Posts by Robert Rodriguez2

Raymond Moore2 said:I want to know if that setting is definitely the culprit. If the motherboard doesn't support it, then I guess I'm stuck using IDE/PATA drives.

Not necessarily. You can just grab a PCI card controller to hook up SATA devices directly to the card instead.
http://www.newegg.com/p/sata-controller-card

But you're basically bypassing the onboard SATA ports; they become useless in that setup...

If a board has both SATA and PATA slots, it’s going to have a mode switch in the BIOS. It's standard.

At least my board has it, even with both types of slots available.

Larry Ortiz5 said:Unless you know how to hold your own. 😁 If anyone needs help with Windows activation, just shoot me a DM. 😛

Just shoot him a DM and tell him. 😁
You're lucky they only gave you a warning for talking like that. 🤣

The board really ought to let you toggle from IDE to SATA mode.

Back in the day, you’d run into issues with laptops where you had to switch the hard drive to SATA mode before you could even start the Windows installation 🙂 (specifically with Windows XP and for a little while during Vista).
I never dealt with that kind of headache once Windows 7 came around.

Larry Ortiz5 said:Check out http://www.drillbell.ro/

It's a solid site for Windows 7 and 8. You get untouched versions with updates already baked in, which is huge because you don't waste half a day running Windows Update after the install. Like I said, it's an original Microsoft ISO file. It's not some sketchy torrent mess loaded with random bloatware or junk. Now you just gotta pick if you want Win 7 or 8.

Clean ISO straight from Microsoft, but I'm pretty sure you'll still need your own product key.

crimsonstag84 said:Grab that beQuiet! unit before someone else snags it 😁.

It’s got efficiency almost 80 + Silver, decent capacitors, and the build quality seems solid enough.

plus it's dead quiet 😬
I put that same power supply in my aunt's PC. It’s just like those Seasonic ones 😳

Zachary Garcia11 said:It's an old Toshiba Satellite L550-15F.
Got some yellow warnings in the Device Manager—mostly non-plug and play stuff like parport and serial.
As for the OS, it's running Windows XP... well, more like "Winborg" at this point.
Trying to run Windows 7, Vista, or even Linux is a total wash. The installer just won't even start; the laptop either keeps rebooting or the screen just starts getting these weird lines all over it.

Why don't you just install a clean version of Windows XP? All those custom modifications are usually what cause this kind of mess.

Kimberly Gomez34 said:I actually own one of those 🙏

There is internal wiring, sure, but it's just that simple 😬

And honestly, you see about 98-99% positive feedback from buyers on eBay 🤣

Doesn't sound like it'll actually work 😁

Quote : Robert Rodriguez2

Sophia Anderson35 said:I'm just using this rig for some casual gaming. I have zero interest in overclocking—too much hassle dealing with temperatures and all that extra babysitting.

I don't trust Samsung SSD enough. They're still the new kids on the block with this tech, whereas Toshiba has been the heavy hitter in the storage game for ages.

So, I swap out the socket, everything else stays fine?

Intel i7 4771 3,5 Gh (1150)
The ASRock Z87 Killer (1150) is basically just a motherboard. It does what it needs to do, nothing more, nothing less.
Samsung 250 GB 850 Series Basic SSD.
Toshiba 2TB, 32mb HDD
HDD Gigabyte R9 270 x 2 GB DDR5 2 x Kingston 8 GB DDR3 Fury Corsair Builder CX CP-9020048
2x Kingston 8GB DDR3 Fury
Corsair Builder CX CP-9020048
Zalman Z3 Plus.
LG GH24NS95
Total comes to $9,993.05.

