What's your current build?
- i5 4690k, r9 390, 16gb ddr3 ram, Z97S SLI krait edition motherboard

Do you actually want to upgrade or is it just because you can't figure out what's wrong?
- I reinstalled windows after making this post (should have done that first tbh) and it helped the problem a bit, but it's still a thing so I think the pc is just old and could use an upgrade. If we can in fact do something for less than half my budget as you said then that makes the idea more appealing as well.

Do you want to reuse any hardware?
- If I can use something sure I suppose, I figure the only thing that could be salvaged is the graphics card though

Are you fine with GPU encoding? That should make things a lot easier for the CPU and by now it's comparable and sometimes better than CPU encoding.
- I don't really know the advantages and disadvantages of using it but if you think it would be best then sure

Is that information about CXBX doing better on intel recent?
- I know someone in our community runs the game on a ryzen 7 5800x and still has amd specific issues so it's a recent issue I believe

Are you going to overclock?
- Preferably not

Yeah, nothing wrong with wanting an upgrade, as long as you're doing it for the right reasons.

Ok, so a 390 should be somewhere around a 1650 to 1650 Super or 5500 to 5500 XT. If that's still good enough keep it, if not, unless you need a huge upgrade, a used GPU will probably be cheaper.

I think you could and should reuse everything apart from CPU, RAM, and mobo. If there's nothing wrong with your HDD/SSD, PSU, cooler, and case, then I would keep them unless you're trying to sell the entire old build.
Maybe add a new NVMe SSD, but that's it.

GPU encoding would mean basically no CPU load, and that obviously makes a huge difference for a CPU-bound emulator.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CLqpVImLPGE&t=305s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H0pCpNT4b-Q&t=620s
Basically, thanks to NVENC (the nVidia hardware encoder), CPU encoding (x264 in particular) for streaming stopped being worth it years ago. By now AMD (AMF, formerly VCE) has caught up and even surpassed nVidia in some cases, but it's pretty even. And then there's Intel Quick Sync. It's the one thing the Intel GPUs do really, really well, because they do it better than anyone else. It beats x264 medium preset. You can not afford a CPU that would even run a 1080p 60 fps stream via x264 without choking the emulator completely.
So I do highly recommend going this route.

Yeah, if CXBX still doesn't like Ryzen, and you're fine with GPU encoding and don't want to overclock, then there's no reason not to get an Intel CPU.

Again, the i3-13100 would be a fine upgrade. Should be roughly 80% faster single threaded and you do get 8 threads instead of just 4 as with the 4690K. Still 4 actual cores though. 3.4 GHz base clock, 4.5 boost. 190 CAD.
Then there's a couple of i5s. All with 6 big cores (12 threads), but the i5-13400 only gets 4 small cores on top, the others get 8. Not going to matter unless you go for something highly multithreaded (18+ threads), but worth keeping in mind anyway.
Anyway, so the 13400, 13500, 13600, and 13600K get 2.5/2.5/2.7/3.5 base clock (1.8/1.8/2.0 for the small cores), 4.6/4.8/5.0/5.1 boost.
With the 13400 at 310-320 CAD and the 13500 at 330 CAD, I'm going to declare the 13400 to be pretty pointless.
The 13600 is for some reason not available at all and the 13600K costs 410 CAD, which really isn't worth it if you're not overclocking.

The lower base clocks are to fit 6+ cores into 65W TDP, while at boost clocks they're allowed to draw >150W. Most mobos have very generous settings in that regard by default, and if not it's easily fixed, so I'd mostly pay attention to the boost clocks.
So the 13500/13600 should be 6-11% faster even single threaded than the 13100 when properly cooled, but paying 75-100% (if you can find a 13600) is obviously only worth it if you're actually getting something out of the extra cores.
For CS:GO, TF2, and Dota, I don't they'd matter, but they can be nice for newer games and e.g. Counter Strike 2 performance might be of interest to you, since you're getting it for free.

