Posts by fadedorca66

You gonna tell Timothy Kim60 that it basically turned into a total disaster in the end?😁

Saw it for $250 on Amazon this morning, now it's up to $265 this afternoon. 😁

Miners are starting to care more about VRAM speed than capacity (it really comes down to which manufacturer you pick). There was all this talk about the 3GB versions of the 1060 becoming useless soon, but that hasn't actually happened yet, let alone for the 4GB models. Personally, I wouldn't bother with the 1060; an AMD card like the RTX 3060 is probably a better move for ETH and just makes more sense financially. I might be able to grab some decent cash for it, especially since prices are climbing again while supply is drying up...

Honestly, I have no clue what kind of temps you were actually expecting from a passive card that isn't even built for gaming in the first place...

I'm looking at the Best Buy manual, but they kept it pretty vague. From what I can gather, you've got two fan headers: one 3-pin and one 4-pin. It looks like that 3-pin one doesn't offer any real control, whereas the 4-pin one lets you tweak things using either PWM or voltage.
3-pin fans can be controlled via voltage, while 4-pin ones use PWM, which is arguably a bit more precise and better overall.

That method you mentioned—using a 1x4-pin splitter to get 2x4-pin—works fine. You could also turn a 1x3-pin into a 2x4-pin setup, but those fans would just run at full blast since that connector doesn't have any way to regulate them...

If I were you, I'd just grab a case first, see what kind of fans it actually comes with, and then plug them into the motherboard's 4-pin header using a Y-splitter to check the temps. There’s really no point in cramming in a ton of fans if you don't need to; sometimes you just end up creating a mess instead of actually helping anything.

The folks over at Best Buy might be chill about it, so you could probably just shoot them an email. Attach the receipt along with the original quote they sent you and lay out the whole situation... maybe they'll cut you some slack and send out the brackets, assuming they actually have stock for that cooler. They really should, though, since those units are still on the shelves (assuming we're talking about the LC-CC-120).

They're usually pretty helpful at Best Buy, so you might get lucky. Plus, the LC-CC-120 is a solid cooler—kind of feels like a waste to swap it out.

Jeffrey Thompson11 said:You’ve actually got me curious with that second part of your post about the 1GB DDR1 RAM. If I remember right, I might have a single 1GB DDR1 stick lying around somewhere. Is that stuff actually worth anything? And if it is, you probably have a better idea than I do about what it's going for.🙂

This thread is over seven years old now.😬

Back then, a single stick like that was a decent amount of memory, so it had some value. Nowadays? Maybe fifty cents.$33...

Did you put the new Windows on the new drive, or did you just leave the old one there? Probably a shame about that power supply, I guess. $23 You probably could've gone with a decent power supply that would actually last you for years, but I guess this one is right on par with your old junk...

I’d probably just unplug that second 500GB drive if I were you. It’s likely what's dragging your whole system down, and honestly, if you keep running it while it's basically on life support, you might end up losing all your data entirely.

Also, if you're looking at getting a new drive, my unsolicited advice would be to either save up for a whole new PC or at least grab a decent power supply first. That current PSU looks pretty old and cheap, which usually means it's packed with low-end components. Typically, the capacitors go first, they lose their capacity, and then you start dealing with unstable voltages. It'd be a real shame to drop money on a new drive just to have it fry in a few months because of the power issues.

Your rig is definitely an old dinosaur, but it still has some life left in it and should handle whatever you're doing. If I were in your shoes, I'd swap out the PSU, toss in that new drive, and if everything else holds up, it’ll run pretty smoothly. You should definitely install Windows on the new drive, though, since it'll be way faster than the old one. Throw an SSD in there too, and you'll be set for a long time. 😁

Just think about it—even if you buy the drive and the PSU now and decide later that you aren't happy with them, or if something fails, you can always migrate them over to a newer build.

Weak and overrated, I guess.

Everything at Uzishop comes with a 2-year warranty through the store, but if it's a manufacturer warranty, I guess you just deal with the service center or the brand directly.

He says your 3.3V rail is running low, but honestly, software readings are pretty much useless anyway, so you probably shouldn't sweat it too much.

If you actually want to know what's happening with that 3.3V rail, I guess the only real way is to grab a multimeter and test it directly on the power supply.

Kimberly Gomez34 said:So, your logic follows the idea that "thermal stress" supposedly shortens the component's lifespan. While there isn't a single relevant scientific paper that empirically proves that specific claim, let's just play along with the theory for a moment. The catch here is how long that "lifespan" actually is from a human perspective. For example, a heavily overclocked chip might have a lifespan of, say—let's call it—24, 47, or 89 years, whereas a non-overclocked one might last 24 years and 8 months, 49 years, or 92 years. But let's be real: nobody is going to be using a computer for that many decades anyway.

It’s the same deal as when kids start a thread saying "my processor is burning," only to find out their i3 is sitting at a perfectly fine 49°C under load. 😁
Just because 49°C is hot for a human doesn't mean it's hot for a processor. The same applies to this whole "shortened lifespan" argument regarding thermal stress, electron migration, and whatever else. In my opinion, it's much better for someone to tell you, "Hey, it's stable at this clock and this voltage," which saves you hours of testing, rather than lying and claiming it was "never overclocked." It reminds me of an acquaintance of mine with that i7 4770 I mentioned earlier; I was grabbing a beer with him when he got a call from some guy on Craigslist. He told the guy, "It's never been overclocked, it just ran on its Turbo Boost," while he was actually selling a K-series CPU equipped with an aftermarket cooler. 🤣

Signed, sealed, delivered. There's really no point overthinking processor purchases. For all you know, the previous owner was a hardcore overclocker, and neither you nor the folks at Intel would ever be able to tell.

Honestly, the best listings are the ones that use phrases like "like new" or "well-maintained." It’s a chip, not a vintage Mustang. What does "well-maintained" even mean for silicon? Like, what, were they supposed to take the heatsink off every night, polish it up, and reapply paste?

Samuel Castillo49 said:Got a weirdly specific question, not sure where this goes so I'll just drop it here: Lately on eBay, I've seen sellers claiming their cards still have a warranty, even showing an ASBIS warranty certificate. But the fine print says: 'Usage Instructions: No manual included as this product must be installed exclusively by an authorized technician. Installation by an unauthorized party voids the warranty.' Doesn't that basically mean they lost the warranty the second they pulled them out of a rig to sell them?

I guess I've never heard of anyone actually getting screwed over because of that, unless you break something and then they claim you messed up the install yourself...

Just send a pic of your desktop background so we don't have to keep guessing...

Yeah, I grabbed the 1600 when it was listed for 1900, so I guess I came out okay.

As for the refresh, I doubt it'll be anything revolutionary; probably just some minor incremental tweaks, kind of like what Intel did with their chips.

Nice score, honestly. I kind of regret not waiting myself, but hey, I still snagged a pretty solid deal for that timeframe, and plus, you can always wait forever if you want. 😁

If I were you, I’d probably just aim for something mid-range. I don't really see the point in dropping a massive amount of cash on a high-end build when you get everything you actually need once you hit about $267 dollars.

Time for an upgrade, I guess. What you’ve got is way too outdated to keep up with what's needed these days

Check out the small classifieds; you already got your estimate in the other thread:

http://www.craigslist.org/

So, what's the actual plan for this setup?