Here you go.
For ten bucks, you aren't getting a gaming rig or a workstation. You're lucky if you walk away with a used mouse. 👍

One Asrock H97 ANNIVERSARY motherboard, s1150 socket, Intel ® H97 chipset, 4 slots for DDR3, and one PCI Express slot.
One Intel Core i7-4770 3.40. It's a Haswell chip.
Just one set of 8GB (2x4GB) HyperX Fury DDR3 at 1866MHz, CL10.
One Samsung 250 GB 850 Series Basic, 2.5".
Just one Toshiba 2TB drive. 7200 rpm, SATA 3 6Gb/s, 64MB cache, 3.5", DT01ACA20.
One LG GH24NS DVD burner—standard stuff. It does 24x DVD±R, 8x DL, and 40x CD-R.
Just one Scythe Katana 3 cooler. It fits 775, 1155, 1156, and 1366 sockets.
One LG 23" monitor, 1080p, IPS panel, 250 nits. Standard stuff.
One Gigabyte R9 280X 3GB OC, 3GB GDDR5 384bit, GV-R928XOC-3GD.
One Fortron 600W power supply, Hyper model, PPA6003302, with a 12cm fan.
Zalman Z3 mid tower case. 192(W)x465(H)x430(D)mm. Standard ATX motherboard support.

$3342

Check out the site at www.adm.us.

One Gigabyte GA-B85M-DS3H motherboard, LGA 1150 socket, running an Intel ® B85 chipset.
Just one Intel Core i7-4770 3.40. It's like buying a single engine instead of the whole truck.
One Sapphire TRI-X R9 290 with 4GB GDDR5 and a 512bit bus—it's got dual DVI, plus HDMI and DisplayPort.
Just 2 x DDR3 4GB (1x4GB) Kingmax, 1600MHz, FLGF.
One Fortron 600W power supply, Hyper model, PPA6003302, featuring a 12cm fan.
One Zalman Z1 mid tower case. Standard motherboard fit. Dimensions: 199(W)x432(H)x457(D)mm.
One LG GH24NS DVD burner—it’s a DVD±RW that handles 24x DVD±R, 8x DL, and 40x CD-R. Just a basic burner.
Just one Scythe Katana 3 cooler. Standard stuff.
One Toshiba 2TB drive, 7200 rpm, SATA 3 6Gb/s, 64MB cache, 3.5", DT01ACA20. Just like any other standard workhorse.
One ACER V236HLBd 23" monitor. It's got an IPS panel and a 1920x1080 resolution. Simple enough.
One Samsung 250 GB 850 Series Basic, 2.5".

$3331

It'll hold up, even with a beefier GPU. 👍

Morgan Brown6 said:Picked up a 128GB Chinese USB drive on eBay for $10.
At least, that's what the properties say. I moved about 20GB from my PC to the stick. The issue is that it plays some files (MP4 or AVI movies) just fine, but other files show up as empty folders. I'm testing the stick on a Samsung TV. What's the deal? I get this is probably cheap junk, but it should either work or it shouldn't. Some files play, others don't.

Tried formatting it on Windows XP, but it only gives me the exFAT option.

If I formatted it to FAT32, I wouldn't be able to put files larger than 4GB on there, but I'm wondering—how much capacity would it actually have? (Still 128GB, or less?)

And would formatting to FAT32 fix these invisible files?
Some files show up on the computer, but on the TV they look like empty folders. Maybe the TV doesn't support exFAT?

Can anyone give me advice, besides "don't buy cheap Chinese crap" anymore? 🙂
Thanks.

Even eBay put out a warning about not buying those weird sticks claiming to be 120GB for pennies.
They hack the firmware to report 120GB, but they're really just 16GB sticks.

briskorca11 said:Got it, but I gotta be a bit annoying here :P
What do you guys think of this:
-CPU: AMD CPU Richland A8-Series X4 6600K (3.9GHz,4MB,100W,FM2) (4 cores)
-Motherboard: AMD A58 chipset
-Hard drive: 1000 GB sata
-CD/DVD burner black
-RAM: 8GB ddr3 1600mhz
-Graphics: Radeon R7 250 2gb & Radeon HD 8570D
-Case: Coolermaster K380...LED
-Power Supply: 550W 120mm fan
-Sound card: onboard
-Network card: onboard

A buddy of mine is thinking about grabbing this for about $1300 so is it actually worth the cash?

