Giveaway of the Day Forums

1. 

   Whiterabbit-uk
   Games Guru

   Hi Folks

   Message from Moderator/Whiterabbit/Stephen.

   Unfortunately my CPU fan gave up on me last night (after nearly 8 years of almost 24 hours a day use), so I cannot access my computer until a replacement fan arrives. I've ordered a new heatsink and fan, but they won't be delivered until Monday 19th October at the earliest.

   If anyone reading this could post a quick message in the game section tomorrow, Sunday and Monday to let the community know that there won't be and why there isn't any input from me until Tuesday, it would be appreciated. Moderation will probably still occur, but not as frequently via one of the owners of the site once they know of my absence.

   I've had to get one of my kids to post this via one their computers. Unfortunately neither can loan me theirs as they both have a pile of university lectures and assignment's to catch up on.

   My other computers are all offline in various states of upgrading/repair, so I'm left computer-less until I receive my new fan (or if I can figure out what needs to be fixed on my old spare computers (I have three old dual cores, but each has issues that I've not been able to solve yet; all three have been laying in one of the attic rooms for several years - yeah I know, I should have attempted to fix at least one by now).

   So..... I won't be posting any reviews for this weekends games or today's and Mondays Falcoware games, nor will I be able to moderate unless my kids allow me a short spell on their computers; (both are very protective of their computers, especially my son, who has only recently built his at a cost of over a thousand pounds and won't let anyone near it. Even if I can persuade them, I may not be able to access my admin account as I can't remember my password; it auto logs in on my main computer. ;(

   Stay safe everyone.......

   See you Tuesday :)

   Posted 4 years ago #
2. 

   Whiterabbit-uk
   Games Guru

   Update Wednesday 21st Oct

   I'm not going to be able to post any reviews or moderate until I've updated my main computer; which as I mentioned last Thursday, died on me last week. I though I knew what the problem was and replaced the broken CPU fan, but it turned out to be a more serious motherboard issue. At the moment I'm looking to either buy a second hand gaming rig via eBay, or replace the motherboard, CPU and RAM on my broken computer? This is going to take several days as I need to keep an eye on the eBay auctions and research which CPU, MoBo and RAM to purchase. as I'm still not sure which road to take. I've stuck with Intel for many years, but am seriously thinking of an AMD processor as they seem to be better value for your money.

   So it's unlikely I'll be able to post any reviews or moderate until I've sorted it all, which will be several days at the very least. As I mentioned last Thursday, my other spare (and older) computers are all in various states of being rebuilt and my kids computers are fully booked for most of the day as both are studying from home with streamed lectures, tutorials and pseudo-practical sessions).

   I'll be back

   Posted 4 years ago #
3. 

   mikiem2
   Moderator

   Not sure you'll see this, but in case...

   ***Might*** be worth your time/effort/money to buy a cheap Windows tablet, mini PC, or refurb. PC for ~$75 - $100 to take the pressure off. Any of the 3 would have their uses, come in handy once your new PC is up & running IMHO.

   As for the PC... Don't forget to check graphics card compatibility -- IF I remember correctly you're running some older cards. If that's a problem, there are more Intel CPUs that include a GPU -- AMD CPUs with GPU are called "APU", and there are fewer choices. For reviews of CPUs, motherboards, & RAM I generally start with guru3d[.]com. The 4th generation of AMD's Ryzen is about to appear on store shelves -- safe to say the platform has proven itself stable & capable by now.

   Do Not forget the power supply -- I would not chance using your old one because it's 8 years old, and they usually degrade after 3-4 years. It might still seem to work just fine, but small variances in voltage to delicate components does matter.

   If you wind up going AMD, while RAM compatibility has vastly improved, make sure whatever you buy does include AMD compatibility. I've seen loads of reports where people have problems because the RAM they bought doesn't explicitly list AMD.

   If you plug in your old hard disk as-is, Windows 10 will most likely adapt itself and run on your new hardware. If it doesn't, or if you decide to install fresh anyway, you'll still need a new license if you got Win10 free like most folks. If you have any old Win7 or Win8 keys lying around, they may still work, despite Microsoft officially ending the program of free upgrades.

