Posts by Adam Moore3

crimsonstag84 said:Man, he could ditch the cooler, but this setup is exactly how it should be—especially if it had Hexa + Nope...

Where did you pick that up? ADM has them in stock.

crimsonstag84 said:1 x TOSHIBA 1TB, 7200rpm, SATA 6 Gb/s, 32MB, DT01ACA100
1 x Asrock FM2A78M-DG3+, AMD FM2+ Socket A78 Chipset MB
1 x DDR3 4GB (1x4GB) Kingston, 1866MHz, CL10, Kingston Fury, HX318C10F
1 x MS PHOENIX case without PSU, Midi tower MBO: ATX, mATX
1 x AMD Kaveri A8-Series X4 7600 Processor (3.8GHz,4MB,65W,FM2+) box
1 x CORSAIR 430W Power Supply, CX Series 80+ Bronze, EPS12V v2.3, 80+
1 x Spire Kepler Rev.2 cooler, 1156/775/FM1, 96.5×51×125 mm ,92mm

$830

The guy said $2000-$2200 max, maybe $2400 at most, yet you're sitting at $2500.🕺

OP, glad you made a decision. Regarding the motherboard, it doesn't matter much—just grab the cheaper one to stay within budget. As for the power supply, definitely go with Fortron. That Corsair VS series is their low-end stuff; HEXA is a way better choice.

slypuma4 said:honestly this thing isn't even a computer, it's just a glorified trash can :3 since my actual rig for heavy lifting and gaming is totally busted right now, so I won't be getting it back for a while... total crap...

anyway, when I listen to music, I crank it up to the max, and the sound quality on integrated audio is way worse than what I get from this dedicated card I threw in... that's basically why I'm using Windows XP, since it doesn't need much power... still, this machine is just a backup😁

Gotcha, alright then. What specific card did you plug in there? I'll send you the links for the drivers so you can just grab them and install them manually on Windows XP.

So okay, are you actually planning on using XP anyway? You mentioned everything works fine on Windows 7, so I assume that's what you're running. And seriously, stay away from DriverPack Solution and all that other junk for downloading drivers. Find them manually; those programs are garbage, every single one of them, at least based on my experience. Just check your sound card model, head over to the manufacturer's website, and download the driver directly—you can't really mess that up. Those automated tools often end up installing completely wrong or outdated drivers.

James Green37 said:Thanks, Adam Moore3 😁

Honestly, I wasn't even envisioning this as a serious gaming rig.
For me, classics like GTA San Andreas or Mafia—stuff I grew up playing on my old machine (1.6GHz, 512MB 🤣)—are basically the gold standard. Though, looking at the specs you listed, 🤷
I bet I could probably handle some newer titles too.
I'm hoping someone else chimes in with their own build ideas, just so I can see if this is really the best bang for my buck.
Even so, what you've put together looks awesome to me. 👍

That APU combo will definitely breeze through those older titles without breaking a sweat. You can run newer stuff too, you'll just have to turn the settings down. What resolution are you playing at?

James Green37 said:Hey everyone!

I'm looking to buy a new PC and could use some help. I've already got a monitor, mouse, and keyboard, so I just need to build the rest 😁
Budget: ideally $2,000-$2,200, maybe up to $2,400 if it's actually worth it (paying cash)
The rig would be for gaming (not for marathon sessions of the latest Call of Duty, but definitely enough to run that and other newer titles), plus general stuff like web surfing, watching movies, etc.

I checked out some deals on CNN, but honestly, I don't know what I'm looking at.

Is an Intel processor better than an AMD one? There are all these different types like Kaveri, Trinity, Richland... It’s all Greek to me.

So, which motherboard, graphics card, power supply should I get? 😵

I'd really appreciate the help 👍

$2,400 is actually pretty tight for a gaming PC, let alone $2,000-$2,200. For $2,400, you could do something like this:

1 x Asrock FM2A78M-DG3+, AMD FM2+ Socket A78 Chipset MB
1 x DDR3 4GB (1x4GB) Kingston, 1866MHz, CL10, HyperX Fury, HX318C10F
1 x AMD Kaveri A8-Series X4 7600 (3.8GHz,4MB,65W,FM2+) box
1 x Toshiba DT01ACA050 500GB, 7200rpm, SATA 6 Gb/s, 32MB
1 x Fortron 400W Power Supply, HEXA 400, 12cm fan, Active PFC
1 x Spire Kepler Rev.2 cooler, 1156/775/FM1, 96.5×51×125 mm, 92mm
1 x MS PHOENIX Midi tower case, MBO: ATX, mATX

$791 CNN

Anything less than that doesn't make much sense. You could go for a weaker APU like a 5600K, but since that has weaker integrated graphics and you want to game, it wouldn't be worth dropping down that low. 🙂

At Future, there's an R7 260 available, which fits if you go slightly over budget 🙂

