New The PC Build Thread

[UrBaN963]

What is the budget?

Realistically he would probably want to aim for B450 or upwards but the motherboard isn't going to make all that much difference really.

As for CPU, again, depends on budget and use case. Is he a gamer or is this for a work PC? If a gamer, what GPU?

 

[Baxteen]

What is the budget?

pretend I say a number, and you know its too low, and then try to convince me to just up it ever so slightly to get at least something.

when I say he does not really have money to fix this I really mean it.

so I am going to try help him out as much as I can, but good advice is what I am looking for.

 

[UrBaN963]

pretend I say a number, and you know its too low, and then try to convince me to just up it ever so slightly to get at least something.

when I say he does not really have money to fix this I really mean it.

so I am going to try help him out as much as I can, but good advice is what I am looking for.

Fair enough.

Can you answer the other questions?

 

[Baxteen]

Realistically he would probably want to aim for B450 or upwards but the motherboard isn't going to make all that much difference really.

As for CPU, again, depends on budget and use case. Is he a gamer or is this for a work PC? If a gamer, what GPU?

he does game slightly, mostly like PUBG, DAy Z and GTA.

currently has a 1080ti.
he has 2 8GB sticks of RAM in there but the mobo is on the way out, so sometimes it only reads 1 stick, then it needs to be restarted a few times for the other stick to pick up. and yes it blue screens when the RAM dissapears.

Appritiate the advice on a B450 I think its the right starting point,

 

[UrBaN963]

Ryzen 5 3600 - R1,150.
MSI B450M PRO-VDH Max Ryzen AM4 Motherboard - R1,300

Is that way out, budget-wise? It'll be a decent upgrade for him and pricing is pretty good.

 

[Baxteen]

that is a very good upgrade path.

thanks I will share with him

 

[Baxteen]

He just sent me a the same Mobo link and this CPU link
AMD Ryzen 5 3600 with AMD Wraith Prism CPU Cooler

so seems pretty on budget

 

[Baxteen]

I think having both in Gauteng makes it slightly eaier to get and test

 

[RunningFromFat]

he does game slightly, mostly like PUBG, DAy Z and GTA.

currently has a 1080ti.
he has 2 8GB sticks of RAM in there but the mobo is on the way out, so sometimes it only reads 1 stick, then it needs to be restarted a few times for the other stick to pick up. and yes it blue screens when the RAM dissapears.

Appritiate the advice on a B450 I think its the right starting point,

Has he done a bios upgrade?

 

[Baxteen]

Has he done a bios upgrade?

not recently that I know of but I cant be sure

 

[Exaelea]

so my firend's Motherbaord is on the way out, randomly reads only 1 of the 2 Sticks of RAM.

so he is looking to upgrade on a hectic budget.

been out of the details of PC building for a long time,
I know he should stick to AMD, and at that he should go for AM 4 rather than AM5. he currently has an AM4 with a 1700 chip I think.

so what should we look for in terms of second hand Mobo and CPU?

He can also go for a b450 board that still supports the 1700 cpu. Cheaper fix since he doesnt have the budget for a cpu too?

 

[Jean Claude Vaaldamme]

People are asking ridiculous prices for secondhand motherboards. When I build my daughter a pc the other day I got everything secondhand except the MB. Progenix have ASRock A520 for R1099 or B450 for R1160. Rather buy it new. Even more well known brands is just a R100 or so more.

 

[Baxteen]

I think that is the plan. get a B450 now, then try and get a Ryzen 5 3600 next month.
and then save up that same amount for the next 2 years and eventually get a 30 series card when the 70 series cards come out because GPU's are stupid expensive

 

[B-1]

I think that is the plan. get a B450 now, then try and get a Ryzen 5 3600 next month.
and then save up that same amount for the next 2 years and eventually get a 30 series card when the 70 series cards come out because GPU's are stupid expensive

AMD Ryzen 5 3400G / MSI A520M PRO Motherboard / 16GB DDR4-3200 Upgrade Kit — Best Deals at Progenix — South Africa

This Ryzen 5 Upgrade Kit has everything you need to stay ahead of the pack and is a great way to begin your gaming journey. The upgrade kit features a 3rd Gen AMD Ryzen 5 CPU and DDR4 memory, which will ensure that every task gets completed quickly and ef

progenix.co.za

 

[Exaelea]

AMD Ryzen 5 3400G / MSI A520M PRO Motherboard / 16GB DDR4-3200 Upgrade Kit — Best Deals at Progenix — South Africa

This Ryzen 5 Upgrade Kit has everything you need to stay ahead of the pack and is a great way to begin your gaming journey. The upgrade kit features a 3rd Gen AMD Ryzen 5 CPU and DDR4 memory, which will ensure that every task gets completed quickly and ef

progenix.co.za

3400g with its 4mb L3 cache.. yeah no hard pass. Even his old 1700 has 32mb.
rather get a board now and a 3600/5600/5700x3d cpu later

 

[Baxteen]

thank you for the feedback @Exaelea I do believe you are right.

it is quite tricky to keep up with the products in how they are named

 

[UrBaN963]

3400G is a terrible gaming CPU. Avoid.

 

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[Fulcrum29]

I wonder if this will be the common theme with RTX 5000 GPUs,

If you are not a gamer, doing modelling or machine learning, I would recommend reducing the power target. Dropping it on the RTX 5090 can save you a substantial amount of money. ECO modes are nothing new.

 

[Fulcrum29]

For those with AMD GPUs, AMD has released driver 25.1.1 as an "Optional Update",

https://www.amd.com/en/resources/support-articles/release-notes/RN-RAD-WIN-25-1-1.html

For notice, this driver is NOT WHQL Microsoft Certified. Some games with anti-cheat might have issues!

If you play Spider-Man 2 or Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, download it if you so wish only if your are experiencing issues.

Just speculating here, but this is not the 25.1.1 driver which was suppose to be, the driver ready package for the Radeon 9000 GPUs. This is a branch. My speculation is, that the new package has all the libraries for their latest versions of their tech suite like FSR 4. All of that had to be cut, hence this package is optional. For the next two months I don't expect major changes to the current branch of drivers unless there are a couple of major game releases that require "driver ready" optimisation.

This said, RX5000-7000, and all the other supported hardware, might have its own driver package now. We know FSR4 isn't coming to RDNA3 though it should technically be fully compatible. It might come, it might not.

Polaris/Vega has it own branch, that isn't discontinued yet. Now there will likely be another branch, and a new branch that will be for RDNA4 and the upcoming UDNA. Something tells me that RDNA4 is a stop gap product. Just like RX5000, it might lose support for newer stuff in a short time. Just speaking my own mind.

Anyhow, I am going to benchmark some LM things with this driver.