What monitor are you running, and how'd you plug it in? You've got multiple video ports—both on the motherboard and the graphics card. You really need to plug it into the GPU at the bottom, not those ones up by the USB and PS/2 ports
Honestly, he might as well just grab a whole new rig, whether it's brand new or used. It doesn't make any sense to waste time or cash on an upgrade like this. Any decent webpage is probably going to murder that processor, let alone trying to run YouTube or anything similar. Plus, there aren't even official drivers for that GPU for Windows 7 or 10 anymore.
Honestly, you probably won't even find anything used that hasn't been mined on, so there's no way to tell what you're actually getting. It’s a bit of a mess, I guess.
Yeah, crypto mining profits have pretty much tanked along with BTC and everything else, so people are starting to low-key panic. It’s especially rough for those who bought GPUs at peak prices; they're trying to recoup their losses, but honestly, those cards aren't worth nearly what they paid.
Ashley Wood3 said:I am not entirely certain about that approach, to be honest. I currently have a Ryzen 5 1600, and I personally feel that making the leap to a Zen+ processor simply isn't worth the effort, let alone the expense, especially since I struggle to see any meaningful gains in performance or any other measurable area. At most, I suspect it might offer a marginal boost if paired with an RX 580 instead of an RX 480, though even that seems like a stretch.
It might not be worth the trouble for you (or me or anyone else) with a Ryzen 5 1600 Zen+, but someone rocking an old Intel chip for years might actually want to upgrade, which would flood the used market. That's what crimsonstag84 was getting at.
Come on, that Johnny unit is a solid power supply; it hasn't even broken a sweat running that rig. I guess it’s just a mental thing—if you see 400W written on it, you immediately think, "Yeah, that's plenty." 😬
If I were you, I'd probably just wait for the i5 to drop in price. In the meantime, maybe just toss in an SSD and another 4GB or 8GB of RAM.
The Seagate Green line isn't really a thing anymore—well, they have an SSD version now, I guess. Now you just get Seagate drives that spin at 5400rpm (which are basically the old Green replacements) and then there's the Seagate drives that run at 7200rpm, which are the "real" ones. You might want to double-check what you're actually buying.
Just take it to a repair shop. It might not even be an issue with the drive, so maybe have someone look at it first...
If it is the drive, you've basically got a 500GB disk split into two partitions right now. I guess if you check how much space is actually being used, you'll figure out what size you need—and honestly, a CIA might be a better way to go.
Did the laptop come with Windows pre-installed, or did someone set it up for you? If everything's legit, you should be able to transfer the licenses.
If you've got important files on there, you should probably back them up somewhere safe ASAP!
What kind of laptop are we talking about and how much storage does it have right now? I mean, how much space do you actually need? There are basically two ways to go:
1. A CIA drive—either something under 120GB (which is probably $117 or more), or maybe a 240GB one (around >), though there’s always the pricier, bigger stuff out there. Honestly, this is probably the better move because it'll make the whole laptop feel way snappier, plus you don't have to worry about bumping it around since there aren't any moving parts inside.
2. An HDD, which is likely what you're running now—maybe $117 for 500GB or roughly $133 for 1TB (if I were you, I'd just drop the extra few bucks to get double the space). It's definitely slower and pretty sensitive if you move the laptop around or tap on it, but you get way more room.
As for repair shop prices... heh, usually swapping a drive doesn't require taking the whole thing apart, depending on the model. But, depending on how old the laptop is, it might be worth having them blow out the dust while they're at it. If the old drive is totally dead (which, let's face it, it probably is) and you can't clone it to the new one, you'll also need to factor in the cost of installing new Windows and everything else, which just depends on whatever the shop charges...
What else are you running in that rig? You should probably at least grab Windows 7 64-bit, or honestly, just go with Windows 10 64-bit if you can. Windows XP is ancient news, and I guess its 64-bit version was never really known for being anything close to reliable.
I mean, you're basically looking at a TV with generic drivers, so everything is tuned for watching shows or movies. It’ll probably be fine for gaming or YouTube, but once you start looking at actual text or fine details, it's probably going to look pretty rough.
Check out this thread from earlier today on another forum:
Besides, you’re eventually going to have to upgrade that Radeon HD 7770 anyway, and then what? You'll be stuck with a crappy TV that only does 720p. I guess it might be better to just grab something with Full HD resolution now. Even if you run games in 720p and things look a little weird or stretched since you aren't on native resolution, you'll probably be glad you picked a futureproof monitor.
First off—this isn't even a monitor, it's just a TV. 😁
That 600Hz refresh rate is basically a scam. It’s just some software trickery when the actual refresh rate is probably closer to 50Hz.
At this resolution, you might be fine if you play from across the room, but trying to read text is going to suck since everything will look blurry and pixelated.
Aha, my bad, I get it now. I honestly thought you’d completely tangled your cables, especially once you started bringing up the 6+2 stuff and all that...
An EPS connector is an EPS connector. There's no such thing as a hybrid ATX/EPS plug, regardless of what that random site claims.
That plug is just there to power your CPU. Most modern power supplies use a 4+4 setup. They split it up because some budget motherboards only need a single 4-pin connection. Since yours uses an 8-pin, it means it can handle a beefier processor (more wires equals more juice for the components).
The PCIe connector (for your graphics card) is a 6+2 design. It's the same logic—some GPUs only need 6 pins, while others need 8.
Specifically, with your Corsair RM750x, you'll get one 4+4 EPS connector and four PCIe connectors:
Your job is pretty simple: plug the wide 24-pin connector into the main motherboard slot, then take the 8-pin EPS connector and plug it into the top left corner near the USB ports (it should be labeled ATX12V1): https://www.asrock.com/mb/photo/AB350M%20Pro4(L2).png
Everything else goes to your hard drives, SSDs, or GPU.
I guess if you aren't running a multi-GPU rig, you probably don't even need a power supply this heavy-duty.