid—he's 13 now—and honestly, it’s still a step up from what I grabbed for myself since all I ever do is surf the web and binge Netflix. Now he's starting to bug me about a new graphics card because his games have started stuttering (it was only a matter of time, really). We actually cracked the case open two weeks ago and vacuumed out all the dust, so things are running a bit smoother, but... I've actually got two other GPUs sitting around here. Since I stepped away from this stuff ages ago (like, 15 years), I'm totally clueless on which one is better or why. Looking for some experts here to point me in the right direction. Here's the current setup:
ASRock FM2A55M-DGS
AMD Athlon x4 740, 3500MHz (35x100)
AMD Radeon HD 7750 (Cape Verde)
RAM 4GB DDR3
450w PSU

I also have a GYGABYTE GV-NX76G256D-RH and some VX5670 that seems to have an extra connector on it—I'm guessing that's some kind of bridge between the GPU and the motherboard that needs a specific cable or something? Which of these three should I slap into the build? Even though this gear is pretty ancient, is there any smart way to upgrade it so it lasts a little longer? Thanks!

Also, what's the going rate for this stuff if I wanted to sell it?

Yeah, I'm with you on that, but how am I even supposed to test the motherboard? My only real move is to hunt down an AM2 socket board just to pop my CPU in there, but finding one without buying used gear feels like throwing money down the drain. On the flip side, every single benchmark runs fine except for the CPU ones. I think I read somewhere that that "clock watchdog timeout" error usually points to the processor itself, maybe some crappy drivers, or a BIOS issue... just guessing here, but it felt like it was tied to the chip. Since I dropped this specific processor in a few months back and had to flash the BIOS to get it to play nice, everything seems solid on the software front. It really smells like a bad CPU to me. I grabbed it off eBay from some guy in China with great feedback, so... yeah, it's a toss-up. I still have an old single-core chip lying around. I wonder if the motherboard would act up and struggle on YouTube if the issue was actually the board, since that chip is such a weakling? Or should I just grab that old chip and run the test? If it crashes, then I know it's the motherboard or the power supply. If it doesn't, then the CPU is definitely the culprit. 🤔

I’ve got a 10. No way am I going back to a 7; the 10 is solid. Worst case scenario, I'll just grab a different CPU later. Anyway, how do you actually downclock a processor? Never messed around with that before.

Alright, let's break this down. My GPU works harder on YouTube than it does when I'm just streaming movies or shows, but honestly, the temps are rock solid. It stays cool and stable no matter what. I ran some tests on the RAM and it’s totally fine. Checked the hard drive too—everything looks clean, no bad sectors or anything weird going on there. For power, I'm running an old EVGA 400 W that's probably been around forever. Here’s the kicker: the CPU. I tried running a quick check on UserBenchmark, but the test keeps crashing. It throws the exact same "clock watchdog timeout" error I get whenever I'm watching stuff on YouTube. After it crashes, the system takes ages to reboot, though once it finally kicks back in, it seems to behave itself. Aside from the YouTube headache, everything else runs smooth. So, am I looking at a dead CPU here?

Alright. Thanks! I'll let you know what I find. 👍

fadedorca66 said:It might be the motherboard, but honestly, I’ve got a bad feeling about the power supply too. Which PSU are you running, and how old is it?

It wouldn't hurt to crack the case open, blow out all the dust, and swap out the thermal paste. Does the GPU have its own fan or is it passive? If it's passive, it might just be overheating while you're watching YouTube, which would freeze everything up. You should probably repaste that too, since the old stuff on graphics cards tends to turn into literal gum after a while...

Beyond that, grab a Hiren's Boot CD or whatever you like and run some tests on the RAM (memtest) and the hard drive to make sure there aren't any bad sectors lurking around.

Basically, I'd make sure the hardware is solid first (temps, paste, HDD, RAM, etc.) before even bothering with software fixes, especially since these parts are getting pretty old...

I clean my PC almost constantly. Last time was maybe two or three months ago when I swapped in the processor mentioned above. It used to have a single-core chip, so the paste is fresh. The GPU doesn't have its own cooler. I'll try what you suggested and we'll see. But if the GPU is the culprit, why does everything else work fine except when I'm on YouTube? I'll check the power supply, though I don't know the exact model off the top of my head. Thanks for the tips.

So, I'm running into some weird USB issues on my motherboard. Every time I plug in a wireless mouse or a USB hub, things start stuttering. Usually, I have to yank it out and plug it back in just to get it to behave, and even then, sometimes I have to reboot the whole PC a few times before it actually works. To make matters worse, my keyboard won't even work through the standard PS/2 port. It gets really annoying when I'm watching stuff on YouTube—I'll be mid-video and everything just freezes up, throws some error code I can't quite recall right now, and the computer restarts itself. Strangely enough, streaming movies or shows works totally fine. My setup is an ASUS Prime Motherboard running the latest BIOS version, F12. I've got an Intel Core i5 at 2500MHz, 2x Crucial RAM (4GB DDR2-800), an Nvidia GeForce 210 1GB, and I'm running Windows 10 Pro. You think this is a motherboard issue, or could it be something else entirely?

Just ordered a new CPU on eBay, and I've got a GPU from my old rig that works perfectly fine, so I'm just gonna mash them together. Thanks for the help, everyone.
Should I stick with Win 8-icu or just roll back to 7?

I didn't even realize that chip came in an AM2 version. I haven't really dug deep into Google because I kept hitting two different links, both saying it was S939, so now I'm just lost. And man, you're totally right about pulling the chip while it's still hot—definitely good advice, though I'm not really worried about doing that right now since it isn't overheating. Only thing is, I might if I swap in a different CPU later. Speaking of which, what processor should I look for given this motherboard and GPU? Just want something decent enough so a kid can play some normal games like lega movie ?? Thanks!

So, I picked up this PC for my kid. Some parts were missing, but I got everything set up, gave it a good cleaning, and started prepping it for actual use. Installed Windows 8.1, Microsoft Office, Norton, HWMonitor... just the usual stuff. Anyway, HWMonitor is telling me I've got an AMD Athlon 64 3200+ processor on an ASUS GA-M55S-S3 v1 motherboard, which is what I found online too. Is that even possible?? While I was cleaning, I tried to pop the heatsink off to swap out the thermal paste and vacuum it out, but I could only get the fan loose—the actual heatsink wouldn't budge. Since temperatures seemed fine, I just left it alone so I didn't break anything. Maybe there's another clip I missed, but I couldn't find any. From what I know, you just unclip the metal tension legs holding it to the socket and it should lift right off, maybe with the CPU, but mine won't move an inch. Second issue: the CPU usage is constantly hitting 100%. It’s spinning its wheels even when I'm doing absolutely nothing. Looking at Task Manager, the biggest resource hogs are two "Google Chrome (32bit)" processes and "system interrupts." Why am I seeing two Chromes?? That's what's driving me crazy right now. Thanks for any help or ideas. Here's the specs:

Power Supply 420w
AMD Athlon 64, 2000MHz, 3200+
ASUS GA-M55S-S3 v1
4GB DDR2-800 Samsung
Nvidia GeForce 210 1GB
HD Maxtor 6 G160E0 SCSI 160GB

Is this even enough to run Windows 8, or should I just stick with Windows 7??