I could've made this a lot shorter, but I want you to be able to make an informed decision instead of just slapping down "get an i3-13100 or i5-13600 and use Quick Sync" and leaving it at that.

Alright based on your advice I think the best course of action is to keep everything and just replace the cpu mobo and ram. Probably going to go with the i3 13100, I don't think I really need what the 13600 would provide but I'll continue to think about it. Do you have any particular recommendations for the ram and mobo?

I don't think you'll need anything special for the mobo. Just make sure it's either a 700 chipset, or can be updated without a CPU installed or you might run into trouble since the 600 need a BIOS update to support the 13000 CPUs.
B760 would be the cheapest of the new chipsets and completely fine for your purposes.
B660 is fine too, H610 I'd avoid.
Definitely go for one that supports DDR5.

For RAM I'm not entirely up to date, but I think at this point DDR5-5600 or sometimes even 6000 can be reasonably priced enough to get that instead of sticking with the minimum 4800.
2x 8GB should be enough, but I won't stop you if you get 2x 16GB. Though RAM is only going to get cheaper, so if you've got a mobo with 4 slots, I'd stick with 2x 8GB for now.

currently on a 3700X, MSI B450M that maxes out at 32GB RAM (I only have 16 right now), RX 5700

I quite literally NEED 128GB of RAM for work I'll be starting in late June. I could just replace the motherboard and get new RAM but that's gonna spank me for 300 USD EASY and my performance isn't even gonna improve which is absolutely lame

I could also one-up that and grab a 5800X3D too but then thats gonna be like 620 USD just to stay on AM4 which has no further improvement and still DDR4.

Then there's current DDR5 boards which are expensive as shit (like 100 USD more than what I got my current MB for new in 2019) and there's a bunch of bullshit going on with AM5 motherboards right now too
Then there's the 3rd option of sucking it up and going for a full system overhaul which is gonna run me like $1600+ easy since I'd want a new GPU and a new monitor to get off 1080p and I'd have to grab a new PSU too

Setsul I seek your wisdom. am I fucked?

I recommend Make Your Employer Pay For It

in this case they won't because they'll just tell me to connect remotely to some of our computers
I could do that but our remote connections are legit total ass. I don't want to deal with ~5 TB of data (that will grow) over such shoddy connection. I've tried it before and I've witnessed how awful it is. Obviously I'll HAVE to do it for now since I dont have capable hardware but I shit you not when I say doing it remotely is awful (and fuck being onsite)

#3917
MSI B450M what? I mean buying a mobo with only two RAM slots is almost always a mistake because those suck, all the corners have been cut, but even those should allow for 64GB.

I'd argue that being able to actually run a program instead of not being able to run it at all is a 1/0 = infinity% increase in performance. Mathematically that should just about justify 300 USD.

I don't think DDR5 mobos being 100 USD more more expensive is the problem? Just get a 7600X instead of a 5800X3D and it works out to roughly the same price and performance.

Is the job so terrible that it's not worth investing 300$ to be able to work from home? You'd spend much more than that on commuting.

Wanting a new monitor and GPU (+PSU) is completely unrelated, that's a you problem, don't blame your job for it.

this yeah it's not the best board when I got it but at the time (zen2 release) I needed an mATX board with a flashback button and this was literally the only one in stock

correct, I just can't stomach the idea of dropping $300 just for a partial upgrade, I feel like I might as well go full beans and finish everything off. Like the 7600x + mb + ram is still gonna hit me for around $600, this partial upgrade is like 70% of what it took for my entire current system
tldr; Im flabbergasted by everything being a lot more expensive than what I'm used to. A good part of it probably due to DDR5 being "new" and AM5 being new so they have the early-adopters tax. but whatever, I'll figure something out, thanks for the feedback

Your board supports 64GB of RAM, as it should.
https://www.msi.com/Motherboard/B450M-GAMING-PLUS/Specification
Obviously doesn't help if you really need a full 128GB, but it very much does support 64GB.

