Posts by James Morris4

Does the ability to Undervolt i3 Haswell and the IB processor depend on the Motherboard, or is it locked just like overclocking?

Timothy Kim60 said:So what does that make my ATX unit—is it really from a bad company? This computer was pretty expensive when I bought it back in the day.
If it says 400w (and we have to consider how old it is), what can it actually handle? Could it do 330? Maybe even 300?

ATX isn't a company, it's just a standard. LC is likely the actual brand.

Even in higher-end builds at big-box retailers, they often throw in cheap power supplies.

I guess it might handle about 350. Maybe less. I'm not entirely sure how much power supplies degrade over the years.

Hardware Secrets has plenty of solid power supply reviews. They test everything at 40+ degrees Celsius. That's really the only way to tell which units are legit and which ones are junk. You'll see once those 400W rated pieces of trash start failing at 300W under 40+ degree heat. 😬

Like I said, high-quality power supplies usually deliver more than their "rated" wattage. Cheap ones often deliver less, but even if they don't, they tend to drift outside the acceptable voltage limits, produce too much noise, or have issues with ripple.

My advice? First, learn how to type properly 😬 before you start trying to swap out keys.
All jokes aside, this feels more like a software issue than a hardware one, but whatever.

Anyway, it’s literally just a quick Google search away—probably takes about seven seconds tops.
Click the link.

This review covers all the Shrotex brands and Microsoft options for $17 😬

Well, it really depends on how much you're willing to drop on a GPU, but generally speaking, you shouldn't run into any major issues with the processor. It's a newer chip with three cores—and since most games don't really know how to make use of more than three cores yet anyway—it should be fine. It might act as a bit of a bottleneck if you pair it with some extremely high-end hardware, but for a reasonable setup, it shouldn't be an issue.
I wouldn't recommend the Corsair CX430. You might want to look into getting a Seasonic instead. Also, adding another 2GB of RAM would probably be a good move. You might not notice much difference while actually playing, but it would definitely help with load times.

Drew Sanchez82 said:Nobody is saying it’s going to die immediately, but even high-quality units can burn out eventually.

The reason a premium power supply is much less likely to fail is because it includes various protections that cheap units simply lack. Terms like SCP, OPP, OCP, OTP, OVP, and UVP aren't things you'd ever associate with Microsoft or their tier of power supplies.

Drew Sanchez82 said:And it isn't necessary for them to be competitive with others through their selection, as you say, but rather that they operate correctly.

That's really the point. I suspect Microsoft isn't operating correctly when they pull 100% of the rated wattage for an extended period. By "operating correctly," I mean adhering to ATX standards regarding noise, ripple, and voltage. It isn't right if the 12V rail drops to 11.5V, which I'm fairly certain happens with Microsoft.
Compare that to a Spotify unit, which runs flawlessly at 40°C even while pulling 120% of its rated load, no matter how long you run it.

As for power supplies that fail... Imagine the foundation of a skyscraper suddenly vanishing. The structure might stay standing for a moment.
But what if there was a gust of wind right when those foundations went? The building is coming down.

It's the same with a dying power supply. When it fails, there's a good chance it takes other components down with it. If you get incredibly lucky, the PSU will just burn out without taking anything else with it.

I don't know, I was literally struggling to pry those holes in the 12cm fan cages open xD I just didn't have the right tools, plus they're covered up so you can't even see what's going on. I'm thinking 😬
My GPU sits only about 10 centimeters above the PSU, and I really don't want them both fighting over the same air, especially when the system is under load. There's enough clearance since the PSU pulls air from the bottom of the case, but I think I'll still raise it up a bit by swapping out the feet so there's a full 5 cm of space 😁

Taking the cage off was a bit of a pain because I could never get the drill at the right angle, mostly because the unit itself is so large. After I got the top off, I still had to drill through the rivets on the upper part of the cage at roughly a 70-80° angle.

Once I pick up some decent tools, I'll pull that other section out too. I'll probably just cut a hole right next to the PSU for the cables to pass through, and then also make some openings near the motherboard for various cables—front panel, SATA, the old IDE (which I'm trying to get rid of xD), and the EPS and 24-pin connectors.

Last weekend, I decided to take Sunday off just to mess with the neighbors a bit and get some work done—specifically, putting two things on my case.
I ordered a used Corsair 300 from a guy on a forum about a month ago. The case was missing one of its 5.25" covers, but I don't actually need it since I plan on filling that space with an SSD. It was also missing two expansion slot covers, though that wasn't an issue for me either because I'm running a dual-slot graphics card. Because of those little imperfections, I managed to snag it for a pretty low price.
The case arrived in great shape—no noticeable scratches and barely any dust on it. I paired it with a 12cm Noctua NH-series fan running at 800 rpm for the intake, along with the stock 14cm fan for the top intake.

