I guess your best bet is just hunting down a used motherboard if you're trying to save some cash. Finding anything new is going to be a struggle, and even if you do track one down, it'll probably cost an arm and a leg.
Just grab the 1TB version; you usually only pay about 50 cents more for double the space. I guess if it's just for extra storage, an IBM drive is fine, but if you're running your OS (macOS) off it, you're probably better off with a Western Digital Blue or a Blue.
Honestly, your best first move is grabbing an SSD—you'll definitely feel the speed boost once you load Windows and heavy hitters like Photoshop onto it. You can probably snag one around $167 for 120GB. After that, you're looking at a full overhaul of the motherboard, RAM, and CPU, so I guess you should budget at least $667 for that trio. Don't forget the power supply, either; if you're running some junk like a generic off-brand unit or something from Codegen, you might want to swap that out immediately, even before touching the motherboard or the processor.
Honestly, you won't see any real progress in gaming because that GPU is basically a paperweight; it’s really just there to push a signal to your monitor, kind of like integrated graphics.
So, I guess you'd need to hunt down a slightly better low-profile GPU—just make sure it doesn't pull too much power—and maybe bump up the RAM by another 2GB. It’ll cost you, and even then, it’s still going to be pretty mediocre. Honestly, you might be better off just starting to save for a new rig, or maybe sell this setup and put some cash toward something used (like a dual-core Celeron or Pentium paired with a decent card), which would actually get the job done.
There isn't really a massive difference, I guess. It's mostly just speed, but you probably won't even notice it in real life, so maybe just grab the one with the better warranty.
Raymond Peterson81 said:With that kind of cash, you could probably just hit up some local Best Buy or Micro Center if they have any pre-built towers sitting there. You'll definitely find something that can handle basic web browsing, Skype, and Microsoft Office without breaking a sweat. 🙂
Yeah, it'll run those things fine, I guess, but you usually end up with some junk power supply or a slow drive. Plus, you might get stuck on an FM2 platform that isn't worth upgrading compared to the 1150 socket. It's probably smarter to grab something where you actually know the internals aren't total garbage.
Bryan Taylor6 said:fair enough, I think I just had it stuck in my head that the 860K could only really handle an A9 280 and that was basically its limit...
There isn't much of a gap between those two CPUs. If we were talking about an APU, maybe the integrated graphics would make a difference, but raw processing power is pretty much the same.
Like I said before—just grab another 4GB of RAM and you'll be fine for a while, then eventually move up to an i5 or an fx8***. I built a similar rig for my neighbor a few years back (Intel Core i3-4130, NVIDIA GTX 750 Ti with EVGA Power Supply) but gave him 8GB of RAM, and he still hasn't complained about anything lagging or failing to run on high settings.
Maybe try defragging your drive too. It won't be a miracle fix, but I guess it might help a little—it could stop the system from hunting around for textures for five seconds every time it needs to load something.
Just grab a basic hard drive, like the cheapest 1TB model you can find—probably a General Electric one. There’s really no point in getting a Seagate Technology when you're already going with an SSD anyway.
I’d probably just go with 2x4GB. An APU really needs that dual channel setup to breathe, and honestly, I doubt anyone would ever bother upgrading to 16GB on a build like this—especially if you're running an SSD.
So, which program are you using that works on 8.1 but breaks on 10?
I guess all monitors are widescreen nowadays. It used to bug me too, but once you get used to it, there's no going back. It’ll probably be a huge help for you when you're working in AutoCAD or doing any subtitling—you can actually fit way more on the screen.
Plus, if you think about it, it just feels more natural. Human vision is wider anyway, not shaped like a square.😁
Look, the processor you're rocking right now is pretty ancient, so switching to that Celeron would probably feel a lot faster. If you’re just trying to keep things cheap, I guess that's your best bet. Just a heads up—don't grab 2x2GB of RAM; maybe go with a single 4GB stick instead, just to make future upgrades less of a headache.
And yeah, right, like you could actually plan on having your SSD die a few days after the return window closes—unlikely. These guys are supposed to be IT pros, but they aren't. You just got hit with a bad batch, I guess; tech breaks. Still, if it keeps acting up, it’d probably be fair if they just swapped it for a new one.
It's not like this laptop is some holy grail or anything. It's just a machine, for crying out loud. You really shouldn't get emotionally attached to hardware.😁
Angela Flores4 said:If those screws are just holding the power supply unit to the chassis, you can easily back them out with a screwdriver and slide the whole thing right out. However, if they’ve gone ahead and welded the components together, you’re basically looking at a total loss, which means you'll be heading down to Best Buy to pick up both a brand-new case and a new PSU.