Nah, you didn't screw up by getting a new PSU. That thing was junk when you first bought it, and after 7 or 8 years, it’s basically twice as much junk now 😁
You were going to have to swap it out eventually anyway, so you haven't really lost anything—especially since it's not even about the power supply anymore
Man, that deal is so good it’s actually tempting me to grab it for $167, though I guess it wouldn't make much sense right next to this Athlon and 740 combo I'm running at the moment
Yeah, that's an old AM2 processor, so you're stuck using DDR2 memory with it.
The best you can probably do on that board are Core i5 or Core i7 chips, though I guess you have to make sure the max TDP doesn't go over 95W. You should definitely double-check if whatever CPU you're eyeing is actually compatible via that link above.
I'd definitely grab an extra 2GB of RAM for $33. Modern games are absolute memory hogs, and I guess you might regret not picking up a 4GB card in just a few months.
I'd probably start by flashing the BIOS and resetting everything to the factory defaults. Those ASUS boards on Intel LGA 1151 can be pretty finicky; I've dealt with my fair share of nonsense with them myself.
wearycrane15 said:Honestly, it could be anything from a simple overload to a thermal issue. You might want to grab something like Speccy or a similar utility; those tools can pull temperature readings for pretty much every component in your rig—motherboard, hard drive, CPU, RAM, GPU... I’m not entirely positive if it hits every single one or just most of them, but you'll get a good idea. I’ve even heard stories where if you have way too many fans running at once, the system might actually trip a circuit or shut down right at startup due to the power draw, though don't quote me on that.
I mean, how many fans could you actually have that wouldn't pull any real power?🤣
If you're buying, I'd go with the GeForce GTX 1050 or an RX 460, but make sure it's the 4GB version. It might cost a tiny bit more, but I guess that extra VRAM will come in handy.
Kyle Robinson41 said:Look, my kid can play games when he visits me... and some site told me I only have 3 GB of RAM... so maybe I could add like 2 more GB? If I grab this graphics card and a case too, that would be enough, right?
What kind of games? Like Flash games on a browser or actual demanding titles?
Timothy Kim60 said:With the leftover cash, you could get a used motherboard (probably up to $100 since your CPU isn't great).
Why bother with a 775 socket motherboard? It’s not even 2006 anymore. 😁
So, what do you even use this PC for? If you're gaming, grabbing a new GPU is probably a solid move since you can just port it over to a better build later. But if you aren't gaming, I guess you don't really need a new card at all.
You might want to look into a new case and an SSD. Honestly, messing around with the RAM or CPU probably isn't worth the headache because that whole platform is basically a decade old. Maybe grab another 2GB of RAM for $33, though I'm not totally sure how much you're running right now. It says you have 2.5GB, but maybe the card is hogging some, or you just installed 32-bit macOS when 64-bit would be a way smarter choice.
It’s not exactly rocket science—if you want your rig to handle new AAA titles for more than five minutes, just get a better GPU. The GTX 1060 and RX 480 are basically in the same ballpark, though I guess the 480 gets a bit of a boost from the latest drivers. Maybe just find a YouTube review (make sure they’re testing with current drivers!) and go from there.
As for the CPU, anything above an i5-6400 is probably a waste of cash. They’re mostly just the same chips with a slightly higher multiplier, giving you maybe an extra 300 or 400MHz. You're probably not even going to notice that difference, so it feels like throwing money down the drain.
You don't even need to drop that much cash; tech development has really slowed down lately anyway.
For instance, back in 2012, right around Christmas, I put together a little office setup for my neighbors: a 1TB WD Blue, a 400W Chicony, the cheapest dual-core Celeron out there, an $100 motherboard, and 4GB of RAM. It’s been four years since then, and that rig still cruises through everything they throw at it—just basic office work, browsing, and media. You’d think they'd be looking for an upgrade after four years, but honestly, there's just no reason to.
So, I guess some sort of Intel i3 or AMD APU paired with a Solid State Drive, 8GB of RAM, and decent leftover components should easily last them for many years. They wouldn't even need a dedicated graphics card, and you could probably pull the whole thing off for around $2000-$1000.
We had something similar back in the day, but prices were always shifting too fast, and everyone was just too lazy to bother putting together anything new 😬
I'd probably lean toward the GTX 1050 Ti, mostly because I feel like the CPU is going to struggle just to keep up with that one, let alone try to push a GTX 1060. As for the power supply, it’s a bit older, but it isn't total junk, so it should probably handle the GTX 1050 Ti just fine.
Honestly, your power supply is garbage and won't handle anything. I'd swap that out before even thinking about other parts. What you've got right now is just low-quality junk. Plus, I guess a 1070 isn't really worth the upgrade for that CPU anyway.
It works, just make sure you've got a SATA port on the motherboard (which you do), and you're good to go. You're basically just looking for a standard 2.5" SATA Samsung SSD