KarathKasun

At this point I wonder if they just MB swapped with a damaged board just to sell the board.
 
This is why I never trust a shop to do any diagnostic, they have motive to just claim things are broken to make money selling something.  Unfortunately, diagnostics are just a tool to fleece the consumer to many repair shops.  I have seen this behavior in everything from GeekSquad to corporate-level IT consultants.
 
The IT consultants thing is first hand experience.  Migrated to new hardware due to EXTREME age of the old hardware at an office, business owner wasnt interested in upgrading the workstations just yet as they were dumb terminals that could be replaced if they died, so we just migrated the server OS as is to a new box.  6 months later a contractor comes in and "upgrades" the server and workstations.  Nearly threw $2000 of server hardware into the trash because it was running Windows Server 2000 and the guy could not be asked to check the hardware specs.  Sold the business a "server" for $2000... with a 1st gen Phenom CPU in it... in 2015.  Contractor then proceeded to take the Server 2012 disk and key with him off site, without anyone's knowledge.  Played dumb when the business owner contacted him about it.  Took threats of legal action over fraud and theft before anything was returned.

Thats not thermal paste in the socket.  Looks like a ghetto pin repair job using clay to support a broken pin.
 
Anyway, the CPU is likely fine.  Overpasting doesnt kill CPUs.  Crap in the socket doesnt kill CPUs either.
 
My question is, if you had the knowledge to even take the CPU out and examine it, why did you take it to a repair shop for a simple MB swap?  Thats like a 10m job.

Thats not thermal paste in the socket.  Looks like a ghetto pin repair job using clay to support a broken pin.
 
Anyway, the CPU is likely fine.  Overpasting doesnt kill CPUs.  Crap in the socket doesnt kill CPUs either.
 
My question is, if you had the knowledge to even take the CPU out and examine it, why did you take it to a repair shop for a simple MB swap?  Thats like a 10m job.

IMHO, the 1660 Ti isnt worth the money if you are already sitting on something like an RX 580.  Just turn some settings like shadows or SSAO down and 1440p should perform fine on most games.

RX 460 is ~10% slower than the 1024 shader RX 560, but there are RX 560s that have the same shader count as the RX 460 (896).  It is hard to tell which is which sometimes as the packaging tends to not display the shader count.
 
Anyway... If you are going to their store in person and they are trying to charge the same amount for the in stock RX 460, try to haggle them down by at least 10%.  And remember, the same limitations apply, has to be low profile with no external power connector.

Also...
 
DP to VGA generally works much better than HDMI to VGA, as the standard was made with that type of conversion in mind.  HDMI to VGA is more of a hack/workaround and may present problems with resolutions available (wrong aspect ratio, unsupported resolutions, etc).

Incorrect.
 
I am now running an RX 560 on an old school BIOS motherboard, 1st gen socket AM3/DDR3.  The board is 100% UEFI unaware and the RX 560 does not care.  Most GPUs have both UEFI and BIOS firmwares smashed into one.  The code checks for BIOS or UEFI and loads the proper firmware at boot.

More info on HPs website regarding what I assume is your computer.  Looks like an HP 6200 SFF from the specs at least.
 
https://h30434.www3.hp.com/t5/Desktops-Archive-Read-Only/Using-GTX-750-950-RX-460-with-HP-6200-Pro/td-p/5664119
 
HP says no way, users installed cards with no problems.
 
I have an RX 560 and a VERY old board that is pre UEFI, I can test to see if it works or not.  I am almost 100% sure it works.
 
Ill post back once I get to the office where that PC is and test.

A random RX 560 will not fit, it has to be a low profile card.  If the 560 doesnt work the 1030 would also likely not work either.  Make sure to update your BIOS from HPs website, check for any compatibility notices.

V6 or V8 only applies to the HP board.
 
Parts in the "build your own PC" domain dont generally have the vendor locks that HP use, so it should be fine with an aftermarket board.

V6 or V8 only applies to the HP board.
 
Parts in the "build your own PC" domain dont generally have the vendor locks that HP use, so it should be fine with an aftermarket board.

It pulls ~60w.  Combine that with your CPU at 65w and you are only at ~125w.  Add in everything else and you might be at 140w, well within the power limits of the PSU.

GT 1030 half height.
https://www.newegg.com/msi-geforce-gt-1030-gt-1030-2g-lp-oc/p/N82E16814137371
 
Or RX 560 half height.
https://www.newegg.com/msi-radeon-rx-560-rx-560-4gt-lp-oc/p/N82E16814137425R?Item=N82E16814137425R
 
RX 560 is the better of the two.
 
There are half height GTX 1050s and 1050 Tis, but they are generally way overpriced.

You need a GPU if you want to play most games from after ~2007.
 
GTX 750 or 750 Ti can usually be had for extremely cheap and are not very demanding on the power supply.

I am the citation.  SMT hurts lots of consumer tasks like gaming because it adds latency to the pipeline for each thread.  This is why you can get better/more stable FPS with SMT off.
 
It helps server workloads because they are not as sensitive to the extra latency because they are generally not doing real-time tasks.

4-way SMT is only going to be for servers/datacenters.  It does not make sense for consumer parts because consumer workloads tend to be more latency sensitive.
 
Sun Microsystems had 8-way SMT chips in the early 2000's, this is nothing new.

A4 is garbage tier, throw it in the garbage where it belongs.
 
The E5 at least uses the same board as other much  more capable parts, in addition to being ~50% faster.
 
E5-1680 V2 fits the same socket and is an 8c/16t CPU.

4-way SMT is only going to be for servers/datacenters.  It does not make sense for consumer parts because consumer workloads tend to be more latency sensitive.
 
Sun Microsystems had 8-way SMT chips in the early 2000's, this is nothing new.

I am the citation.  SMT hurts lots of consumer tasks like gaming because it adds latency to the pipeline for each thread.  This is why you can get better/more stable FPS with SMT off.
 
It helps server workloads because they are not as sensitive to the extra latency because they are generally not doing real-time tasks.

I am the citation.  SMT hurts lots of consumer tasks like gaming because it adds latency to the pipeline for each thread.  This is why you can get better/more stable FPS with SMT off.
 
It helps server workloads because they are not as sensitive to the extra latency because they are generally not doing real-time tasks.

4-way SMT is only going to be for servers/datacenters.  It does not make sense for consumer parts because consumer workloads tend to be more latency sensitive.
 
Sun Microsystems had 8-way SMT chips in the early 2000's, this is nothing new.

4-way SMT is only going to be for servers/datacenters.  It does not make sense for consumer parts because consumer workloads tend to be more latency sensitive.
 
Sun Microsystems had 8-way SMT chips in the early 2000's, this is nothing new.

can confirm poorly optimized games like BDO can get as much as a 35 fps boost from hyperthreading being disabled

*Cough* Principled Technologies *Cough*

I am the citation.  SMT hurts lots of consumer tasks like gaming because it adds latency to the pipeline for each thread.  This is why you can get better/more stable FPS with SMT off.
 
It helps server workloads because they are not as sensitive to the extra latency because they are generally not doing real-time tasks.