Posts by Kimberly Gomez34

And honestly, that’s probably the smartest move for him. I highly doubt he's some kind of cheater anyway.

Here’s a similar build to Flatron's first one, but featuring an SSHD and a case with USB 3.0.

1 x AMD FX-Series X8 8320 3.5GHz, 16MB, 125W, AM3+, FD8320FRHK Processor
1 x ASUS M5A97 EVO R2.0, AM3+, AMD 970/SB950, DDR3, 4 Slots
1 x Cooler Master Hyper 212 Evo, 2011, 1366/1156/775/AM3, 626g, 13-32dB
1 x 8GB DDR3 Crucial, 1600MHz CL11 (1x8GB)
1 x Sapphire R9 280 3GB OC Dual-X, 3GB GDDR5 384bit, 28nm
1 x Seagate 1TB HDD, Serial ATA III, 7200 rpm, DESKTOP SSHD, 8GB SSD
1 x FORTRON 550W Raider Power Supply, RA550, 12cm fan
1 x LG GH24NS DVD Writer, DVD±RW, 24x DVD±R, 8x DL, 40x CD-R
1 x Zalman Z9 U3 Mid Tower Case, 207(W) x 464(H) x 504(D)mm

$1907

Zachary Wood13 - both setups are decent, though you'd get better gaming performance from Flatron's second build because of the stronger graphics card...
your current configuration is, to put it mildly, terrible.😬

Running an APU plus a dedicated GPU makes zero sense here; you've picked a motherboard that's way too expensive for a budget FM2 platform, a graphics card that's far too weak for a dedicated gaming PC at this price point, a separate sound card that isn't necessary unless you're a pro musician, and a power supply that's complete overkill for these components. It's just poorly balanced and frankly, a lot of wasted money.

If you're looking at the absolute budget options (up to $50) this is probably your best bet. However, if you're planning on keeping this case for a future upgrade, the one crimsonstag84 linked is an incredible value for the money.

The power supply will handle an R9 280X or a GTX 770 just fine, but if you're looking at those high-end cards, this PSU is going to struggle.

To get any real overclocking done, you’re going to need a pricey Z97 motherboard, plus a little extra effort and a decent aftermarket cooler. Otherwise, if you aren't planning on tinkering with it, just stick to a standard Pentium and call it a day...

Looking at the Intel LGA 1155 platform—I think this gives you the best bang for your buck initially (it's also overclocking-ready within this budget)—BUT you won't have much room to upgrade your CPU later on this specific socket compared to an AM3+ setup or a 1150 build (where you could jump to an FX 6300/83xx or even an i3, i5, or i7). If you don't care about future upgrades and just want to ride this setup for years, it's a solid choice.

1 x Spire Pascal Architecture cooler, 1156/775/FM1, 96.5×51×125 mm, 92mm
1 x DDR3 4GB (1x4GB) Crucial, 1600MHz CL11
1 x EVGA 300W PSU, HEXA 400, 12cm fan, Passive PFC
1 x MSI Gaming Series Case, no PSU
1 x Asrock Intel X99, DDR3
1 x Intel Core i3-3220 3.40GHz 4cores
1 x Seagate Barracuda 1TB, Caviar Blue 10EZEX, 1000 GB, SATA3, 64 MB, 3.5", 24mj
1 x Sapphire R7 260X 1GB GDDR5 OC, 1GB GDDR5 128bit, 28nm

$1028

Basically, the i3-3220 performs similarly to a high-end older quad-core in gaming, and it's unlocked if you feel like pushing it.
If you'd rather go with a 750Ti graphics card, you can make that work with some adjustments (using a cheaper motherboard, a 500GB drive, and the i3-3220).

1 x Spire Pascal Architecture cooler, 1156/775/FM1, 96.5×51×125 mm, 92mm
1 x DDR3 4GB (1x4GB) Crucial, 1600MHz CL11
1 x EVGA 300W PSU, HEXA 400, 12cm fan, Passive PFC
1 x MSI GeForce GTX 750 Ti Gaming 2GB GDDR5, N750Ti TF 2GD5/OC Gaming
1 x MSI Gaming Series Case, no PSU
1 x Intel Core i3-3220 3.40GHz 4cores
1 x Seagate Barracuda 500GB, 7200rpm, SATA 6 Gb/s, 32MB
1 x ASUS A78M-E, Intel LGA 1155 Socket A78 Chipset MB

$1043 — Or, if you're looking toward the future, you could swap in an Inno3D 750Ti, an ASUS A78M-E, a Corsair VS Series power supply, and an MSI Gaming Series case...

