Posts by wiredotter14

brightnomad7 said:Alright, I'll probably just hold off until summer. If I can land a job by then, I'll grab parts and build a new rig. Thanks for the help, everyone. 🙂

The Intel Core i3-8100 is out now

The 8100 is already overkill for $280, much like the Intel Core i3-6100. It would fit your setup perfectly.

https://www.newegg.com/product&prod...m_medium=click

Usually, drag and drop is just one finger clicking and the other moving—I don't really get why anyone would need two hands for this?
Anyway, I think you can go into the Control Panel and turn on click lock so you can handle drag and drop with just one finger.

brightnomad7 said:The thing is, I was planning on putting everything on credit since I'm pulling in $250 a month from my student grant. I'm hoping to land a summer job, but if waiting is actually the smarter move, I've got nothing to do but think about it during my two-and-a-half weeks off from college.

Officially, the Intel Core i3-8100 and the 2400G should be out by February 12th. They'll probably hit the US stores shortly after.
If you can swing it, just wait. Your current GPU is barely doing anything besides pushing a signal to the monitor. With an Intel Core i3-8100, you'll actually be able to play decent games on low/medium settings—older titles will run fine on higher ones.

8GB of RAM is plenty, unless you're doing heavy programming.

The GPU will work, and it won't perform any worse than before—it’s just inherently weak, so expect nothing more than basic tasks.

What kind of power supply are you running?
That setup shouldn't pull more than 150W, as long as you aren't using some cheap junk.

What's the end goal here, and are you planning on upgrading later?
It's smart to grab a B350 board if you want the option to overclock the CPU.

Also, if you aren't in a rush, maybe hold off for a month or two. A new Ryzen series is dropping soon, and you'll likely see the Ryzen 2200G priced right around what the Ryzen 3 1200 costs now. It's basically the same chip, but for the same money, you get integrated graphics that absolutely crush that old card of yours. That would be a much better move for you.

Samuel Castillo49 said:Don't be so naive, man. Words are cheap. Besides, you don't buy high-end components without a receipt, an invoice, and the original box.

Crypto miners know how to grab cards through sketchy imports without any paperwork, so I wouldn't be surprised to see them hitting the used market with zero warranty.

Stolen goods show up everywhere. It’s not like someone was out there breaking into houses just to strip down PCs, but there are plenty of ways for hot items to hit the market.

The buyer usually has no clue if a GPU was actually stolen, but they might notice something else is off—maybe it crashes constantly, throws artifacts, makes a hell of a noise, or looks like some amateur messed with the internals and voided the warranty.

P.S.

Look, given the situation, it’s obvious it was used for mining, but that doesn't justify a ridiculously low price tag unless the card is actually faulty. If the hardware is solid, there's no way to prove whether it mined a few Ether or not.

I’ve never once seen a power supply unit that uses an 8-pin CPU cable that isn't split into a 4+4 configuration.

crimsonstag84 said:G
CPU: 250-$100

i3s are going for 200-$83. You really think anyone's dropping 250-300 on a quad FXa?

The temperature readings before and after will tell you everything you need to know.
It’s not rocket science once you’ve actually done this a few times. Older laptops are way easier to crack open and clean compared to those ultra-thin modern ones.

I’d actually recommend this shop. I’ve brought two different laptops there, and both times the temps were significantly better after they were done.

It’ll run you $50—they swap out the thermal paste and do a full cleaning.

http://www.servislaptopa.com/

What’s your minimum CPU frequency after a gaming session? Check HWMonitor. Disable whatever setting auto-throttles it or just fire up HW Monitor once you’re actually in-game.

And make sure you've got the latest GPU drivers installed if you haven't already.

First, check if your CPU clock speed is actually holding steady right now!

I wouldn't waste a single cent on a dead platform.

The R9 280 is 3GB, right?

Fortnite is okay regarding CPU optimization, but it’s not exactly great for Intel chips (not quite as bad as PUBG, but still), though it eats through VRAM and gets pretty demanding on high settings.

Check those games using GPU-Z to see what your GPU usage and VRAM usage look like while you're playing.
When you hit a drop, lower the settings or crash the game and check the graph to see where those two stood.

Massive FPS drops like the ones you're describing are usually caused by running out of VRAM or some specific in-game effects overloading the card.

Mess around with the settings; some of them are absolute killers for VRAM and overall graphics. Things like draw distance and certain fine details.

Anyway, for GTA V and Fortnite, I know that processor is actually fine even at 3.5GHz. It isn't exactly top-tier, but you shouldn't be seeing drops like that. If it is the CPU, it's likely due to specific settings rather than raw power.

My i7 920 @3 is basically the same as your FX, and it handles Fortnite and GTA V without much trouble. It gets some drops, but the worst it hits is somewhere in the 30s—it never dips below 30.

The R9 280 is plenty strong for 1080p. You should have decent performance if your settings are dialed in properly. My HD7850, which is significantly weaker than the R9 280, ran GTA V on medium settings just fine (around 50 FPS without major drops).

EDIT: Sorry, missed that you already tried low settings. 8GB of RAM should be enough, but check your RAM usage too.

The FX8320 should be able to push at least 4.0GHz near stock voltage, so it's worth the effort.

And keep an eye on HWmonitor while you're gaming to see if your CPU frequency is dropping.

Timothy Kim60 said:It holds up, mostly because Intel doesn't allow overclocking on the lower-end chipsets. But honestly, once you start looking at anything remotely serious ($100+), those AM4 boards seem overpriced. They really should be cheaper.

Yeah, true. Looking at them now, the cheapest X370 boards are pushing nearly a grand, which is like 20-25% more than the entry-level Z370 options. It’s not exactly a great value proposition. Enthusiasts want the beefier chipset, so a lot of people will probably stick with an 8600K or 8350K over Ryzen, since that motherboard price gap eats up whatever savings you get from picking Ryzen.

Look, I'm no expert when it comes to specific motherboard specs, but the bottom line is that one of the main overclocking features found on an AMD board is also available on a board like this $200 one.

It’ll be something weaker than a GT1030, which means it's way slower than a GTX1050.

Timothy Kim60 said:Those Ryzen quad cores will probably need a price cut, otherwise they're basically useless compared to the APUs.

As for the AM4 boards, everyone expected them to undercut Intel's equivalents, but unfortunately, that didn't happen. They end up costing the same, if not a bit more.

The Ryzen 1000-series is going to be phased out once the 2000-series hits anyway, so I wouldn't be surprised if AMD just scraps the CPU-only quads entirely. If they do that, the price of the current quads won't even matter.

Yeah, the boards aren't cheap, but you can't really compare them directly.
The B350 actually supports overclocking while the B250 doesn't, so we're looking at apples and oranges here.
It's true that the X370 is generally pricier than the Z270/Z370.

Maybe when Intel drops some cheaper boards, AM4 prices will finally budge.

Once those H310/B360 boards hit the market for around 500 bucks$200, pairing one with an Intel i3 8100 is going to be a killer combo. Honestly, there won't be much difference compared to a Ryzen 3 2200 g Apa paired with an AM4 board.$33

I said you should try testing it while it's cold if you're still on the fence about going aftermarket or not.
Because if your CPU just happens to top out at 3.85GHz anyway, then whatever, it doesn't matter.

Try dropping your ambient temp down to about 50°F while it's cold out and see how far you can push the OC. You'll get a much better idea of where your CPU ceiling actually is.