Posts by Jesse Williams13

I’ve already brought up my old Samsung t200 monitor here before.
Is it actually worth ditching it, throwing in another $100, and grabbing this one for gaming (found it at Best Buy):

Are there even any noticeable performance jumps between this thing and my ancient T200?

Or does anyone have a solid recommendation for a better 22" gaming monitor for under $0.50?

thanks

Experts:

I'm getting ready to offload my old Computer, so I need some help figuring out what kind of value I'm looking at for this setup:

Intel Core i5
ASUS ROG Strix
2x2 GB Kingmax RAM
EVGA
2x2 GB Kingmax RAM
Dell
Dell
Dell Monitor

thanks!

Kimberly Gomez34 said:It might be nothing. Typically, signs that you're pushing a power supply too hard include rising temperatures, louder fan noise, or even random restarts under load. In a worst-case scenario, the unit could fail entirely, though it’s rare for it to take other components down with it.

Look, this isn't some high-end, top-tier power supply (there are several versions out there anyway), and you won't find many deep-dive reviews or much user feedback online. Because of that, nobody can tell you with absolute certainty where its breaking point lies. An i5 paired with a GTX 750 Ti should be a safe bet, but an R7 265 would likely hold up just fine too.

Since I'm about to drop roughly $1667 on a new gaming build (already got my peripherals sorted), can I just keep using my current power supply? It's a Corsair 550W and it's about 5 years old.

thanks

Hey guys,

So, I've got my current rig, and I'm looking to swap it out for something new. I’m planning on keeping my peripherals—mouse, keyboard, monitor, all that good stuff. I’ll also pull out the DVD/R drive to make room. My goal is to build a beastly new gaming setup for around $1.75. Here's the big question though: can I just keep my old Corsair 550W power supply? It's about 6 years old now... should I stick with it or is it time to ditch it and get a new one?
I need some solid suggestions on the absolute best parts list I can get for that kind of cash. Give me your best builds!

thanks!!!

Hey, tech gurus,

I’m looking at pulling the trigger on a brand new gaming rig—just the tower, no peripherals included—running about $1.75. So, here's the big question: should I go out and grab a shiny new monitor (maybe something up to $500?) or just stick with my old Samsung T200?
Seriously though, how much of a massive difference am I actually going to see while gaming between a modern screen and my current setup? Is it even worth the upgrade?

Thanks for the help!

John Turner34 said:I run basically the exact same setup and everything runs smooth as hell.
I actually undervolted my GPU clock just so I wouldn't deal with all that heat—I swear, I'd rather have silence than hear my fans screaming at me... using the same card, mine only hits about 540MHz (instead of the usual 750MHz), but I’m pulling roughly 50FPS with great visuals, so I’m stoked. My resolution is set to 1280x1024. Works perfectly for me!
it's all about the in-game settings.

Set 3D Render to 80%
Put water on level 2—pretty sure that's the medium setting.
And just kill the shadows, who needs 'em anyway?

Your CPU is totally fine, honestly it's overkill.
The biggest resource hogs on your GPU are gonna be "Water," "Shadows," and "Resolution."
Keep everything else somewhere between minimum and medium. It won't make a massive difference in how it looks, but it'll save your GPU and boost your FPS big time.

Just mess around with it and see, you know? Like when you're stuck waiting for a match to start... you've got plenty of time to play scientist with those settings...

But look, most of my stuff is already on low or medium, but it keeps happening. I really want to crank up the settings so it actually looks decent...
My resolution is 1650*1050

crimsonstag84 said:World of Tanks isn't actually that harmless, you know 😁

Anyway, if you want a decent upgrade, grab a better cooler and overclock that thing close to 4GHz. Maybe pick up a Raijintek Themis for $66? Then maybe an R7 265 GPU ($367) which would be way too much for the CPU, but hey, at least you can keep it when you eventually swap out the processor.

I don't think I'd swap the GPU because that's just way too much money for me... I was thinking more along the lines of some cheap motherboard and a new CPU... if that even matters at all.
I swear, you were the one helping me out with my clock speeds on that other thread, but now every time I bump up the core, the damn computer won't even boot! It just keeps restarting back to BIOS settings. This is driving me crazy! :-)

Recommended
Operating system: Windows XP / Vista / 7 / 8 - 64-bit
Processor: Intel Core i5-3330
RAM: 4 GB
Video card: GeForce GTX660 (2GB) / Radeon HD 7850 2GB, DirectX 9.0c
Sound: Compatible with DirectX9.0c
Hard drive space: 30 GB
Internet Speed: 1024 Kbps or higher (for voice chat)

Timothy Kim60 said:Man, that rig should absolutely crush WoW, right?!

