Posts by Adam Moore3

lonepanther91 said:$200 It's honestly way too much for a power supply, and I barely managed to scrape together 500 bucks. Can you explain this "passive cooling up to 180W" thing? What does that actually mean in plain English? And what's the deal with a modular power supply? Seriously, I'm a total newbie when it comes to PSUs.

PS—I'd appreciate any recommendations for units under $167 since that's my budget. Thanks again!🎉

Those two things mean exactly what you're asking
😛

Passive cooling up to 180W means that as long as your power draw stays under 180W (which will likely be your case), the fan won't even spin. Basically, the PSU is silent!

A modular power supply is one where you can completely detach all the cables. So, any extra ones you aren't using can just be unplugged, meaning you won't have those "messy cables cluttering up the PC" like you mentioned. 😒

You could actually get by just fine with a $133 unit, but if the specific features you mentioned are important to you, you'll have to pay a bit extra for them. 🙂

I don't get why none of the retailer sites actually state whether this is fully modular or not. I have to dig through the manufacturer's own site just to find the info 🤔

Once they actually see it for themselves, they'll get it. There's no point in wasting my breath explaining it like this 🙂

SSDs are incredibly cheap right now—cheaper than they've ever been. If you can squeeze $83 out of your budget while you're at it, grab one; it’ll make your system feel lightning fast.

Even putting gaming aside, just having your OS, Chrome, and your daily drivers on one is totally worth it. Once I swapped an SSD into my laptop, going back to a standard drive felt impossible.
Granted, that was a 5400RPM HDD, but even then, the difference was massive.
If you really don't want to do it now, you can always just pop one in later whenever you feel like it.

Then it goes right into the 🙂

Chloe Roberts2 said:

Take a look at this photo—does everything look alright to you guys?

You need to select cash as your payment method to get that extra 10% discount on the whole cart. Also, you picked out a Zalman Z11 instead of a Z1 (I have no idea how crimsonstag84 even found that Z1, since the shop doesn't carry it), so you should probably grab something like THIS instead of the Z1.

Christian Mendoza60 said:Alright folks, everything finally arrived. Just gotta get it all mounted now. I'll post the temps once it's up and running if anyone actually cares. 👍

Those fans are loud as hell. I actually ended up returning mine and swapping them out. Honestly, I don't know how sensitive you are to noise, so it might be fine for you. 🍿

$133 Samsung 870 EVO 240 GB SSD 😲

Kimberly Gomez34 said:It isn't built for modern AAA titles (though it still puts up a fight). If you're sticking to older games or anything that isn't particularly graphics-heavy, the card is still perfectly fine enough

Pretty close, actually—it might even outpace a GTX 1050 Ti in some spots. It can definitely handle newer games if you know what you're doing.😁

CLICK

ironcyclist40 said:That's basically what I was getting at... 🙂
my max budget for a monitor is $1333, and from what I can tell, I won't be able to squeeze in G-Sync at that price point. It's a bummer because I'm definitely planning on upgrading my GPU in a few years, so I'd love something that stays relevant. But hey, if you have any recommendations for that kind of cash, let me know.

I don't think you can go wrong with a Dell, though with a $400 limit, there aren't a ton of options to choose from anyway. This S2417DG is essentially the little brother to the one you linked. I've seen plenty of solid reviews for it everywhere I look, so it seems like a great pick for your budget. CLICK

What screen size were you actually looking for, by the way? Because this one is 23.8 inches.

ironcyclist40 said:I'm looking at this Dell S2716DG G-sync, but man, it's way too expensive even if it is $1667futureproof for a monitor..
so I definitely want to go with 1440p, and if I do, I’ll definitely aim for 144Hz
will my NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 give me any trouble running at 144Hz?

From what I can see online, that specific model isn't even getting much praise, especially if you're dropping five grand on it...

As for the 1080, why would it cause problems? I mean, once you start gaming at >60FPS, practically no GPU is "overkill," but since you basically have one of the best cards out there, I don't see any issues popping up.

CS and Dota 2 easily stay above 150FPS; now, whether you can crank every single setting to max and still stay north of 150 is something you'll have to see for yourself... But regardless, the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 was built for 1440p gaming, because at 1080p, it's just overkill unless you're specifically aiming for that 144Hz refresh rate.

Running anything under 1440p with an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 is just a massive waste of potential—it’s total overkill to stay at lower resolutions. You definitely need to go with 1440p. An i5 might give you higher FPS, but those differences start to shrink once you bump up the resolution. Plus, definitely overclock as much as you can like you mentioned; it'll help a lot.

Alexander Moore67 said:If he's been perfectly happy running a Core 2 Duo from back in 2008, then an i3 is more than enough for his gaming needs.