   Best Luck

   Posted 4 years ago #
4. 

   mikiem2
   Moderator

   Wanted to add a quick note that just occurred to me [brain fog or would/should have thought of it earlier], again in case you see this WR. Microsoft tracks changes to your hardware, and after a certain point, or with certain changes, e.g. motherboard & CPU, requires you to re-activate Windows, which often means a new license. Assuming you'll need a new license anyway, if there's any other upgrades on your wish list, performing them now might help extend the lifespan of that new license. If you decided to upgrade to a new hard disk later on for example, that shouldn't effect Windows activation, but it will count against how many more changes will be allowed before it deactivates.

   And speaking of hard disks, your new motherboard will probably support one or more NVMe drives. Some recent sales have priced them cheaper than regular SSDs. There is a caveat however -- NVMe drives can run much hotter and require a heatsink &/or fan for cooling. I wanted to mention this because one thing you don't want is to get your updated rig running, only to discover you've got to go back inside to fix something or other.

   Again, best luck.

   Posted 4 years ago #
5. 

   Whiterabbit-uk
   Games Guru

   Hi Mikiem,

   Kids are in bed, so I've borrowed my daughters.

   I decided against second hand computers and/or components and ended up purchasing a Ryzen 5 3600. I initially wanted the Ryzen 7 3800X, but the difference in Price for the faster CPU wasn't worth the extra bucks (almost double the price I paid for the Ryzen 5). I'm not looking for the fastest; just something that will allow me to play my AAA games. My son bought the X version of the Ryzen 5 3600 and I considered that as well, but for the additional £50+ for the X there was virtually no difference in performance, and as I was on a budget (due in part to several outgoings such as legal fees, having to have a full rewire of one of my tenanted properties due to new legislation and other repairs etc).

   My original plan was to just replace the Motherboard, CPU and RAM, but realizing that I would probably need to re register my operating system I bought an OEM version of Win 10 Home and an M.2 SSD. These additional costs were another factor in getting the Ryzen 5 instead of the Ryzen 7. Also, I bought a slightly more expensive motherboard as I needed a minimum of six SATA ports to accommodate my hard drives and Blu Ray, plus I wanted a second M.2 connection as I intend to buy another M.2 SSD when things have quietened down. Regarding the replacement of the power supply; the one I have is a Corsair 1000W Gold version which has never been stretched, so I think will be okay for the time being (I used to build transformers following my discharge from the army back in the late 70's as I'd trained as an electrical engineer initially). I may buy a new PSU or get my wife to buy me one for Christmas or my birthday next year.

   As for my old computer, I've got the original motherboard, that I though was damaged after my daughter, in a fit of madness three years ago; (after I took her computer out of her bedroom until she tidied her room), pulled the power cord from the computer while it was still booted up. After that incident I was unable to start the computer. After a few tests I decided it was a combination of the MoBo, RAM and graphic cards that had been fried (though I think I was motivated by wanting to upgrade my RAM to a higher clock speed and Graphic cards from GTX580's to GTX 980 Ti's); but I think I may have been wrong about the motherboard (I replaced like for like). I'm hoping that it will still work. If it does I'll be able to get my (old) main computer up and running again, though I'll be moving it (at least the MoBo with CPU and RAM) to one of my older computers, and dump its motherboard, a dual core CPU and RAM (built about 12-13 years ago). I don't intend using it for high end gaming, so the older Nvidia GTX 580 graphic card that I have spare will be well over the required spec and I always bought PSU's well over what was required. The oldest is a 750W, so should be sufficient as the CPU is an old second gen i7 2700K processor. I don't really need the the graphic card as the motherboard had a graphics chip included and I intend to use it mainly as a server for a couple of older games (Men of Valor - 2005, Men of Honor: Pacific Assault - 2004, Vietcong - 2003, Left 4 Dead 1 (2008) & 2 (2009) and possibly the first three Battlefield games i.e. 1942, Vietnam and BF2 (2002, 2004 & 2005), (ArmA 2 (2009) and Killing Floor (2009) as I have spare copies of all those games, as it will enable a small group of friends that play with me regularly will be able to play without being disturbed by others.

