Posts by fadedorca66

The 680 used to be in the high-end tier, while the 950 was more mid-range. I guess that's why there isn't much of a noticeable difference after a few years have passed anyway.

Buying a GPU at this price point is a total scam because for $167 you get garbage, but if you bump it up to $33 you actually get something 50% better. I guess you should either hunt for something used or grab an NVIDIA GeForce GT 730 (make sure it's the GDDR5 version, not the GDDR3 one). You probably need to swap out that power supply too, since it's pretty much junk and ancient.

I don't even know what games you're aiming for? Your whole setup is pretty dated and weak, so maybe you should just look into buying something newer altogether. You could grab a new PSU and a GPU now, then just reuse them when you eventually build a new PC.

There’s a huge difference between a power supply actually working and it being any good. MS units are pretty much known for being junk; they cut corners on every single component just to save a buck. You're basically buying a "400w" unit for $33.

As far as I know, the only decent MS series was the one manufactured by Fortron, or maybe FSP

I second everything said here. Honestly, you might just want to hold off for a bit and jump straight to a newer platform with DDR4 instead.

Maybe you could've shelled out a little more to grab something newer...

Just pop it open, blow out the dust, and you're good to go

I’d suggest grabbing a decent cooler too—you don't have to rush, but it’s probably a good move. An LC-CC-95 should do the trick, and it’s running about $33.

So, turns out I messed up—it was just a bad codec. I guess I'll give it a shot using Kodi. As for the GPU, I’ll probably need at least a GTX 950 if I want it to actually handle H.265 without choking.

If you're just doing office work or stuff like that, you really don't need anything better than integrated graphics.

Yeah, it does eat up some of your RAM, but honestly, with 8GB of RAM and an SSD, you probably won't even notice.

I agree with what jadebison17 said. Honestly, buying these cards is just a bad move. You can grab something with GDDR5 and twice the performance for just a hundred bucks more—it’s probably not even worth looking at anything below an AMD Radeon R7 250 or a Nvidia GTX 750.

These cheap ones are basically throwing money down the drain. They’re barely faster than integrated graphics, and sometimes they aren't even faster, yet you still end up being out $200
500 bucks richer for nothing.

Things are looking slightly better using MPC-B, but honestly, it can still stutter and maybe even stress out a decent GPU. Here, if anyone wants to test it out:

http://4ksamples.com/elysium-2013-21...ample-footage/

It really needs to be a total beast—lots of DisplayPort options, all the latest tech, plenty of ports, and support for multiple monitors. Plus, it’s gotta be able to chew through even the most demanding 4K video.

I downloaded a 4K sample and my R9 270 just couldn't handle it. We tried it at the office on an i7 Haswell with integrated graphics, and that didn't work either. I guess I'll have to check if maybe it's just a VLC issue.

Guys, what should I grab if I just want smooth playback for even the heaviest 4K movies on my TV? I don't care about gaming at all, just pure video playback

The build is kind of all over the place—weak power supply, a GPU that isn't really worth the cash, and doubling up on RAM leaves you zero room to upgrade later... plus, that SSD you picked is probably one of the slowest ones out there, so maybe grab something else.

Honestly, just tell us what you’re actually trying to do and what your budget looks like. We can put together something way better for you at the same shop. You can just walk in and ask for a specific setup and they'll build it for free, or just toss everything in your cart and order online.

Man, just stay away from SLI, especially with older cards. Honestly, even on newer setups, it never really works the way it’s supposed to anyway...

Nothing's gonna save this rig at this point, I guess. Time for an upgrade

What kind of older games is he actually planning to play? An APU might be the smarter move, I guess. Though, I'm not sure how well they'll even run on Ubuntu 😬

Also, if I were him, I’d grab a decent power supply instead of that cheap junk. It’s gonna be running 24/7, after all.

From what I gather, most recording software writes straight to the hard drive rather than just sitting in the RAM. The RAM is basically just a temporary buffer during processing before everything gets dumped onto the disk. So, I doubt you'd run into any lag, but honestly, why not just give it a shot?

RAM prices have been pretty low lately, so maybe just save those $50 and grab an extra 4GB if you were already thinking about upgrading anyway.

Honestly, I was gonna try to talk you out of buying used the second I heard, but once I saw the price tag, I figured it’s actually a solid deal.

I mean, just think about it... how much sense does it really make to dump money into an old rig and hunt down outdated RAM? Maybe just weigh your options...

I guess if anyone actually needs RAM, they should probably grab it now. It’ll likely start climbing again once this dip settles down