Exactly. There’s really no point in overspending on future-proofing right now. If he’s dead set on a 500GB SSD, he should just swap out the old HDD in his rig for it—he mentioned he doesn't even need the extra HDD space since he's already got some older drives lying around.

redmoose16 said:I wouldn't even bother ordering a 1TB drive. I've already got a 240GB and a 160GB drive, so I just need an SSD at this point. As for that Ryzen 5 2600 box...

How old are those HDDs and how reliable are they? Download CrystalDiskInfo and run a scan to see what kind of shape they're actually in.

Regarding the Ryzen, I’d say in your specific situation, it doesn't matter much.
You won't go wrong with either choice. I suggested Intel because, specifically with Intel, there's still a slight edge in gaming performance.

Though, realistically speaking, if you're playing at 1080p@60Hz, that advantage is basically meaningless. The difference between the 110 FPS you'd get from the Intel and the 100 FPS from the Ryzen is something you won't even be able to feel. If you ever move up to a higher refresh rate above 60Hz, then I'd definitely recommend Intel, since those higher frame counts actually start to matter.

That said, Ryzen absolutely crushes Intel in CPU-intensive tasks like compression, transcoding, encryption, etc., but that doesn't really apply to you.

redmoose16 said:I don't have one. I was running an Intel Core 2 Duo at 2.6 GHz with some DDR3 RAM clocked at 1333. If I actually had an i5, I wouldn't be struggling like this. This graphics card would still be pulling its weight for a long time...

That's a weird combo—pretty decent GPU paired with such an old, weak architecture. If I were building this, I’d go with something like this:

Intel Core i5-8400 2.8 GHz WD Blue 1
WD Blue 1TB SATA
Kingston Technology A400 SSD 240GB
Gigabyte B360M D3H
G.Skill Aegis 8GB DDR4 3000MHz
Spire G6 case

Total: 3 $254 Amazon.com

You’ve still got about $4,000 of breathing room in that budget. While what you have is perfectly solid as it stands, you could definitely level up by dropping in a serious SSD like a Samsung 850. Beyond that, there isn't much else worth swapping out—maybe just pick a higher-end case if you're feeling fancy, but otherwise, you're good to go.

redmoose16 said:Hey there. I've got an old PC and I'm looking to upgrade to something a bit more modern.
I'd keep my current gear: Nvidia GeForce GTX 760
power supply Corsair TX650W
I need a motherboard, processor, DDR4 RAM, a 250GB SSD, and maybe a case—doesn't need to look like a spaceship.
The goal is a solid gaming setup, ideally staying under $1333. I can stretch the budget a little if necessary, but let's not go overboard.
Thanks in advance.

What other parts are you running right now? Honestly, unless you're dealing with a massive bottleneck, just swapping out the platform might not give you much of an FPS boost.

If you're on an older i5, for example, I’d honestly just slap in an SSD and a better GPU and call it a day.

You aren't going to see any real gains just by swapping out the platform; just drop in something like a GTX 1070 and everything will fly. If you change the platform, you likely won't see any improvement in your FPS at all.

Lawrence Phillips said:Just some nonsense 🙂

^ 🤣

What sparked the itch to upgrade? Is your wallet just feeling heavy, or are you actually hitting some performance walls?

I’m not entirely certain about the motherboard yet. Since those mid-tier Coffee Lake boards—aside from the high-end Z370 chipsets—only recently hit the market, there just isn't a massive amount of reviews or data out there to go on. On paper, an average board should be fine; you get four RAM slots, USB 3.1 support, an M.2 slot, and a chipset heatsink, which theoretically covers all the bases. That said, there might be a better deal waiting for you at another retailer or somewhere similar. I'd say wait a few more days... maybe someone else will jump in with a better suggestion. 👍

... I didn't even tell him whether X or Y was the right way to go; I just suggested what made sense to me.

Adam Moore3 said:Personally, I’d go with a Ryzen combo because you actually have an upgrade path. With your suggestion of a G4560 and a 1050Ti, you're basically hitting a dead end.

Look, I know how much HDDs cost. I never said an SSD had overtaken an HDD in price—just that the gap is closing. And just because your HDD is perfectly "optimal" (whatever that means to you) doesn't change the fact that your computer boots up at a fraction of the speed it could, and it’s significantly slower and less responsive than it would be with an SSD.
Not to mention the fact that it's one of the last mechanical parts in your rig unnecessarily making noise. And no, I didn't get this info from some random hardware expert; it's common knowledge in the entire US tech community, even if you clearly disagree.

The point is that even with the Ryzen combo, you can run those games on medium without any issues, and you have a straightforward upgrade path to a GTX 1060 if you want, plus that SSD you hate so much. It’s a more balanced, faster PC that isn't a dead end for future upgrades.

If you can't see the benefits and want to insist on nonsense like "hurr durr SSDs suck, HDDs are king," then be my guest. I don't plan on wasting any more words on this. 👍