Posts by Adam Moore3

fadedorca66 said:You shouldn't need to mess with voltage for 3.7ghz. The 1600X is garbage anyway + you'll have to buy a separate cooler

Look, I know it's garbage, but it's my rig. If it were mine, I'd just force it up via BCLK and call it a day, but I don't know... 🤷 Why am I forced to buy a separate cooler for the 1600X? And yeah, is this specific Corsair model actually a good one?

Hmm, should I bump up the voltage? Would that be necessary to stretch it for the 1600x then?

Jacob Watson63 said:Stay away from that AMD build
In two years, you won't be able to run games because of the processor.
Better to go with an Intel i7 now and a weaker GPU, then just upgrade the card in a year...
These cheap AMD setups are only meant for short-term gaming.

I usually tell people that the CPU is the most important part for gaming, but nobody listens... GPUs come out constantly and processors do too, but the CPU is the foundation everything else relies on. You can swap a graphics card easily, but a CPU isn't that simple...

A buddy of mine grabbed an i5 a while back, and now he’s looking at replacing his entire rig because he wants dual 1080ti cards for UHD
He wouldn't listen to me, so instead of getting a better processor and a 970, he bought a weaker CPU and a 980 card
Now that little difference is going to cost him thousands later on.

You're talking nonsense. If you're actually trying to future-proof a build, you do it with a Ryzen. Anyone who knows even a little bit about hardware will tell you the current Ryzen lineup absolutely crushed Intel's Kaby Lake lineup. 6 cores, 12 threads—hello? 😵 Why do you think the upcoming Coffee Lake chips are shifting toward i3s being quads and i5s being hexas?

Anyway, I don't want this turning into another endless AMDvs Intel debate; anyone reasonable should reach the same conclusion. I ended up putting something like this together here in the States:

AMD Ryzen 5 1600
MSI B350 TOMAHAWK ARCTIC
Crucial Ballistix Sport LT Red 8GB DDR4-2400 UDIMM
Samsung 250GB 850 EVO
WD Blue 1TB SATA
Corsair CX650M Watt Modular (2015 edition Fortron)
Zotac GTX 1080 AMP! edition sa 3

With a 3% discount, it comes out to $3029

I went with this motherboard because it fits the case perfectly and has some cool LEDs. I'm not 100% sure about the power supply; I know Corsair released the CX modular series again and it's pretty solid, but I need to check if this is the specific 2015 edition Fortron. Everything else seems fine—there's no point in dumping money into 16 GB of RAM right away if it means getting a worse GPU.

Is that everything?

I agree, you don't have to buy everything from a single retailer. 😍 If he wants a modular power supply, he definitely should go for it. Last time I built a rig for someone, I threw in a Raider and honestly regretted it; I really should have stretched the budget to get a CX550M or at least a Hypera m so there wouldn't be a mess of cables inside the case.
And it turns out now he's looking for a "motherboard that glows." 🙂
Is there anything decent in that price range that actually looks okay and has a few damn LEDs?
He could even run a GTX 1070 in there. Let's just grab a modular PSU and a "motherboard that glows," because he isn't some hardcore enthusiast gamer. He just wants a solid PC, doesn't sweat the tiny details, and practically doesn't even know the difference between FHD and 4K. 🤣

Procurement? Never heard of it. 😬 That stuff about Inno is just nonsense, I wouldn't touch them with a ten-foot pole. $100 I'd go with MSI just because their warranty is better, but whatever. Around here, things are even $100 worse... since my 1080 is already right there, it’s just pointless.

