What kind of laptop are we talking about, and how old is it? Which version of macOS are you running, and how long has that OS been installed? Has the thing ever been cleaned out—you know, blown out with compressed air or had the thermal paste replaced? Also, when was the last time you actually ran a disk cleanup or defrag?
Based on these stats, it looks like an older laptop that hasn't seen much heavy lifting. You've got a 750 GB Western Digital drive in there—is it really that empty? Are you telling me you actually have nearly 600 GB of free space left?
Look, if you actually know English—which is pretty obvious since you’re already dropping terms like "gimmick"—then I’m assuming Google and Wikipedia aren't exactly foreign concepts to you. 😬
I’m not saying this because explaining these terms is a struggle for me. It’s more that their definitions and how much they actually matter are totally subjective. It all comes down to how you feel about it. One gamer might find a specific setting absolutely vital, while someone else will just write it off as a total gimmick. Plus, a lot of these things overlap and produce basically the same result, so trying to draw hard lines between them is a headache.
The only thing worth mentioning is Advanced Sensitivity. Since it gives you separate vertical and horizontal controls, you can essentially tune the axes independently. This means if you move your mouse at a 45-degree angle, the cursor on your screen won't track at 45 degrees anymore; it’ll skew toward whichever axis has the higher sensitivity setting. Though, honestly, whether you can even visually notice that difference is another story...
I'm with fadedorca66 on this one—don't even bother trying to overclock. On top of what they already said, I'll add that this motherboard has such a basic power delivery system that it's absolutely not built for any kind of stress. You could easily fry the whole thing if you try to bump up the voltage. And honestly, raising the voltage wouldn't even help much because the CPU isn't designed for overclocking anyway; it's got a locked multiplier. Plus, the board has almost zero cooling, so it could overheat and die instantly. Even if you somehow managed to get results by upgrading your cooling and power supply, there's a bigger issue: look at the specs in the link. If you drop a better processor in here, it won't even run at full speed because the board uses an old HT1.0 bus, which has extremely limited communication speeds between components.
In plain English: don't touch a single setting while it's running fine, or you might just kill your machine. It's a shame, really...
Ugh... It’s actually refreshing to see a question like this pop up for once. And honestly, it's great seeing people who can actually say "I've got the budget for this," even if they're a rare breed. 👍
If this is really your situation—and assuming I haven't totally overestimated what you can afford—I’d be torn between the MacBook Air and the Surface Pro:
Not only would that cover all your bases in terms of quality and specs, but let's be real—it's such a nice setup that anyone would be jealous of your desk space. 😬
Whatever you end up buying, I'm expecting a full-blown review over in the "My Laptop" thread. 😬
Most likely just a faulty ribbon cable. Or, honestly, it could be something way worse. I'm not saying anything for certain without a pro running diagnostics or some actual testing: if you know your way around hardware, just grab a new ribbon cable and swap it out yourself...
Yeah, your processor is definitely the weak link here. But honestly, it’s not just about the CPU.
Unfortunately, you’ve hit a perfect storm where everything in your rig is outdated. That ASUS Prime Motherboard is pretty bottom-tier, and finding anything faster or better to plug into it is basically impossible now. You might find something used, but then you’d have to worry about your power supply, which is probably just as old and weak as the rest. There's no guarantee the board or the PSU could even handle a beefier chip.
And then there's the most important part for gaming: the graphics card. That's where you'll see the biggest jump, but buying one on its own is a waste of money because your processor will just bottleneck it and drag the whole thing down. Plus, all the newer, more powerful cards need decent power supplies, which your current one likely can't handle...
When you add it all up, you'd be looking at buying a used processor, a new power supply, a graphics card, and probably some extra RAM depending on what you're running now. Even then, you'd end up with a mediocre setup by today's standards that still wouldn't run the latest titles properly... and you'd be burning through a lot of cash to get there.
The only real solution is just buying a new computer. It's not impossible if you have some cash saved up and you sell off this old junk first...
Look, you’ve been given some guidelines—hopefully decent ones—but after that, it's all on you. The first thing you need to figure out is your timeline: do you need this machine right this second, or can you afford to wait and save up some cash? Second, let's talk graphics. The 950 and 960 are basically identical in terms of core architecture; the only real difference is the memory. It's either DDR3 or GDDR5. We all know which one is faster, but the real question is whether the extra cost actually translates to a tangible benefit for your specific workflow. Is that faster memory going to pay for itself in productivity?
Having an IPS screen is great, but since you mentioned it's not a "must-have," don't sweat it. You can always slap an SSD in later. Basically, if you need a rig immediately, grab a cheaper, decent option without the SSD and just upgrade it down the road.
When it comes to shopping around, check out Best Buy (they usually have the best selection), but you might find better deals on Amazon or Newegg. Filter for 17" models and set your budget starting around $700 and up to see what's actually on the table: Acer, Asus n, or Asus g. Acer recently updated their platform with newer processors, while Asus tends to offer better warranty options through their various promotions. I'm not sure about extended warranty add-ons lately, so you'd have to dig through the retailers' sites to find out. Honestly, in this price bracket, it doesn't matter much which brand you pick; nobody is really cutting corners on quality at this level...