1 x Intel Celeron G1840
1 x Crucial 4GB DDR3 1600 Mhz (PC3-12800) CL11
1 x GIGABYTE Desktop Motherboard iH81 (S1150,DDR3,VGA,USB3.0/USB2.0,LAN,SATAIII/SATAII) mATX Retail
1 x MSI R7 260 OC, 1GB GDDR5, VGA, DVI, HDMI
1 x HDD Desktop Toshiba DT01ACA050 (3.5", 500GB, 32MB, SATA III-600)
1 x MS PHOENIX case without PSU
1 x Fortron Hexa+ 400W, 80+, active, 12 cm

Total: $825

You get a stronger, dedicated graphics card here, but the processor is significantly weaker. Personally, I'd stick with the AMD option from CNN. 🙂

Tyler Lee62 said:Hey everyone... I could really use some help with my PC and movie playback.
I usually watch everything through BS.Player, and
I love hooking my computer up to the TV to watch movies there.
When I play stuff directly on the monitor, everything runs perfectly
without any issues at all, but once I switch it over to the TV,
the video just stutters horribly from start to finish—it's basically unwatchable.
What is going on? Where is the bottleneck?
It used to work flawlessly, but lately, it’s just constant lagging...

p.s. I just did a fresh install of Windows a few days ago. There wasn't an
driver CD in the GPU box, so I grabbed the driver online (which ended up bricking my whole system for a bit)...🤦

Intel CPU 3.00GHz
2.00GB RAM
Nvidia GeForce GT 430 32
32-bit Windows 7

How are you connecting the PC to the TV? Have you tried reinstalling the drivers? CLICK

neonpuma7 said:Guys, sorry for the late reply, you all are fast 🙂

He picked up an XFX 6770 1GB GDDR5 for $100, tried Battlefield 3 on medium at 720p and it runs great; my buddy is happy. He’s got about $100 left over to upgrade his CPU, but I have no idea what he can get for that kind of money that's stronger than a 5200+. His motherboard is an MSI K9N Neo and I'm not sure which processors it actually supports.

If there's something beefier available for that price, cool, but if not, this one will be good enough.

Thanks everyone for the help and Happy New Year to you all!

For $100, you definitely couldn't find anything better; that's an awesome deal. Since the motherboard is AM2, the best it can handle are those dual-core Athlon chips, which are honestly pretty weak by today's standards. He already has the 5200+, and the absolute strongest thing he could swap in is a 6000+ (there might be slightly higher ones out there, but he probably won't find them locally anyway), though it's really not worth it since it's basically just the same chip with a slightly higher clock speed. He should just save that cash and start saving for something newer; there's no point in upgrading this platform anymore. Even the cheapest new Celeron from $83 would eat the strongest Athlon from that series for breakfast.🙂

Look, I get that, but if you're already dropping cash on a GPU, you might as well grab something significantly better for the price. You can always just swap it into a different rig later—there are plenty of great deals out there right now.

neonpuma7 said:Quick question: if I'm playing at 720p—basically standard HD--🙂

I'm torn between two used cards, an NVIDIA GeForce GTS 450 or a NVIDIA GeForce GTX 560. Which one should I grab??

The rest of the rig is

Intel Core 2 Duo
4GB DDR2 OC Platinum
160GB SATA
Corsair 550W

Buying a whole new PC isn't an option🙂, so I'm deciding between those two or maybe a 4850 or 4870.

Right now there's an 8600GT 512MB in the machine. I want to run newer games on medium settings as much as possible, so thanks for any help.

Asking for a friend!!

What kind of budget are we looking at? Regarding those two cards, the 560 is definitely the stronger performer, but you might be able to find something even better for that price.

swiftridge29 said:Hey, I need to pick up a new graphics card. My current one is just too weak, and honestly, it’s driving me crazy having to crank everything down to low settings just to stop the stuttering in more demanding games. 😁

Here’s the setup:

• Windows 7 Ultimate 32
• Motherboard: MSI MS-7309 with an NVIDIA GeForce 7025 chipset.
• CPU: AMD Athlon ii x2 245 2.90 GHz
• Memory: 2 x 2048 MB DDR2
• GPU: AMD Radeon HD 5450 512
• 400 Watts power supply.

Budget around $500...$200 What's my maximum budget? I've managed to squeeze through quite a few games on this GPU using low settings, but lately, I've been playing Assassin's Creed, and now that I've hit Black Flag, I'm really struggling. It keeps stuttering, and playing everything on low just isn't fun because the graphics look absolutely terrible... 😁

So, I'm looking for some advice here... 🙂

Any upgrade you consider isn't going to be some miracle fix, because the rest of your rig is pretty weak and your budget is tight. Take Assassin's Creed: Black Flag, for example—you won't be able to run that decently because your processor is just bottlenecking everything. If you do decide to pick up a GPU, your best bet is to stretch yourself as far as you can toward an R7 260. It goes for around $100, maybe even less at certain retailers, and since it's significantly more powerful than any other cheap card out there, it’s the absolute best value in that bracket. Honestly, it's not even worth looking at anything cheaper. Click. I'm guessing that power supply isn't exactly top-tier either, but since the R7 260 pulls so little power, it should probably hold up just fine—assuming the 5450 did its job. Just pop the case open and check the exact model of that PSU.