I see this is an older GPU model, so you likely picked it up used? I hope you weren't getting too reckless with it... Just to be safe, try plugging it into a different PC

Brandon Ward31 said:I’ll probably just end up grabbing an i5. What's the actual deal with the difference between the 4440 and the 3350P? From what I can tell, the 4440 bumps up the performance a bit, but the price is basically the same anyway.

In real-world usage (performance), there isn't much of a gap; the 3350P might run just a tiny bit cooler and costs a bit less, but the real advantage of the 4440 is that you get integrated graphics, and they're actually quite decent.

coastalseal17 said:What kind of shop is this?

He told you

$763 ADM

ADM.com—basically, it’s a Great Acquisition site, and they even have a physical storefront in Chicago.
That graphics card goes with every new motherboard.

If you want to convert a Molex connector into a 6-pin, there are plenty of adapters you can pick up online if you need one.

But honestly, I’m telling you, just grab this instead. It’s priced almost the same as a 250X, yet it performs better and draws significantly less power—you won't even need an extra power connector because it pulls everything it needs directly from the PCIe slot.

Justin Rogers59 said:Can anyone recommend a GPU up to $250? I'm planning to pick it up at Micro Center. Here is my current build. I was thinking about grabbing this

Memory Device KINGSTON ValueRAM DDR3 SDRAM Non-ECC (4GB,1600MHz(PC3-12800),Single Rank,Unbuffered) CL11
MS GRIFFIN case + PSU MSI FSP300-60HCN, bulk
Intel Core i5-2500K, 2.6GHz, 8MB, AM3
MSI AM3+ Motherboard

Thanks!

I'm with Robert Rodriguez2 on this—those 250X cards are going to be $33 cheaper at other retailers. If you're sticking with Micro Center specifically because of the processor, try to stretch your budget to the 260X for $273. That's an incredible value and definitely worth the extra cash
.
EDIT: Or even better, check out this—it performs right in the same ballpark as the 260X but pulls almost half the power. It’s a great move considering your power supply limitations, though the 260X would still hold up just fine.

Honestly, they were feeding some troll a load of nonsense the other day—claiming he had a build with $5333 dual GeForce GTX 970s, an i5 4690K, and a 4K monitor, and that he’d still have enough left over to buy a beat-up old Ford Fiesta 😬

Are you guys even reading what 😬 wrote above?

The GeForce GTX 970 is based on the desktop HD 7870 Pitcairn chip with 1280 1D shaders and 80 texture units.

Michael Jackson10 said:I highly doubt most people even think about this. It feels like everyone around me just assumes laptops are the "new desktops" and that old towers are basically obsolete.
People love to chat about it too: "It's all about miniaturization! Look, you can fit a whole computer right under your arm!"
And then they go and ditch a perfectly decent desktop to grab some cheap HP (yeah, look how far that legendary brand has fallen 🙂) on sale at Walmart for like $30. They plop it right where the old machine used to sit, save a few cents on the electric bill, and let it sit there for two years. They'll even get a fancy little tablet specifically designed to work with it.
The other extreme is kids dragging them everywhere because they absolutely have to be on Facebook. They're in bed, on the couch, under the covers, even in the bathroom... just eating crackers and spilling soda all over the keyboard.

That is precisely my point. They view it as some sort of massive evolutionary leap forward—as if a desktop setup with dedicated peripherals is becoming an ancient relic of the past...

On the flip side, kids can now drag their tech absolutely everywhere. It’s become vital to be scrolling through Facebook in bed, hunched over a desk, tucked under the covers, or even in the bathroom... snacking on crackers and spilling soda all over the keyboard while they're at it.

Classic move—Facebook and gaming in bed.