I swear to god this shit said 32gb two days ago along with a bunch of other spec sheets I was reading
what the FUCK
anyway thanks, now my heart is at ease

Rule of thumb, unless you're way up there with big servers and RAM in the Terabytes, or Intel is playing stupid market segmentation games again (not applicable here), you're basically limited by DIMM size.
If the mobo supports only DDR4 UDIMMs that go up to 32GB and you got 2 slots, you got 64GB max, and with 4 slots 128GB max and so on.

Now if the mobo is old enough that only 16GB sticks were available at launch, then the listed capacity in contemporary sources will be lower, but there's usually nothing stopping you from putting in 2x32GB anyway.

thanks
I should be able to get by with 64GB for maybe the first month and a half until the higher resolution PIV data starts flooding in which is gonna need more than that. I should probably just look into getting some used MB that can take up to 128GB off ebay or something, Ive probably been overthinking this

looking for monitor upgrade from my 144hz(Asus VG248) would like 240hz monitor around 400 dollars, any recommandations?

hi Setsul,

was thinking about upgrading to a rtx 3070 but I have a 620W PSU

I have a i7-9700k also with 16gb DDR4 RAM, do I need to upgrade the PSU also? Or is it fine as is

benq XL2540K should be solid, i'm very happy with my XL2546K and afaik the biggest (only?) difference between the two is the 2546K has dyac+

Depends on overclocking.
Stock it's around 250W for the 3070 and 125W for the 9700K, no problem.
OC on the 9700K would push it to around 180W, if you don't do anything crazy with the 3070, that's still fine.
If it's all watercooling with the 9700K somewhere around 250W and the 3070 far beyond 300W, then I'd get worried.

I must commend your PSU choice by the way, I'm using the 520W version in my NAS/server.
It's a budget PSU, but budget as in affordable 80+ Bronze, not as in "might catch fire". It will actually deliver 620W without issues.
Well, around 20% more than 620W but at some point overcurrent protection would shut it down, because it actually got that. Because it's a good PSU.

Thanks for the reply and I'm glad you agree with the PSU choice :)
Won't be doing any overclocking most likely so I think I'm in the clear

Hi, after roughly 8+ years its finally time for an upgrade for a myriad of reasons
My current system specs are: i7 5280k / 16Go of somewhat slow DDR4 / GTX 980.

I wanna switch to a 1440p240Hz (even though 240hz has poor availability for the monitors I'm targeting - more on that below) and I'll be using the new build for both for gaming and productivity applications (split should be roughly 75-80% gaming /20-25% productivity). Since video editing should be the most demanding productivity task I'll be doing, I don't think it warrants particularly optimizing the build for it. Given all that, I'm thinking:

- 7800X3D, and planning to reuse a NH-D15 I have in another build
- RX 6950XT (probably the XFX Speedster merc319, cheapest in France and looks solid)
- 32Go DDR5 6000 36-36-36-96, which is looking like the new gold standard for DDR5
- Mobo: Don't need fancy features, just a decent amount of USB ports at the back, enough lanes to max out the GPU and space for an NVME, 1-2 Sata SDDs and an HDD at most + Front IO (incl. 1 USB-C) + 2.5G net (a plus, not a must). Idk how realistic it is to find something with decent power delivery for under 250€ with those criteria but any board recommendations or general advice would help.
- PSU: with everything and depending on the calculator, I get around 660-680W of consumption. I'll most likely be lightly overclocking both CPU and GPU, so I'm guessing 700W should do it. I only have experience with EVGA and Seasonic and both have been great but open to suggestions for this too.
+ Storage
+ Some case that'll fit all that, probably the Fractal Design Meshify 2 Compact or something similar

For monitors, I've been tracking prices of 27", 1440p, 240 Hz, IPS ones for the following models:
- Gigabyte M27Q-X: super overpriced and poor availability in France
- MSI MAG274QRX: same issue
- Iiyama GB2790QSU-B1: decently priced but has almost no trustable reviews online
I don't know of any other options rn and I wanna stay in the 450-470 range as much as possible

