Posts by Jose Martin96

Honestly, HP is garbage—especially this series. The plastic feels cheap as hell and you have to take apart way too many pieces just to get inside. Luckily, I didn't run into any major issues here. I didn't even notice the power button cable while I was tearing it down; I thought the microswitch was built into the chassis and there was just some rubber on top, but damn, the switch is actually up there with its own connector. Of course, I ended up yanking it because it was stuck to some random factory tape that I totally missed at first. Thankfully, I didn't snap the thing since I didn't see it coming.

So I was tearing this thing down just to swap out the IBM, and everything was working perfectly fine before I started messing with it. Now that I’ve put it all back together, the power button is a total ghost—nothing happens when I hit it. The charging light comes on when it's plugged in, but that's about it; no other lights are kicking in. What could have gone wrong? Nothing broke, honestly... the only thing is, I think the tiny ribbon cable for the power button popped loose while I was prying off the front panel, but I thought I snapped it back in.

I’m not really messing around with overclocking here; I don't have the cash to drop on a new CPU if this one decides to kick the bucket, and honestly, it's doing just fine for me right now. I was running into some weird issues where it kept jumping into some energy-saving mode on its own, but I tweaked the BIOS settings and everything's smooth sailing now. I'm thinking about grabbing one of those R7 250 cards—mostly just so I can get a warranty behind me—so if my current power supply holds up, great, but if not, I might just pick up that recommended one since the price is decent, though I'd rather not swap things out unless I absolutely have to. Thanks.

Hey, I got some killer advice on my build here about two years ago, so now I'm back looking for help picking a GPU;

CPU: AMD A6 3670K (Max TDP is 111W, though maybe less if I pop something in the PCIe slot and stop using the integrated graphics..?)
PSU: Codegen 480W (About 7-8 years old, definitely the oldest part of this rig, but it still holds up..)
MB: ASRock A55M-HVS
RAM: Transcend JM1600KLN 4GB DDR3 DRAM Frequency 800MHz (Pretty sure I bought 1600Mhz, maybe it runs x2..)
HD: 250GB WD Caviar Blue
DVD RW
Resolution: 1366x768

On top of all that, I always have my Logitech Formula Force EX wheel plugged in (it has its own power supply) along with a 300GB external HDD

As you can see, I don't have a dedicated card yet, just the integrated stuff, so my PCIe slot is wide open. My question is:
What kind of GPU—specifically, what wattage limit am I looking at—can I get away with without having to swap out my power supply? I don't have the cash to buy both at once, and I was eyeing an R7 250 1GB GDDR5... assuming it actually performs better than the integrated hd 6530 D I'm currently running with 512MB borrowed from my RAM.

I'm not some hardcore gamer or anything, but it would be nice if FIFA World ran a bit smoother, or Assetto Corsa, which I'm barely playing on low right now. Even GTA4 struggles to hit low settings, so being able to play that on low would be a win, but that's pretty much it.

fadedorca66 said:Unfortunately, once you're on the LGA 1150 platform, you're pretty much hitting a dead end for upgrades unless you jump to an entirely different setup, but honestly, why sweat it? This processor is solid enough with its 4 cores, and it'll push whatever GPU you throw at it without breaking a sweat. When this card eventually starts lagging, you just grab something beefier like a Radeon HD 5770 and call it a day.

So basically, grab this, then once you save up some cash, swap out the power supply (assuming this one is junk—what's the actual brand and model?), toss in another 4GB of RAM, and you're golden since you don't even need a better CPU. If the GPU gets too weak, just upgrade that later.

I don't know much about this power supply other than what's printed on the sticker; I just know it's been sitting around for maybe 5 years, an EVGA 480W ATX 12V Model: 480X. Is that gonna cut it for now? Because if it isn't, then I'm totally stuck by the $533 limit.

fadedorca66 said:Motherboard: MSI H81M-P33 $114
CPU: Intel Pentium Gold $211
RAM: Transcend DDR3 1600MHz 4GB, JM1600KLN-4G $45
HDD: HDD SATA III 500 GB Western Digital Caviar Blue, 3.5", 7200 rpm, 16 MB, WD5000AAKX $153

This setup is way better for you and honestly cheaper too. Why? Because the CPU packs more punch and the integrated graphics actually hold their own compared to a Radeon R7 250 or a GeForce GT 1030. You should aim for faster RAM since that integrated chip treats your system memory like its own VRAM, so speed matters. The jump from a 250GB to a 500GB drive is $13, so why wouldn't you drop the price of two packs of cigarettes to double your storage? You never know when you'll need the extra space.

Just keep in mind the LGA 1151 socket is coming out soon, so it might be worth holding off to see what else hits the market...

This looks like a better move than the other one, especially since I can probably swap in better parts—like a better CPU, GPU, PSU, and RAM—in six months or a year, but I need something running right now and my budget is fixed at $533, so I'm gonna dig into what you suggested. I had no clue integrated graphics could even handle those games. Thanks.

Hey, I’ve got a question about GPUs. I’m trying to put together a budget rig specifically for gaming, mostly stuff like Madden NFL 12, iRacing, and Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare. I just need it to hit 1024x768, though anything better would be a nice little bonus.

CPU: Intel Pentium Gold 2.4GHz dual core .. $100 protis
MB: Haven't picked a specific model yet, just looking for an LGA 1150 socket with DDR3 at 1333MHz or higher, nothing crazy ..$113 protis
GPU: Radeon R7 250 or GeForce GT 1030, both 128bit with DDR3 memory ... $143 protis
RAM: 4GB DDR3 1333MHz (I know it'll run at 1066 because of the CPU, but the 1333 is cheaper anyway) ... $47 protis
HDD: Cheapest 7200rpm drive I can find, Western Digital 250GB .. $140 protis
PSU: 480W from an old PC

The main thing is the GPU; I realize neither of these is anything special, but this is strictly a budget build and I can't go over my limit, so which one of these two is actually better for gaming?