I’m on board with my friend's build; we're looking at about $1,300 this time around. Here’s what I’ve put together

ASRock AB350 Pro4 motherboard, AM4 socket
AMD Ryzen 5 1600 BOX
1TB Seagate Barracuda 550W HDD
550W Corsair CX Series modular CX550M
16GB (2x8GB) DDR4 PC4-19200U 2400MHz CL15 G.Skill Flare X
Inno3D GTX1070 8G Twin X2 V3, 8GB GDDR5
Samsung 850 Evo 250GB SSD

Total $2988

Yeah, he still needs a case—he already decided on that shiny Versa C22... 😵 Aesthetics matter a lot to him, which is why I'm mainly questioning the motherboard choice.
I know Giga gaming is usually a solid buy, but since this one is black and white, it would fit the whole look of the rig perfectly, so that's why I picked it.
It shouldn't be much worse than a Giga build, right?

The rest seems fine, I guess. I know the GTX 1080 is priced pretty close to this, making the 1070 feel like a bit of a bad deal, but it just seems like the only way to stay within budget. Any suggestions are welcome. 🙂

crimsonstag84 said:Seagate BarraCuda 1 TB
Zalman mid tower case black, EVGA Power Supply
Fortron power supply Corsair CX450, 80+
EVGA GeForce GTX 1060
MSI B350M Mortar
Patriot Signature DDR4, 2400Mhz, 8GB
AMD Ryzen 5 1400

Total: $1688 - Downtown

You might want to consider swapping in a 1050Ti and an SSD instead; the performance jump is way too big to pass up.

steelfox36 said:A colleague is getting a PS4 Pro in a few days, so we'll see how it stacks up against the PS4 Slim. Hopefully, I'll be making smarter choices by then😁 It would be perfect to have both the Pro and a 1060 6GB, but that's just not happening😵

I'm no console expert, but from what I gather, the big difference is the 4K support. If you're rocking a 4K TV with a PS4 Slim, you're basically stuck playing in FHD. So, upgrading to the Pro should feel pretty significant if you've got the right screen. But hey, you'll be the judge of that once you try it.🙂

steelfox36 said:I edited the post.😁 Song and FIFA are my main priorities; other games don't really matter that much. Honestly, I just want to get this new GPU and be set for a while, so I'm worried the 1050 2 might end up being a total letdown...😁

Well, if we’re only talking about Song or FIFA, then PlayStation is a total no-brainer. You get 4K, grab a controller, and just go for it. You aren't even thinking about FPS or worrying about that 30 FPS cap. If you ask me... 🙂

steelfox36 said:I’ve got an offer to grab a PS4 Pro through AT&T for $25 a month. Honestly, my monthly bill would end up being higher $8.25 than what I'm paying now. So, I'm torn—should I stick with the Pro, or just sell it for $2,200/$2,300 and pick up a GTX 1050 Ti or maybe even a 1060 6GB? My current setup is a G4560, 16GB of RAM, an R7 260X, and a 4K TV. I'm leaning more toward buying a GPU rather than keeping the Pro. I already agreed to sell my PS4 Slim for $2k, so I need to put that cash toward something else. I’ll still have my Xbox 360 and my PC. What kind of performance should I expect from my current parts paired with one of those two GPUs compared to the PS4 Pro? It feels like every time I try to pick a better GPU, I end up with more consoles instead.😁

You walked into the "Desktop PCs" subforum and you're actually debating between a console and a PC? 🙂 😬

jk, it's your call. You've already got a decent budget rig, so you could really beef it up with a new card. The real question is: what are you playing, and what are you actually looking for in an upgrade? Like, what's the specific goal you want to hit by getting a stronger GPU?

wiredotter14 said:Yeah, he probably has the exact same one as mine (I have the Windforce 4GB version; he might have the 2GB, but it's basically the same model).
I couldn't find a BIOS to unlock mine either, but since I was specifically hunting for a card without a power connector, that extra 10% performance doesn't really matter to me.

By the way, undervolting this card is super easy and actually works great.



It stays rock solid at 1213MHz even below 1.0V. It isn't loud at all—not even during Furmark—and while I'm gaming, you can barely hear the fans. (For instance, it's been running at 100% for hours now and the fan is still under 1000rpm)

Yep, it's a Windforce, 2 gigs. If it were mine, I'd undervolt it too, but since it isn't, I wouldn't bother playing on it anyway.

wiredotter14 said:It won't work on every single build, so I’d definitely recommend picking up a card that actually has a power connector. That said, it should work fine on plenty of models.