Michael Jackson10 said:Mmmmmm, yeah... ☕ total madness... right until everything goes south...
I'm looking at this IBM laptop, maybe 2-3 years old, absolute beast of a machine even by today's standards, and now it won't even boot up unless I go into the BIOS and disable two cores... It used to run fine with all four, but man, it was running hot enough to fry an egg. Reflowing didn't help, nothing did... I can't cool this thing down even with two desk fans blasting at it.

Honestly, I just don't get the whole high-end gaming laptop concept: you take a machine that should be a desktop, filled with "full-blooded" desktop components that aren't throttled by some low-power mode, and you try to cram it into a high-quality case with more mesh than metal. You slap 3 or 4 big fans on it, maybe an expensive air cooler or a liquid cooling setup, and you're constantly cleaning it and babysitting the temps...
But here? You squash all that onto one or two printed circuit boards, shove them into a shallow plastic box with some symbolic ventilation holes, and hide a tiny little turbine behind them that's desperately trying to blow out the boiling air...
And let's talk about the ergonomics—the touchpad and those fancy chiclet keyboards aren't exactly built for peak gaming performance. The screen can only be so big; it’ll never beat a standalone monitor. Fixing one of these things would be harder than a NASA engineer repairing something on the ISS using a Soyuz capsule, mostly because you won't find anyone willing to mess with it...

What is it about human nature that drives someone toward... sorry, towards a Dell?
What's the catch?
Is it just having the biggest one? (the laptop, obviously...)
Or is it being easy to carry around, so you can use those 10 minutes of battery life to show everyone how much money you can throw away?
Enlighten me...

Status.
Kids think it’s a big deal. It's just like how people think laptops are somehow superior to desktops. 🤷

Generally speaking, gaming laptops—like the ASUS ROG series—might have slightly better cooling than some standard models, but let's be real: they're still garbage. Seeing temperatures hit 195-212°F is just a typical Tuesday for them.

The AMD Radeon R9 is built around the desktop HD 7870 Pitcairn architecture, featuring 1280 1D shaders and 80 texture units.

Basically, that Crossfire setup performs right in line with a 7870 Crossfire configuration—think of it as being similar to having two modern R9 270 cards from $400

What specific components are packed into that m18x? Dell’s official site doesn't say jack, and I stumbled upon an older 2011 model featuring a 560M—honestly, even a mid-range gaming card today would absolutely smoke that 😬

He picked up the laptop. Lock it down 😬

Personally, I find laptop screens much more appealing overall. They tend to offer much sharper images and more vibrant colors, whereas my desktop monitors often suffer from heavy glare and lack that same level of clarity.

It really comes down to matte versus glossy finishes. Matte screens eliminate glare—which is ideal if you’re someone who takes their laptop out to a coffee shop or works outdoors—whereas glossy screens (which, ironically, are common on laptops but rare for desktop monitors) produce reflections but deliver much punchier colors and better contrast. This is likely because matte screens have an extra coating over the display panel.

Just one more quick question: I noticed on the Linksys website that they offer free shipping on orders over $333, but I can't find any info on whether they charge a fee for custom PC builds or if that's included for free too?

Customizing a build for orders over $667 is free, though I believe you might need to leave a deposit first (perhaps $67).

EDIT

If you're shopping for a monitor, just grab one with an IPS or PLS panel, connect it via a DVI cable, and you're good to go.

Larry Ortiz5 said:So, I'll grab a GTX 1080 for the $567 garage setup and my PC. But yeah, Nvidia's RTX 8 series would definitely pull less power.

Used cards? Sure. But I don't see the new RTX 3080 dropping that much in price—we're talking hundreds of dollars here. It’s more likely that some RTX 8 series card will end up being the better value move.

With Intel, you might eventually find some high-end GPUs sitting around $300—for instance, the R9 290 Gigabyte Windforce is already hitting $2,600–$2,700, and the previous gen Radeon HD 7970 was about $3,000 right before an identical 280X showed up for $2,300–$2,400. So, using that logic...

Larry Ortiz5 said:Once the RTX 8 series officially drops, picking up a used RTX 3080 will finally make sense. Prices for those old cards are going to crater, maybe even more than that.

I don't buy it. Even back when the GTX 1080 was out, prices didn't just tank; it’s simply a matter of the new lineup becoming the better value proposition.