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I’m planning to pull this cage out of my case to improve airflow. Honestly, I just don't need it—I'm not running six HDDs or anything like that. Besides, the one drive I actually use is going into a 5.25" bay instead.
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To get this done, I had to drill out the rivets and strip off the entire top panel just to reach the cage. You use a drill to pop the old rivets out, and then you need a specific tool to set the new ones—I ended up borrowing one from a friend.
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The power supply goes in that spot. It’s oriented facing up so it can pull in air for cooling. I actually wanted to flip it downward, but I would have had to drill a hole to make that work.


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I also went ahead and drilled out the grilles on those 12cm cages since they were just getting in the way of the airflow. Since the case already has a dust filter and a perforated front panel, those extra grilles aren't really necessary anyway. It’s not like anyone’s going to hurt themselves on the fans.
I just got two Flow 2 fans in—they're rated at 1900 rpm, but I currently have them running at a steady 7V.
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This is what it looked like without the "cover." Looks pretty bare. 😬
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And without the case...
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When it came time to drill that first hole, I realized I was seriously lacking the right tools. I had also planned on drilling some extra holes for better cable management, but that fell through. It was Sunday, and I couldn't find my Dremel anywhere. Plus, I had to be extra careful with this specific hole to make sure I didn't accidentally drill through the case legs.
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This was the final result. I had to go ahead and add a custom paint job, obviously. Grey is just such a boring color.



Once I finally get my hands on some decent tools, I'll snap some photos of the finished build. Honestly, I’d much rather skip the cable management mess if I can help it. I ended up keeping one of the case panels aside for now, though—it actually makes the cabling a bit easier since it follows the original chassis design.

Guess I'm passing on that then 😬
The HD6850 was my first choice too. I honestly melt a little whenever I see one with just a single 6-pin connector 😍
But I'm kind of itching to upgrade. How big would the price gap actually be for a used one? Mine has a Musashi, obviously 😁

I'm thinking about swapping out my graphics card. I'm currently running an HD4890, but I'd like to move to something newer that offers similar performance—ideally something that runs cooler and draws less power. I'll probably try to sell this one or find a trade, as I don't really plan on buying anything brand new. I just want to get as close to my current performance levels as possible while keeping the cost down.
This thing is getting a bit too bulky for my case 😬 and there are cables everywhere.

Any recommendations? Should I just wait for the HD6770?

Jose Ruiz2 said:I have a PC that's about two and a half years old. I was wondering if I could upgrade it with a slightly better graphics card? If I do get a better GPU, would I need to change
anything else?

How are we supposed to answer that? Do you want us to use a crystal ball?
Let us know what components you're running, and then we can tell you if a new graphics card will actually work with your setup.

They’re saying it’s $45. That's less than $250 in local currency. But since it actually goes for $350, you're right. Plus, Amazon offers a mail-in rebate, which brings it down to $25—that's actually under $50, so 😬
Man, I can't imagine how much we'd be paying if power supplies were this expensive here 😁

I have to say, I’m actually kind of surprised by this power supply. It performs perfectly fine at its rated wattage. It’s honestly much more reliable than those cheap units that claim to offer 400W but can't deliver. You might run into some issues if you try to pull more than 430W, but since that wasn't part of what we paid for, the voltage remains stable. We’re used to pushing a CX400 to hit 500W, but I guess that's why this one is priced lower. 😁

I suspect that technology is just too outdated to be cost-effective anymore. Hard drives are actually quite inexpensive and reliable—or at least more dependable than magnetic tape. Especially if you aren't trying to play yo-yo with your data 😬
It seems like people don't really use it much anymore :/ I'm not sure about all the other details.

I just turned 18 a few days ago.
I’m looking to open a bank account because I think it's just a smart move to have one. I do a lot of online shopping, buy things from people at local markets, and sell my own stuff too; I feel like everything would be much smoother if I had an actual account. I also use PayPal. My understanding is that I can't really use PayPal effectively without being an adult or having a linked bank account.

Which bank would you recommend I go with, and what makes it the best choice?

EDIT: I just realized there's already an open thread for this 🤦 so I'll ask the mods to move this over there.

Yeah, that’s what I meant. 👍
I don't think there will be any issues between the computer and the device itself, though you might run into some trouble when sending images or audio over the internet—but honestly, that wouldn't be your fault.

It would work. I'm not entirely sure how the data throughput would hold up, but since we're looking at 1.3 MPix, most household upload speeds would probably struggle to keep up anyway.
I know from experience that my audio and VGA resolution alone tend to choke my 256 kbps upload speed.

That's on me. I missed the HDMI port and plugged the DVI in instead.
HDMI>VGA.
Since HDMI and DVI are both digital signals while VGA is analog, you're looking at a digital-to-analog conversion. I'd say just go with the HDMI.

First off, just to be clear, the monitor has inputs, not outputs.
You can choose between VGA and DVI, though I'd say DVI is the better option here.

If your new graphics card stays within the same performance tier as your old one, there's a good chance it won't pull significantly more power. The same logic applies to processors, too. As generations advance, CPUs generally become more efficient per watt.