Edit:
I'm not trying to downplay the fact that Acer comes with a built-in SSD, I just want to point out that 128GB drives are getting pretty tight these days...
I think the M.2 setup looks a lot cleaner, and price-wise, they’re pretty close. If you factor in the drive bay and grab a decent, budget-friendly SSD, you might save about 100 bucks or $67... Plus, an M.2 should be faster since it sits directly on two PCI lanes instead of hogging the bus that the GPU and other drives need.
Yeah, I was looking at the CUDA cores when I suggested that graph. The GTX950 has 640 CUDA cores and GDDR5 video memory on a 128-bit bus, whereas something like a GT940 only has 384 cores and DDR3 memory on a 64-bit bus.
Edit:
Amy Vaughn12 made a good point there. These usually come in two versions—one with GDDR5 and one with DDR3. This specific one says it uses DDR3, but it still runs on a 128-bit bus...
@ Amy Vaughn12: Not exactly a ton of options here, because anything 17" with a GTX960 is way out of my budget...
Honestly, none of them. The truth is, going with a 17" screen pushes you right to the edge of your budget, but if you actually care about quality and top-tier performance, the absolute minimum I’d suggest looking at is an excellent Asus N series. If you were dead set on having realistic color accuracy and most of your work involves Photoshop, you'd really need an IPS screen, which would definitely blow your budget. But since that's not the case, I think this one might work for you:
would be great for your needs. Aside from having a really solid screen, a metal chassis, a backlit keyboard, good audio, and all the other perks the N series offers, you're getting a 4/8 core i7 HQ processor, a fast drive, plenty of RAM, and some brutal GTX graphics... All those configurations you linked can't even touch this setup. You can install an SSD in two ways: via the internal M2 slot or by swapping out the DVD drive...
It would be helpful if you could tell us which laptop you're using, how old it is, and if it's still under warranty. You might be able to try a hard reset by pulling the battery (if it’s the easy-to-remove kind) and holding down the power button for a while. 🤷
Check the bottom of the case—if there's a service hatch near the center, see if you can get to the RAM sticks. You haven't actually said what happened here. Did it just die out of nowhere? Did it take a tumble or get dropped? If it took a hit, there's a chance a RAM stick just popped loose from its slot.
Bottom line: the more info you give us, the better we can help—and right now, you're being pretty vague...
Does it go straight to a Blue Screen of Death? And before that, is there absolutely nothing? No letters on the screen, no BIOS, no memory testing, no scrolling text? Just nothing? Also, please type out those error codes from the Blue Screen of Death and post them here...
What are the indicator lights doing? Are they blinking rapidly or staying solid? Any sound, like short or long beeps? If so, count them up for me.
You’re clearly not reading. And honestly, you're being rude on this forum. It’s standard etiquette that when someone asks a question in a thread, they expect an answer. Instead, you just bury their question under your own massive post, then someone else jumps in on top of that... how is anyone supposed to find the original question and its answer anymore? If anyone even bothers to reply. Sometimes posts get buried so deep the thread moves to a different page and the question disappears entirely. It’s frustrating because everyone is talking over each other and nobody gives a damn about the actual question asked.
Look, I don't give a damn who's throwing a fit, especially since you're doing it in a thread you opened yourself—you can say whatever you want there. But since I'm a damn moderator, when I took this job, I committed to looking out for every user, not just you...
And you're acting all sensitive... like, imagine getting worked up just because someone closed a thread. I already explained what happened, so if you want to stay pissed, go ahead. I'm not going to keep explaining myself; I only wrote this to clarify why I did what I did, because yeah, I messed up here. My mistake wasn't closing the thread, it was doing it without any explanation. I should have pulled your post and the related comments into a separate thread and pointed everyone there... Dammit, I was swamped and rushing, so I didn't. I didn't think it would be such a huge deal...
Honestly, they should just make you the director here so we can consult you every time we want something done. 😬
Look, truth be told, I don't know which specific era you're talking about because you clearly don't remember when Corsair power supplies were actually top-tier—one of the few branded units you could find at a local shop alongside Fortron. But that was ages ago, back when their units were built by CWT or Seasonic. They totally blew it when they tried to cut corners and switched to other manufacturers (that first series of CX units was a notorious disaster), though finding hard data on that is tough since nobody wants to broadcast those failures. Later, they went back to CWT, but not to Seasonic. Again, let me repeat: Corsair is essentially a design group for PSU "manufacturers," whereas Cooler Master has never actually made a single power supply in its life; they just slap their stickers on them. And it definitely 😬 happens where they put different labels on the exact same unit (just like Corsair does) and sell them as entirely different models.
However, there’s this thing called a UL number that every power supply has to carry. You can use that to see who actually manufactured a "premium" Cooler Master unit—whether it's AC Bell, Enhance, Hipro, or someone else... With Fractal Design, there's no mystery; everything they sell is produced by ATNG.
But sure, you'll probably come up with more reasons and explanations for why you claimed certain brands are manufacturers in your last post, just pulling something new out of thin air (did anyone even ask your opinion on AIOs or vents?) just so you can act smart... You're drifting further and further off-topic.