I'm mostly looking for feedback/criticism if some of the choices don't make sense + advice on some of the parts I know less about

Thks in advance!

at this point you arent necessarily looking for a specific monitor, you are looking to fit a monitor into your budget and it being available in France at the same time
if you could get it out of america for 400$(350 on bestbuy) the HP Omen 27qs seems like a no brainer for the price but thats not how the cookie crumbles so lets see

#3931
That all sounds very reasonable.
2.5G is pretty much standard on AM5 mobos, so you shouldn't have any trouble getting that.
Same with 2x SATA and an M.2 NVMe slot.
I'm not sure what you consider a decent amount of USB ports at the back, shouldn't be a problem either though.
Front IO depends on the case. If the case doesn't have a USB-C port at the front, there's nothing the mobo can do. Just pay attention whether it's USB 3.1/3.2 or 3.0. 3.x uses the 20-pin Key-A connector, 3.0 uses a very different, incompatible 19-pin. Most mobos only have one or the other, with the newer ones usually having Key-A, like the Meshify 2 needs.
Enough PCIe lanes are a given, though if you want PCIe 5.0 you'll need a B650E or X670E mobo. There are no GPUs with PCIe 5.0 yet though, so for now it won't actually do anything.

Do not buy PSUs by brand. Two reasons:
1. The high-end platforms of one manufacturer generally being good does not mean all of them are good, and their budget platforms might always suck. They're just not going to send out review samples for those.
2. Brand != manufacturer. EVGA neither builds nor designs PSUs, they just slap a new label on something they bought from the usual suspects in China or Taiwan. Seasonic is an actual manufacturer but for some reason has started outsourcing the production of their low-end units and generally started using much worse designs for them. E.g. the S12III is worse and more expensive than the much older S12II.

So always check reviews for PSUs. And not the low effort "it's a PSU and it works", you'll want one of those where it's 20 pages of measurements that you don't understand. Then you simply skip to the conclusion where they'll tell you what that actually means, whether the PSU is actually worth the price, great, got some minor flaws that shouldn't affect you, or is actually missing important stuff like overcurrent protection, acting up under high load etc.

#3931
setsul will correct me if im wrong but https://cultists.network/140/psu-tier-list/ is a good resource for picking a psu

Well, I wouldn't pick solely based on that list, because it's nowhere near granular enough to tell which PSU is better, but it can at least tell you which PSU not to get, which is nice to narrow things down.

The tiers are not ideal in my opinion because they roughly map as follows:
F: Fire hazard.
E: Trash
D: Still trash, also pretty much no units there so why bother differentiating?
C: Works, but worse performing half I'd never buy, while those going beyond the minimum requirements are actually good budget PSUs.
B: Barely more stringent performance requirements than C, but excludes all older/simpler designs on principle.
A: Indirect minimum efficiency (and price) requirement, with still very lax performance requirements.

The end result is that e.g. an FSP Hydro G Pro (80+ Gold, ~150€ for 1000W) that I'd never buy because it's so thoroughly mediocre to underwhelming at that price and the EVGA T2 / Super Flower Titanium (80+ Titanium, ~250€ for 1000W), which I'd absolutely recommend if it makes sense in proportion to the budget, end up in the exact same tier.

Hello, for some reason, 2 out of the 4 RAM slots in my previous mobo died, so I got a new one (same model - B450M-A II).

However, it shortly happened again to this mobo too, and I have been trying to find out what component did this. One or two of the RAM modules I tried inserting are faulty, so I think (...and hope) that the RAM slots were destroyed by faulty RAMs inserted into them. (There is an 80% chance that I get PAGE FAULT IN NONPAGED AREA BSoD on boot so I keep my PC on sleep instead of shutting down...)

Mostly, I'm wondering if it is at all possible that it's a problem with my PSU or CPU, or the RAM slots got destroyed by the faulty RAM modules.