That's true. A buddy of mine was upgrading his rig and ran into this exact issue—he couldn't unlock it because he grabbed the single-gig version without a power connector, and there isn't a modded BIOS out for it. 🕺 It was cheap, under $300 at a local Best Buy sale.

Timothy Kim60 said:Your 560 isn't twice as good as a 460—check your specs, you might be thinking of an old GTX 460. Both the RX 460 and 560 run on the same Polaris 11 chip; the 560 just has all its cores unlocked, making it a few percent faster.

If you're willing to mess around with an unofficial BIOS, you can actually unlock an RX 460 to basically turn it into an RX 560. 😛 Oh AMD, stop it 😒

Linda Richardson22 said:Motherboard - MSI K9N6PGM2-V2
CPU - AMD Phenom Athlon X2 7750 Black Edition
HDD - 320 GB
RAM - 4 GB (can go up to 8 GB)
GPU - EVGA GeForce GT 9500
PSU - Generic 430W Basic

Basically, my issue is that the PC has started lagging while browsing. We don't play any games. Just surfing the web, watching movies, torrenting, and managing websites.

Within the next month, I'll swap in a different CPU, either a Phenom II X4 955 or a 960T 95W (I still need to decide between those two). This motherboard can actually handle a Phenom II X6 1055 95W too, but that's $55, whereas
the Phenom II X4 955 or 960T are about $35-$38.

I'm also going to bump the RAM up to 8 GB.

And I'm planning on installing an Nvidia GTX 260 graphics card.

I definitely have to replace the power supply because the current one is absolute garbage!

I'm looking for your advice regarding the GPU and the PSU.

I'm planning to pick up a used 260 GTX for around $220-$83 on eBay. Is there a better card out there for the same price?

As for the power supply, I know I need to get something more powerful and higher quality. Any recommendations for a new, beefier PSU? Since the 260 GTX requires dual 6-pin connectors.

Just to reiterate, we don't play games at all—just browsing and standard home computer use.

If you aren't gaming, upgrading the graphics card won't make any difference at all, especially not with something old and used like a 260.
So, your priorities should be the power supply, then the CPU, then the RAM.

For the PSU, get THIS.

The Phenom will serve you pretty well, but you should really think about adding an SSD; that’ll give you the biggest performance boost for everyday tasks like you mentioned. It's a shame your motherboard doesn't have SATA3, so you won't fully utilize the SSD—it'll be bottlenecked by SATA2—but even so, it's going to be a massive improvement over the HDD.

😬

If they claim you can push it up to 4000, then by all means, try stretching it to $50 3700. Then just grab a Hex or one of those Gigabyte boards crimsonstag84 keeps posting about and call it a day.

You don't really have many options right now; an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 Ti is the way to go. Just find the cheapest one you can with the longest warranty, and you're set.

I wouldn't go with that second option at all. Even the first one is pretty ancient. An s775 setup might handle some light gaming, but that socket is over a decade old; you could wake up tomorrow to a dead motherboard and find zero replacements out there. What exactly are you planning to use the PC for, and is this really the absolute limit of your budget?
For your old rig, $300-$133 is a stretch—you'd be lucky if anyone even looked at it. Honestly, you could probably list it for $200 and still struggle to find a buyer because, frankly, nobody's looking for this stuff anymore.

Radeon RX 570 isn't even worth considering, it's such a waste. That Radeon RX 570 would just sit there looking foolish...

analogtiger19 said:i5-4690k
CM Hyper 212 X
2x8gb ddr3 HyperX 1866
Asrock Z97 pro4

...$0.67 = a lot, a little, or realistic? ☕

A bit optimistic, but it might just pass on his rig.