Just make up your mind: is the Hyper 500 any good or not? First you trash it relentlessly, and then:
Matthew Alvarez said:As far as the power supply goes, that Hyper 500W is plenty for that setup,
Matthew Alvarez said:Corsair is a joke of a company. It’s not just about their power supplies; they mostly just get bought by people who don't know any better.
🤦😵
Where have you been all this time, man? We've been living under a false sense of security for years...
Honestly, Windows XP and Vista are probably better fits here. They run fine on less RAM, and you can actually find drivers for all the components. Plus, transferring data or getting them on a network works without any real issues when jumping between the newer OS and XP or Vista...
I’m just not sure about the browser situation. I know Internet Explorer doesn't support XP anymore, and probably not Vista either. Check if Firefox or some other browser still works so you don't come back later complaining to me. 😬
What exactly are you hoping to gain? Honestly, what’s even the point here?
I’m honestly surprised that laptop even runs on Windows 7. Support for that machine basically died with Windows XP and Vista, so you're lucky if everything even functions at all 😬 and if things start breaking, don't hold your breath waiting for a fix...
If Google Chrome isn't crashing because some hardware component is fighting with outdated drivers, then it's definitely the lack of RAM. Having 895 MB for Windows 7 and a browser where you probably have more than one tab open is just pathetic...
Yeah, you can upgrade the RAM, and you really should—it's not exactly breaking the bank:
Just make sure you get the specific RAM meant for your model, otherwise it won't work. Before you buy anything, you need to pop the back cover off and check the slots; there are two. If both are full, you've got 2x 512MB sticks that need to be swapped out for two new ones. If only one is filled, you're in luck—that means you have a 1GB stick and just need one more like it. Either way, 2 GB is the absolute limit for that laptop.
But the real question is how much of a difference it'll actually make. You'll see *some* improvement, sure, but your processor is ancient. It's slow, weak, and lacks all the modern instruction sets found in newer chips that actually speed things up. The graphics situation is even worse; that integrated GeForce GT is... prehistoric. It doesn't support most modern rendering technologies, which is likely why Google Chrome keeps crashing. Right now, it's eating up 128 MB of your RAM, and once you upgrade, it'll grab 256 MB, which is its max.
So, upgrading the RAM will help, but how much? That's the catch. If you have no other choice, go ahead and do it since it's cheap, but don't expect a miracle...
Have you checked those warehouses to see if there's a newer laptop available? 😬
It's not that I didn't think, it's that I actually found written proof. Meanwhile, you're just talking out of your ass using the "well, I saw it working at a friend's place" logic... Helou? You call that a constructive dialogue?
I said the power draw from the rest of the build doesn't matter, but I wouldn't say it's 50W—I'd love to see you document that. And please, show me how this "500W Corsair, I don't know the exact model but it's good" 🤣 actually delivers all the necessary wattage without exceeding 80% capacity while still leaving 100-120W of headroom. And what then? Does EVGA just show up in our local stores second-hand once they've lost their punch?
I have nothing against you or your posts, but seriously, think before you type. We aren't here to play pretend; we're here to help people, which clearly isn't what you're doing. If you think you are helping, at least provide a reference for what you're claiming instead of just I saw it once...
Of course there's no point buying a Hyper 500 when there are slightly more expensive, more powerful Hyper or Raider units available, but dismissing it by saying there's no way it'll work—it's just a standard PSU, nothing special...—what's the problem? Does it have a 5-year warranty? Yes. Does it say it delivers 456 W on the +12V rail? It says the same thing as any other PSU. Whether EVGA is lying or not is the same story with every other manufacturer... Does it say it's 80+ certified and meets 85+ specs? It does. Does it say it has a 5-year warranty? It does. Will it work in that configuration? For God's sake, of course it will, and without any issues. If it doesn't work and fries your gear, feel free to contact the FSP group, who offers a $5,000,000 guarantee that their Hyper units won't cause any damage to connected equipment...
What else do you need?
And look, if you actually knew anything about the power supplies you're talking about, you'd know that Corsair doesn't even manufacture their own PSUs; they just handle the design while other firms handle the actual production. And get this—one of those manufacturers is EVGA (FSP), which is one of the oldest, most established, and high-quality companies in the industry that produces units for tons of other brands. Just because you've never heard of EVGA doesn't mean they don't exist...
Matthew Alvarez said:There's no way that R9 390 is going to run reliably on a Hyper 500W unit. That's just a standard power supply, nothing special about it. It might work on a decent 500W, I know for a fact...
But here's what I'm reading:
1. i5 4460 max TDP= 84W http://ark.intel.com/products/80817/...up-to-3_40-GHz 2. R9 390 Peak = 253 W Max = 323 W https://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/...S_Plus/28.html 3. Fortron Hyper 500W +12V = 38 A = 456 W http://fsp-europe.com/hyper-500w600700w/
Everything else is negligible...
Look, the Fortron Hyper is a mainstream 80+ Bronze unit with a 5-year warranty...