It’s a shame not to run at 1080p with a single GTX 970 😬

Stane 🙂

Larry Ortiz5 said:Yeah, but the real question is how many times he'll get screwed if he buys it and it's broken, and what kind of condition it's actually in. I mean, making sure it hasn't been treated like crap...

Whatever, man. Even at getting an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080, even if he gets burned ten times and finally hits gold on the eleventh try, he'd still come out ahead 🎉

Are you kidding me? An NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 for 25 bucks?! 😵Who on earth is missing this from their build... 😬

analogtiger19 said:Glad you mentioned it’s a bit weak... 🙄 😬 ...$1167 sure it's suicide, but for 2500-3000 you might just get "mortally wounded" 😁 (though I still think that CPU is a massive bottleneck for a GTX 970 😛 )

No offense, but you're just plain wrong. Saying that processor is a huge bottleneck for the 970 is incorrect. Clear and simple. Cheers 🙂

analogtiger19 said:Look, depending on what kind of games you play, you might never even notice that bottleneck, but that CPU just won't let that GPU reach its full potential.

To be clear, that doesn't mean you won't be able to run most games on ultra settings; it just means when things stutter, the CPU will be the culprit even if the GPU could handle more. 😬

The Intel Core i5-2320 and the Intel Core i5-2500K are basically the same processor, except the 2500K has a higher clock speed and an unlocked multiplier. His Intel Core i5-2320 @ 3.8 GHz is effectively the same as an Intel Core i5-2500K @ 3.8 GHz, and plenty of people running 2500Ks paired with an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970 don't see any bottleneck at all. So, claiming there's going to be some massive bottleneck here is totally baseless. Like I said, if a bottleneck ever actually happens, it'll be something negligible—maybe something you'd see in Battlefield 4 Multiplayer with 64 players on ultra settings at 1080p and those kinds of extreme setups. Saying you can't pair that CPU with anything stronger than a Radeon R9 280 is just nonsense.

analogtiger19 said:I'm not sure. Personally, if I were working with a budget up to $0.67, I'd be deciding between the Radeon R9 280 ($0.50), the Radeon R9 280x ($0.63), or the Asus Radeon R9 290 ($0.74). If I'm pairing it with an Intel Core i5-2320, I wouldn't go any higher than the 280x. The real question is whether he wants to max out his budget to get the absolute best bang for his buck, or if he wants to spend as little as possible while still getting a meaningful upgrade over what he has now. Also, does he plan on upgrading his CPU soon? That would change everything...🤷

The Intel Core i5-2320 can handle the 290 just fine. An i5-2400 won't have any bottlenecking issues at all with an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970—you can check that anywhere—and since that card is slightly more powerful than the 290, the 2320 (which is basically the same as a 2400) will definitely hold its own with the 290. Given that the price difference isn't proportional to the performance jump—the 290 is only about $50 more than the 280x but is significantly stronger—there's really no point in getting the 280x. Even if there is a tiny bit of bottlenecking, it doesn't matter.

Brian Campbell36 said:He says my CPU could potentially handle a GTX 970 (but giving it $1167 would be suicide)

It's overclocked to 3.8 GHz 🍿

Yeah, he could probably pull off the 970, though he might run into some heavier bottlenecking in certain spots, like playing Battlefield 4 Multiplayer on Ultra settings or stuff like that. 🙂

crimsonstag84 said:It’s like reading just the first 10 and last 10 pages of a 300-page book 😬

There’s a reason for that price point. Even if that card is technically a "best buy," you aren't going to see a massive leap in performance. A Radeon R9 280 is only about 10-20% faster than your Crossfire setup when everything is actually running smoothly.

That Asus Radeon R9 290 at $767($743 if you're a Newegg member) over at Amazon will be the most cost-effective way to go.

True, but even if he can't swing the 290, he’ll still see an improvement in every game—either from that 10-20% boost or just by avoiding the occasional catastrophic Crossfire scaling issues. And don't even get me started on the stuttering, screen tearing, and all those other headaches. 🙂 So the 280 is definitely an upgrade, but the 290 is just a much better value overall.

Robert Rodriguez2 said:name lol that's why... terrible. It's just like what they did with the GTX 980 Matrix Platinum or something similar...
they slapped on "uber" cooling, but the heatsink doesn't even touch the memory chips, so they just overheat... it's awful 😁

Yeah, I know about that, read all about it. It's the exact same thing as the ASUS GTX 980 Matrix Platinum. I think they just do it because the names allow them to charge $333 more 🤣