Posts by swiftfalcon89

rowdygull8 said:Here’s my current motherboard

Vendor: ASRock
Model: 960GM-GS3 FX

CPU: Intel Core i3-2100

GPU: Gainward GeForce GT 630

PSU:
http://www.lelong.com.my/cooler-mast...-08-Sale-P.htm

I'm thinking about grabbing parts from Best Buy

Man, Best Buy? They're going to charge you a premium for that. Where are you located? Personally, I wouldn't go that route, especially since that power supply isn't great—you'll need to swap that out too. Here’s what I’d suggest instead:

BEST BUY:

GPU:

PSU:

It might even push you slightly over budget ($706)

But look how much better off you'd be here. For the same money, you get a significantly stronger card. At Best Buy, an AMD Radeon HD 7850 costs about as much as an HD 7870 would cost on this other site, check it out: http://www.hwcompare.com/12187/radeo...adeon-hd-7870/. Since they don't have the Corsair CX500 in stock, I put in a CX600

MICRO CENTER

GPU:

PSU:

Price: $723

Or

MICRO CENTER ALTERNATIVE

GPU:

PSU:

Price: $701

rowdygull8 said:I'm looking for a GPU for $667 1080p gaming

I bought this power supply bundled with my case:

Motherboard specs:
Interface: PCI-Express
Link Width: x16
Max Link Width: x16
DMI Baseboard:
Vendor: ASRock
Model: 960GM-GS3 FX

Will my current PSU handle the card? If not, just recommend a new one along with the GPU.

You’re probably going to need a new PSU too. Give me the full breakdown of your build—CPU, exact motherboard model, what GPU you're running right now, etc.

So, I’ve got a bit of a situation here. My old man just launched his own small business, and now we’re hitting that stage where we actually have to figure out how to get the word out. We're looking into advertising options, but I'm feeling a little lost. Has anyone here dealt with this before? Any specific platforms or strategies you’d swear by? For instance, has anyone tried running ads on Craigslist or maybe Facebook Marketplace? I'd love to hear about your actual experiences—what worked, what was a total waste of money, all of it. Any advice at all would be a huge help. Thanks!

driftingfox11 said:Hey there!
A few months back, my power supply started putting off this absolutely revolting smell. If I had to describe it, it’s similar to that nasty scent from an old electric space heater that died on me a couple of years ago. Since then, I’ve only dared to turn the PC on twice because I'm terrified the PSU is going to pop and take half my components down with it. My current unit is a Corsair, specifically the TX650W, and here is the rest of the build:

Intel I5 750 XFX Radeon 5850 Black edition Gigabyte P55-UD3
XFX Radeon 5850 Black edition
Gigabyte P55-UD3
I also have two Corsair sticks of 2GB RAM, one hard drive, a burner, and two case fans.

So, I need some advice. What should I do? Reading through other forums, everyone seems to say that if you smell something burning coming from the PSU, rip it out immediately and get a new one. I need a recommendation for a replacement that can handle this setup—I know this Radeon eats power like a teenager at an all-you-can-eat buffet—and I’d also like some extra headroom in case I decide to upgrade something later. Any help would be appreciated!

http://www.amazon.com/s?k=corsair+cx+500

John Mitchell9 said:Hey everyone, I'm looking to swap out the graphics card in my rig. If you have any recommendations, let me know. Mainly just looking to get some decent gaming performance, ideally staying under $233.

If you could list out the rest of your components—especially the exact model of your power supply—we might actually be able to find something that works for you...

Jeffrey Peterson said:Is this Corsair unit actually any good? I know for an extra couple of bucks I could just grab a CX430, but I'm looking specifically at this one. According to this review, the power delivery is decent, but the capacitors aren't the best quality and apparently the voltage regulation could be tighter. Anyone have real-world experience with it? Any pros or cons?

It doesn't even have an 80+ rating. Honestly, if I were you, I'd skip it...

