How much cash should I be setting aside these days to put together a true "best buy" build? I'm talking about that sweet spot where you get the absolute most bang for your buck. I tried throwing some random parts together the other day just for fun, and somehow ended up spending over $2000 without even picking out anything special.
Chris Robinson25 said:Problem solved, but now I've run into a new headache. My RAM isn't playing nice together. -.-
I'm running an ASUS H81 M-K with a single 4GB stick of Corsair Vengeance DDR3 at 1.5V 1600MHz and a single 8GB stick of Kingston HyperX Fury DDR3 at 1.5V 1866MHz.
The motherboard only works when I use the Corsair stick alone. But back when I was using integrated graphics, it recognized both sticks perfectly and showed me 12GB usable.
Try updating your motherboard BIOS. They might have pushed a fix for memory compatibility in a recent version.
Think about grabbing 16GB of RAM—specifically a 2X8 setup. It isn't going to break the bank. As for the motherboard, just make sure it actually covers your bases. Look for things you’ll actually use, like RAID support, 7.1 surround sound, enough SATA ports for all your drives, and USB 3.1. If you don't really care about those extra features, then honestly, you can just go with the cheapest option available.
Well, if that’s the case, then we're good. Honestly, I was starting to freak out thinking I had some massive malware infection or something. I was worried that when I shrunk the clusters down to just 512b, something might have managed to wedge itself into the boot sector, whereas at 2048b on FAT32, there was enough room for it to hide (this is my Windows installation USB, by the way). I've got this nagging paranoia that I'm reinstalling a pre-infected OS every single time. Plus, I can't figure out why my ntldr isn't showing up.
Since none of these anti-virus tools are picking up a thing, my only conclusion is that someone is messing with me using some kind of script. I tried disabling Windows scripting by tweaking the registry keys, but that didn't do a thing. Even as I'm typing this, I logged into the forum, but after one refresh I was logged out, and then the next refresh I was logged back in again. It's weird.
wiredcyclist82 said:Is this some random Chinese person from eBay? 32GB should show about 29.4 GB free after you format it.
I think you're right. I was just throwing out numbers from memory.
darkowl72 said:Assuming the drive itself isn't faulty—and I agree with wiredcyclist82 on that—you have to account for the fact that the file system and cluster size (the smallest unit of storage) take up a chunk of space. It eats into your total capacity. Using NTFS takes up slightly more room than other formats, but you get much better data management, security, and a few other perks in return. If you actually meant 15 MB of lost space on a 32 GB drive, that’s a tiny fraction. That loss is almost certainly just the overhead from how the file system organizes everything.
Does FAT32 even have any kind of organizational structure? I'm seeing some weird discrepancies. When I check a drive formatted with FAT32, it tells me it's 100% free. But when I switch to NTFS with a 512b cluster size, it claims I'm missing about 15MB. Specifically, out of 29.4GB, it says only 29.385GB is free. I've run every malware scanner and tool I own, but I can't find a single trace of anything suspicious.
As far as I know, there isn't one, but it’s definitely worth considering. If they're already rolling something like this out for smartphones in certain places, it should be just as easy to implement for computers.
All sorted. Turns out it was just a swap file issue. I totally forgot to toggle the setting to show system files. Now I’ve run into a similar "problem." I have a 32GB USB drive, and when I format it using FAT32, it shows something like 31.92GB of 31.92GB free. But if I switch over to NTFS, it claims there's about 15MB missing. Is that actually normal?
I just did a fresh install of Windows 7, and during the setup, I split things into two partitions. One is small, and the rest goes onto a second one—it's a 120GB SSD. Up until yesterday, that second partition was showing 100GB of 100GB free. Then, suddenly, it dropped to 99GB free. I wanted to see what swallowed that extra gigabyte, so I toggled the setting to show hidden files in Explorer, but when I click on the partition, it looks completely empty. To make matters worse, I tried formatting it, but the system won't let me; it says the drive is currently in use. The thing is, I'm not even looking at it or doing anything with it right now. I already downloaded Process Explorer and Autoruns, ran a full VirusTotal scan through the built-in tools, and everything came back clean. What's going on here?
Gregory Scott4 said:How's it running now? Guess you finished installing Windows.
I haven't run any tests just yet. It was working fine before, but it felt like something was dragging it down and keeping it from hitting its full potential. And yeah, I installed Windows 7.
Adam Moore3 said:Look, this guy is talking about a retiree whose grandkids might stop by once in a while to play some games. You don't need to build him a $5,000 beast with an eight-core processor and an NVIDIA GTX 950. That’s just overkill. Here is a more realistic way to go:
ASUS Prime Motherboard, sFM2+ AMD x4 A8-7600 Processor Fortron 400W Power Supply LC POWER Cosmo Cool CC-95 1TB WD Blue HDD, 3.5", 7200RPM 2xDDR3 4GB (1x4GB) PC3-14900 1866MHz MS PHOENIX 2 Case
Total: $2,$60
If you include a monitor, you're looking at roughly $280 for THIS setup, which brings the total to about $1000. It's an APU build, so it handles basic gaming just fine, and you get the whole rig and screen for $1000.
Thanks a lot. I was actually thinking along these lines, but I'm not a huge fan of using AMD parts. Is there an Intel version of this setup? Also, maybe something from NVIDIA? Thanks!
Look, I don't have a strict budget set in stone, and I'm definitely not looking for "best buy" bargain bin parts. I’m trying to figure out what to recommend to a retiree who wants to get something reliable. His grandkids come over every now and then to play games on his PC, and since he's living on a fixed social security income, I want to be mindful of that. The goal isn't to build a high-end rig that hits massive frame rates at 4K resolution. He just needs something capable of running most things smoothly at a basic level—think minimum settings at something like 1024x768. Since he's still using an old CRT monitor, maybe you could also suggest a decent budget-friendly monitor to go with it. Basically, what's the absolute minimum amount of money needed to make this happen?