You seriously need to throw an SSD in there just to stop your PC from feeling like a total dinosaur. http://www.newegg.com/p/nvme-ssd

Unless you're trying to play some other heavy hitters too? What kind of cash are we talking about here?

Right now I'm getting like 15 to 70 FPS on low/medium settings.
But since I've started playing competitively with my clan lately, I really want to crank up those graphics so things actually look decent... and obviously run smoother.
I don't have a specific budget set in stone because I honestly have no clue what parts to upgrade to get the most bang for my buck.
I even tried overclocking the GPU using AMD Overdrive, but what was the point? I gained maybe 2 or 3 FPS tops.

Hey guys,

So, my rig is officially pushing six years old now, and honestly? It’s struggling. It just can't handle the games I want to play anymore. My main go-to is WoW, so I'm looking for some advice on what I should swap out to get this thing running smoothly again—ideally without breaking the bank.
I was thinking about ditching the motherboard and CPU entirely, but I have zero clue if that'll actually make a difference or if I'm just throwing money down the drain. What's the best bang-for-your-buck move here to get the most performance for the least amount of cash?
Here's what I'm rocking right now:
Intel Core i7-13700K
ASUS ROG Maximus Z790 NVIDIA RTX 4090 32GB Corsair RAM
GTX 1650
2x2gb RAM Kingmax

Thanks in advance!

Benjamin King2 said:Can you overclock using just the stock cooler? Yeah, sure. Is it a genius move? Hell no. Try pushing the overclock without bumping up the voltage first to see how much juice that CPU can actually pull on stock settings. Every single processor is its own weird little beast, so take any OC guide you find with a massive grain of salt.

Leave the RAM alone at its default clock and voltage. There’s zero practical benefit to overclocking RAM unless you’re just doing it to flex, and honestly, it’s a one-way ticket to system instability. CPU:RAM multiplier should stay as close to the native memory clock as possible.

First, try setting the clock to 370 without touching the voltage, then crank up Prime95 (small FFT load) to see what kind of insane temperatures you're dealing with under load.

Your rig probably crashed because the CPU voltage was too low.

So what am I supposed to set it to then? Are we talking about the system memory multiplier that I had set to 2.0? I can't even remember what the default was.
So, if I'm getting this right, I don't touch a damn thing except for setting the clock to 370*9 and then wait to see if the whole thing goes south?

Thanks in advance. Look, I’m not some total newbie when it comes to PCs, but this is basically my first time diving into CPU overclocking. I spent two whole days straight reading guides and tutorials to figure out how to push this thing to 3.6 GHz.
The problem is, every time I try tweaking stuff in the BIOS, the PC just restarts a bunch of times and kicks me right back to the factory settings. Then the BIOS throws an error message saying everything was reverted to default because of a mistake (something about the voltage change).
Here’s what I tried: set the Core speed to 9*400
set system memory multiplier to 2.0
bumped Core Voltage-1 from 1.225 to 1.25
PCI frequency at 100MHz
RAM timings at 5-5-5-18
I didn't touch anything else. I read somewhere that I should probably mess with the RAM voltage and some other stuff too, but honestly? I didn't have the guts to touch it...
If any kind soul out there could actually write down exactly which settings I need to tweak in the BIOS to make this work, I would be seriously grateful. :-)
Once that's sorted, I'll run a stress test with Prime95 and see if the damn thing holds up.

CPU: E8400 (3.0 GHz), stock cooler
RAM: 2 x 2GB DDR2 MHz Dual channel, DRAM frequency 400 MHz (so that means an 800MHz effective clock, right?), pretty sure it's Kingmax
HDD: 512 GB SATAII
Motherboard: Gigabyte EP45-DS3 c0
GPU: sapphire HD 4870 512mb DDR5
PSU: 550W Fortron, I think

One more thing: am I gonna screw something up by pushing for 3.6 GHz? I'm low-key freaking out here. Also, is this crappy stock cooler even going to handle an OC like that?
I read online that it should be totally fine, but I really want to know what you guys think.