Timothy Kim60 said:Go for the HD 7850— like this one—especially if it comes with a 3-year warranty, or this other one with a shorter warranty but better cooling. Honestly, grab the one with the beefier cooler if you're planning on overclocking.

-If you're looking at an NVIDIA GTX 650Ti boost
Those two are really your only logical choices if you plan on upgrading to a beefier processor down the road. With that current dual-core setup, you wouldn't be using the full potential of those cards anyway. That said, I'd still suggest picking one up now, because you'll eventually need to swap out that CPU when certain games start demanding more juice...

Otherwise, for that specific CPU, an HD 6670 DDR5 would be the sweet spot.

And maybe pick up some extra RAM if you aren't planning on switching platforms anytime soon...

Timothy Kim60 said:It feels like just one more entry in a long line of "stellar" experiences with them. I don't know, maybe give them another shot—but if things get messy, call a consumer protection agency and let them squeeze the life out of them. For instance, they actually sorted out a mess my parents had with a TV at a different shop. The set was dead, and the warranty paperwork was total garbage—just some shady nonsense—so my mom called the consumer group. Once those guys put the pressure on, the store called us back and told us to bring in whatever model we wanted up to that value (or just pay the difference if we wanted something pricier).

The big thing is that you're seeing these issues on a second PC too—then it’s almost certainly the card itself... (unless your power supply is just barely cutting it and causing shutdowns?)

Actually, I was going to ask about the power supply. Which one are you running, and if you happen to know, what kind was your friend using when you tested it there? I remember reading on another forum about a guy who dropped the exact same card into some junk "500W" unit and his PC kept crashing constantly, too...

Frank Martin4 said:Hey there. 🙂

Every so often while I'm using my PC, the monitor just cuts out for a few seconds. Everything goes black, then pops back on with this error: display driver stopped responding and has recovered http://tinypic.com/view.php?pic=flv9nc&s=5

On top of that, my computer keeps freezing up entirely—just totally locked up. I can't even move the mouse, so my only option is to hit the reset button on the tower. When I boot back up, I get this message: http://tinypic.com/view.php?pic=51rbjl&s=5

I've tried running a system recovery a bunch of times, but no luck. I also did some digging on Google, but couldn't find a fix (though it seems like a lot of people deal with that first issue)

Specs: Core i5 2310 s1155, B75MA-E33 motherboard, GeForce GTX 650, Windows 7, 32-bit.

Thanks!

Have you tried installing a different driver for the GPU?

crimsonstag84 said:Why bother with an HD 4670 at this stage? You'd be much better off grabbing an HD 5670 or even a 6670...

Do you really think that old processor can actually handle it?

Timothy Kim60 said:What kind of power supply are you actually running? You’re probably going to have to crack the case open to check—I'm betting it's a cheap unit, which means you shouldn't try pushing anything with high power demands (like cards that need extra power connectors)

The CPU isn't exactly top-tier either, so maybe just grab an HD 4670?

wiredlynx10 said:I read somewhere that this motherboard only has one PCIe (x4) slot, and I’ve also seen people on forums saying that the maximum card the board can actually support is an ATI 4850. Am I totally off base here?
Probably misread something. 🙂

My bad, you're right. I did a quick Google search and realized I was looking at the wrong board specs. Then again, this processor is pretty old, so it isn't exactly going to handle anything heavy anyway—maybe an HD3850 or something along those lines wouldn't be overkill.

wiredlynx10 said:Hey there!
So, I've got this old rig sitting here. It’s definitely seen better days—running a Pentium D 815 processor and an ATI Radeon X1550 with 256MB of VRAM on a 128-bit bus.

So, I'm looking for some advice on which graphics card I should throw in here. I need something that actually works with this motherboard... I'm not building a new rig, so I'm fully aware this thing is ancient and pretty much useless by today's standards.
I think I'm going to swap in a Core 2 Duo. It's compatible with my current setup, so might as well make the move.

Everything else: 2GB of DDR2 RAM and a 350W power supply.