   Posted 4 years ago #
6. 

   mikiem2
   Moderator

   You should be fine using your existing power supply. As it ages the output of a power supply *might* have more ripple for example, which *might* reduce the longevity of the PC’s components over time. I suppose a power supply might send out drastically wrong voltage, but I’ve never heard or read of it happening. They can just die of course, and they can cause all sorts of hard to diagnose problems, but that’s thankfully a bit rare IMHO. What happens is the factories tend to skimp on the quality of capacitors & chips, e.g. for control, and those cheaper components generally don’t last as long as higher quality versions. The situation’s made a bit worse since few companies actually make the power supplies they sell, often going with the lowest bid. And Chinese factories are infamous for using stuff that doesn’t meet the specs set by the company placing the order. That’s why for a given name brand, some of their power supplies are great, while other models are sh**, depending on the factory where they were built and the amount of oversight from the company that’s going to sell them.

   From what I’ve read. the Ryzen 3600 is one of the prime choices for gaming – since the graphics card(s) does so much of the work, the idea is that more cores &/or horsepower tends to be wasted. When I researched the prior Ryzen versions the X model was more expensive and used more electricity, yet both the regular and X version of a given CPU should reach the same overclock. Since I was used to Intel, I was overly cautious about heat, so I went with the 2700 and have been tickled by how relatively cool it runs. While I reused the liquid cooler I had with the i7, the stock heatsink & fan that came with the 2700 works just fine – only about 5 degrees C higher. Right now, as I type this the CPU’s at 29 C (!). Do Note however, AMD’s chipset drivers tend to set the minimum CPU to 90% -- I always reset that [in Windows power options] to 20%, which is still a bit high.

   Again, best luck

   Posted 4 years ago #
7. 

   mikiem2
   Moderator

   Taking the risk of offering advice unasked, assuming it's difficult for you to get online at the moment... Of course, please disregard as warranted.

   The board you listed on the game GOTD page is a decent choice -- you'll be [likely Much] happier with the X570 vs. a B series board, again assuming that you'll want to use it for several years like you did your old PC. There have been several BIOS updates -- the latest this month -- that you might want to check out or try. While the Asus page doesn't mention it specifically, I *think* some of those updates *might* improve NVMe support -- that's based on 1) the core BIOS code comes from AMD, & 2) updates to the X470 boards have included improvements related to NVMe.

   RE: the NVMe [M2] drive you bought, heat sinks are cool, though not essential for every NVMe drive -- some run hotter than others. I have a WD Black that uses a heatsink provided with the motherboard, and a slower WD Blue that runs about the same temp without, but then the case has a monster fan blowing right at it. If the drive needs a heatsink, you can either buy a more expensive drive that comes with one already attached, use a heatsink that came with the board, or try and use an aftermarket heatsink that attaches with rubber bands, which I'd consider an iffy choice myself. Do install the NVMe drive before you mount the board -- they use a TINY screw that can be impossible to find if you drop it in the case. And DON'T lose it -- they can be hard to come by.

   RE: Win10 & NVMe drives... You can probably just run the same copy of Windows you have been using -- it should adapt to the new hardware by itself. With that copy of Win10 running, you can also run Win10 setup [I'd suggest 20H2], which will add the version update, update the basic drivers & related, and get rid of some of the old drivers used by your old board & CPU. All you'd do is set the BIOS disk order to point to your old drive with Win10's boot files. You can move [clone] your old copy of Win10 to the NVMe drive, but it will most likely require special software, e.g. Macrium Reflect paid version USB stick. And you can install Win10 fresh to the NVMe, though Note: you *may* have to disconnect all other hard disks for that to work.

   Related... I've seen graphics card-related issues with Win10 20H2 in an Insiders copy of Win10. AMD released new drivers that seem to have fixed that [so far anyway]. Nvidia just released new drivers -- I suggest you update to try and avoid the same.

   neowin[.]net/news/nvidia-45709-whql-driver-adds-support-for-rtx-3070-watch-dogs-legion-dirt-5-and-more

   Have Fun

   Posted 4 years ago #

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