For $390, you can build something way better without going over budget:

Something like this:

1 x Gigabyte GA-970A-DS3P, AM3+
1 x AMD CPU Desktop FX-Series X6 6100 (3.3/3.9GHz,14MB,95W,AM3+) box
1 x Crucial 4GB DDR3 1600 Mhz (PC3-12800) CL11
1 x Toshiba DT01ACA050 (3.5", 500GB, 32MB, SATA III-600)
1 x Fortron 500 w, 80+
1 x MS PHOENIX case without PSU
1 x XFX AMD Radeon R7 265A 2GB DDR5 Graphic Card
1 x LC POWER LC-CC-95, socket 775/1155/1156/AMD
Total: $1295

Without going over 😳 but you can always add more later 👍 maybe grab a used one

Personally, I wouldn't touch a used Radeon with a ten-foot pole. Who knows where that thing has been or how much life it has left in it? You might as well check if the card was trashed in some massive crypto mining rig before you hand over your cash...

briskorca11 said:So here’s the deal: I’m just building the tower, no monitor. By the end of the month, I should have about $5,000 sitting there. Do you guys think people buy old rigs for cheap? Like, they grab an old one and swap in some decent new parts.
I'm really hoping it can at least run something like GTA or Assassin's Creed, and maybe a better sound card for music too. If anyone knows, let me know. 😁

Wait until a few days before you actually buy. Prices shift constantly; what's a good deal today might be gone by the time you have the cash in hand three weeks from now.

Rachel Jones8, can you please clear out your inbox 👍?

crimsonstag84 said:It's not the power supply 🙂 Terrible regulation and Ripple 😉

Hyper is way better for $17, you can hit up to $1733.

So just go with Hyper +best and you've got a solid gaming rig +best

Bryan Jackson12 said:Hey. I can't decide on a new PC. Looking at Futurin's deals and I don't get the actual difference between those various i5 4460 processors and R9 280 cards. There are like 3 or 4 versions with price gaps of $50-$33. Since I'm no expert, I'm worried about screwing up. Is it better to grab a pre-built from them or just pick parts?

I want to squeeze in an Intel i5 (by the way, what's the deal with the difference between i4460 and i 4440?) and an R9 280, but the pre-built prices hit $2000 while my budget is $5000. From what I can tell, those are basically the best buy combo for GPU and CPU.

Thanks.

1 x Intel Core i5-4440 soc 1150 CPU
1 x XFX AMD Radeon R9 280A 3GB DDR5 Graphic Card
1 x MS PHOENIX case without PSU
1 x SILVERSTONE Strider Essential ST50F-ES230, 500W, 80+, Black
1 x Crucial 8GB DDR3 1600 Mhz (PC3-12800) CL11
1 x Toshiba HDD 1TB,7200rpm, 32MB
1 x Asus H81M-R ukupno
Total: $1705

something like this 🙂

Rachel Jones8 said:Yeah... I missed that part, wasn't sure what it said. Just barely caught the end of it.
Should I have just waited to see if it fixed itself... or was hitting restart like I did the right call?

It would've just sorted itself out; macOS would've sent a notification saying everything recovered. Restarting wasn't a bad move either, so you're fine.

Rachel Jones8 said:The question mark is there, but I'm lost...
...basically, I'm asking what happened, but I don't have the answer.

The guy's just asking if you saw it, but it probably flashed by too fast for you to actually read the whole thing.

Rachel Jones8 said:What does that actually mean?
He just had a momentary lapse and he's fine now... or is he actually sick and I need to call 911 or something?

Yeah, pretty much... happens sometimes.😛

Rachel Jones8 said:Suddenly my screen just went black... a message popped up, but I only caught the word "AMD"... It wasn't totally dark, I could still see the taskbar at the bottom where the start button is. I didn't know what to do, so I just hit restart.
It's working fine now, but I'm sketched out. Could this be because of that new power adapter?

Probably just a GPU driver crash.

Rachel Jones8 said:Fine, just send me the info I need to put in.
If I'm following you correctly, the cost is $3.25?

Yep, about ten bucks.👍
I'll DM you the details.