I can finally run Assassin's Creed 2 on medium to low settings, which feels like a win. What else would you guys recommend? I'm looking for something similar that my current setup could actually handle—maybe something like AC2?

Check out this motherboard from ASRock: http://www.asrock.com/mb/VIA/4CoreDual-VSTA/
Maybe this works...
I found this listing on Craigslist for an ATI Radeon HD5450 512. It’s being offered by someone looking to move it quickly. Honestly, if you're just trying to get a basic desktop up and running or need something to handle light tasks without breaking the bank, it might be worth a look, but don't expect any miracles. It’s definitely not going to cut it for anything demanding.

Thanks!

That won't work. Your motherboard supports old-school AGP cards, but the one you linked uses PCIe. The absolute best you could squeeze out of that board would be an HD3650 AGP, but honestly? If I were you, I’d just keep saving up for a completely new build instead.

I was thinking about something along these lines. I found this listing on Craigslist for an ATI Radeon HD5450 512MB. It’s sitting there at a decent price if you just need something to get a display running or play some really light titles. Honestly, it's pretty basic hardware, but for the right price, it serves a purpose. Or this one. I found this listing on Craigslist for an ATI Radeon HD5450 512MB graphics card. It’s sitting there at a pretty decent price if you're just looking to get a basic system up and running. Honestly, it's nothing fancy, but for a budget build or an office PC that needs to handle some light video playback without choking, it does the job. If you're hunting for something to scrape by on, this might be worth a look.

nimbleowl94 said:I’ve thought about it, really, but money is a bit tight right now. I know my way around a PC well enough, but I mostly came here looking for some guidance. Honestly, I’m just surprised at how much I can still squeeze out of this rig. My setup is basically a Gigabyte GA-MA69VM-S2 with 1GB of DDR2 800MHz RAM, an ATI Radeon HD5450 512, and a stock AMD Le-1600 single core 2.2GHz processor. Even so, I’m running stuff like Call of Duty 4, Grand Theft Auto IV, Grid, Prototype 1, and even Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas on max settings. That integrated graphics chip on the motherboard is doing some heavy lifting for me here.

How on earth are you actually getting Grand Theft Auto IV to run? What kind of frame rate are we talking about? Are you hitting maybe 10 FPS on low settings at 640x480?

nimbleowl94 said:Well, it’s pretty much the same deal when you're running AMD cards. I'm asking because a buddy of mine actually has an NVIDIA GeForce GT 210 and an NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GT sitting in the same rig right now, and they play nice together just fine.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KAQqixEw6BY 😬

Robert Rodriguez2 said:not even one of them will work in SLI 🙂

Only NVIDIA cards can run in SLI...

Honestly, I don't even pay attention to that stuff, haha.🤣

nimbleowl94 said:could I run an NVIDIA GeForce GT 210 and an AMD card together in SLI?

Not going to happen. For SLI to work, you need two identical cards—so it’s either an NVIDIA GeForce GT 210 Dual setup or an NVIDIA GeForce GT 210 Dual setup. You can't mix and match like that.

nimbleowl94 said:Right now, I'm running an NVIDIA GeForce with 512MB, paired with a generic, bottom-of-the-barrel power supply. I was hoping you guys could suggest a decent graphics card that won't cause a massive Bottleneck, since there's really no point if it does. I've also got 1GB of RAM sitting in there.

In that case, grab an NVIDIA GeForce with DDR5...

nimbleowl94 said:I'm running an ASUS motherboard
with an Intel Celeron right now, but I’m looking to swap in a new CPU: an Intel Core 2 Duo..
What kind of graphics card would pair well with that setup without hitting a Bottleneck? I've got a 400W power supply.

What exactly is the model of that power supply, and what GPU are you using at the moment?

Noah Miller6 said:it covers all my basic needs at home.

Look, I get that. But if you invest in a solid, high-end GPU now, you’re set for those sports titles for a long time. With the card you're looking at, you might get five years out of it, or maybe just one—it really just depends on how fast these games evolve and how much they start demanding from your hardware.