Found a lot of conflicting opinions online.
I'm posting my specs below.

Mobo: ASUSTeK PRIME B450M-A II
CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 3600
GPU: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650
PSU: Be Quiet System Power 9 500W
RAM: https://www.amazon.com/Patriot-Signature-Line-3200MHz-Single/dp/B0887VLQPB

Now, just to make sure:
You're not on Windows Vista or 7 and you have actually tested the RAM?

I'm on Windows 10, my only indicator that the RAM module is faulty is by placing it in a RAM slot where another RAM module (exactly same model) was placed before and was working correctly.

I don't mind replacing my mobo or CPU, I just don't want to upgrade one (or both) component and have the same issues again.

What exactly did you do?
I mean if you just swapped slot how do you know which module was working correctly? Did you test them one by one?

Either way, you'll probably want to run memtest86+. https://www.memtest.org/
You'll need an empty USB Flash Drive, or CD ROM if you're old school, or do it via network boot if you want to be really weird.
That takes windows out of the equation and by switching the modules around you'll be able to tell if it's always the same module throwing errors, the same slot, or random.

#3931

Thks a lot for the comments on my first message, I've build the following list on PC part picker: https://fr.pcpartpicker.com/list/DzLXgb
And I have a couple questions left before going out to buy the parts.

1/ Regarding the mobo (https://fr.msi.com/Motherboard/MAG-B650-TOMAHAWK-WIFI/Specification)
- Its among the cheapest AM5 boards in France with the basic features I want and it should be enough to get the most out of the CPU considering I will only moderately OC it
- As you said Setsul I checked for the front pannel connector and seems like it works out with the cases I've been considering. But just to make sure, it this (https://imgur.com/a/ryf3orF) what you were talking about ?
- Idc about PCIE5 since 4 is enough to get the most out of past & current-gen GPUs + I don't need PCIE5 speeds for storage either
- I've never had a mobo with a BIOS that doesnt support the CPU out of the box, but from what I understand I should be able to flash it by myself with an USB thanks to the Flash BIOS Button (?)
- Not sure how clearing CMOS works when there's no dedicated button

2/ For the PSU (https://www.amazon.fr/Seasonic-SSR-750FX-Focus-Gx-750/dp/B077J9G9CH) which I couldnt add to the PCPP list for some reason
- Has good reviews and is fairly priced in France

I've done the basic compatibility / clearance checks but feel free to point out if I've missed something. Just looking for feedbacks / second opinion basically

-Yeah, mobo is fine.
-It got both a USB 3.1 (1x USB-C) and a USB 3.0 (2x USB-A) header, exactly what the case supports.
-Yep, PCIe 5.0 isn't going to do anything for a couple of years yet.
-Yes, you can update the BIOS on that mobo by plugging in a USB flash drive with the new version in the correct port and pressing that button.
-Why would you need a button to clear CMOS? The old school reset is simply removing the battery. Not that you should ever need to do that.

PSU is good.

I don't like the SSD, it's just not good. There are some TLC versions of it that don't suck as badly, but it's luck of the draw which one you'll get, and purely because they're pulling the two versions under the same name bullshit, with the better ones being sent out as review samples, I'd never buy one.
The Crucial P3 is a bit better if you want to stay in that price range. Yes, it's PCIe 3.0, but at 4x that maxes out around 4000 MB/s and neither of them actually reaches that, with the P3 actually being faster. It's still QLC, but that's what you get at that price.
Samsung 970 Evo Plus or WD Blue SN570 or WD Black SN770 would be some of the usual suspects if you're willing to spend a bit more for TLC.

Thanks Setsul

Clearing CMOS was how I learned to manage a successful boot after an over aggressive OC that manages to boot but shuts down the PC during stress testing. At any rate it's super situational and once I got it tuned like I want I agree that I basically won't ever need that.
Good points for the SSD thanks, I hadnt paid attention to memory types