moonlight-strider

A while back, I upgraded to a pre-built Alienware Aurora R8 with a Core i5 9400, 1660Ti, 1TB HDD, and 16GB of DDR4-2666. Over time, I have improved it, upgrading to 16GB of DDR4-3000, adding a 500GB SATA SSD, and most recently, adding a liquid cooler to it. The reason why I added a liquid cooler was because the way the case is designed only allows for the tiniest of air coolers, and the stock one that came with it might have been an inch and a half thick, if I'm lucky. Under Prime95 load, it would sound like a jet engine and easily reach 90-95C. In games such as DOOM 2016, or really, any game that is slightly intensive at all, it would get loud enough to be audible through my headphones. Enough was enough, and because of space restrictions, I could only get a liquid cooler to quiet it down, so I did. The cases across the Aurora R8 line are the same, and the higher end models use 120MM liquid coolers, so I was able to look up the part number of the liquid cooler that came with the higher end versions, and get the retail version, an EVGA CLCC 120MM for about US$50 off Amazon. I got it in there, an immediately saw vastly reduced temperatures under Prime 95 load (max 70C) and much better idle temps (32C on a good day, 34-38C average). It is dead quiet no matter how high the CPU load is, the only problem is now the GPU fan. My only concern is that the angling on the tubes is bad, but I will note that they do not come into contact with any sharp edges. My question is, will this cause any problems over time? They sort of have to be bent this way to reach where they need to go (the radiator can only be installed one way in the case), and because I'm going to be able to get around USD$600 or so in the near future, I want to know whether or not I should buy a new PSU and GPU, or buy a new case, motherboard, and PSU to alleviate this if it is a problem. It's been running for several weeks like this now, and I've not noticed any issues, knock on wood. It came with a 460W PSU, so either way, I'm going to need to get a better PSU because I really don't want to be stuck with that thing for when I do get a new GPU.

I have a Dell Inspiron 5676 that I recently upgraded the CPU on (R5 1400 to R5 2600) and I've noticed that the internet speed seems to be significantly reduced on this system for a reason I can't pinpoint. As to whether or not this has anything to do with the CPU upgrade, your guess is as good as mine. Specs are as follows: AMD Ryzen 5 2600 AMD RX 570 4GB 12GB DDR4 2400MHz 2 1TB HDDs, one for boot and one for games Here's what I've tried so far: I have a WiFi router that my PC is plugged into via a Cat6 Ethernet cable. It's a quite new cable, but I switched the PC to the built in WiFi to see if it was something with the cable. It's not. Regardless of whether or not this system is connected to Ethernet or WiFi, it always gets ~10mbps- far lower than it should be reading on Ookla SpeedTest. I've tested this system before and have gotten up to 80mbps as far as the download speed is concerned. Interestingly enough, the upload speed is actually the same as it's always been, around 8mbps- meaning that I'm now getting the same download speed as I am upload on this machine. This is not good because I will have to re-download games and things once I get an SSD, and I also just don't want slouchy internet when this machine was far more capable not long ago. I have a laptop I tested, and it got ~30mpbs (it's an older one from around 2012), so it's specific to the Inspiron 5676, yet it is not the fault of either the WiFi specifically, or the Ethernet specifically. It's something else that's messing with my speeds, and I'm not sure what that is. I have no background programs open except ATI Radeon Settings Lite, Malwarebytes, and Razer Synapse. I am using Charter Spectrum internet with a Linksys AC1200 router and an ARRIS TM902A cable modem.

I just upgraded my Dell Inspiron 5676 from a Ryzen 5 1400 to a Ryzen 5 2600. Of course, to make sure I got the heatsink on properly, I tested it with Speccy after the first boot. Here's what Speccy gave me: Keep in mind, this is what I saw after the first boot. I had no idea if I had done something wrong. I scrambled to turn it off, cleaned off the default thermal paste, thinking I had mounted the cooler wrong or something and it wasn't getting good thermal contact, and put some Arctic Silver MX-4 on it and tried again. When I got to the next boot, Speccy was showing the same exact crazy results. Sure enough, I opened HWMonitor, and: Looks like I wasted the default thermal paste on the cooler, oh well, MX-4 is decent thermal paste. It's pretty funny to play with now, when my CPU is at 60 degrees, Speccy says my CPU is at around 100 or more. I ran cinebench and Speccy said my CPU was at a whopping 116 degrees. Wonderful. I think this has something to do with me changing out the CPU with the same Windows install, or Speccy may just be reading the temperatures wrong. This is an X370 based board, so that also may have something to do with it. I did feel the heatsink, and it's pulling heat off of the processor like it's supposed to. I think my PC would have shut off at 90 or 95c (close to the maximum threshold of the 2600), long before it reached 116c. I just found this funny because it scared me so bad at first. I the 73c is a little high for load, but this thermal paste is still settling in and I was running cinebench when the processor reached that temp. I'm also using the stock AMD cooler that came with the processor.

I'm somewhat surprised by this. It's also a 460W, and the official minimum requirements state that the RTX 2060 needs at least a 500W PSU. I am, however, aware that the RTX 2060 pulls 160W under load. With the Ryzen 5 2600 pulling only 65W, I probably could get away with it. There aren't any visible ratings on that Dell PSU, as far as 80+ is concerned. For further information, it's a Dell AC460AM-01. I'm actually not specifically deadset on replacing it anymore. I was just thinking about that because I had a friend tell me "You won't put the 2600 in that, pls don't," and I wanted to make sure it would be a good idea, seeing as you guys showed support for continuing its use before. It's funny, because when I first got it I was happy that it was an AM4 based system, I assumed I could upgrade in the future, and when I actually got that chance, I went to the total opposite of that. If I can get a good verification on that PSU, I will likely put in the 2600 tonight and slowly upgrade it as time passes. Anyways, this is my most recent upgrade path for this machine. To elaborate on it, this machine has two RAM slots, one with a 4GB stick and one with an 8GB stick. If I buy a good second 2400MHz 8GB stick, I can take out that 4GB and bring it up to 16GB. Also, should I use one large SSD, or use a small SSD and a faster HDD? The same friend also told me that it would be better to use one large SSD rather than use a small one for boot and HDDs for games. pcpartpicker upgrade: https://pcpartpicker.com/user/athlon-power/saved/XgQRkL

Okay, so here's where I'm at in this journey to upgrade: I have myself a Ryzen 5 2600. Still using the same system as before, and the 2600 has not yet been installed. My question is: Would it be better to build an entire new computer (I did the math and it would cost around ~US$700, minus the CPU because I already have it, of course), or just upgrade the one I have? I've also decided that, price to performance wise, the RTX 2060 for only $350 is the way to go. My big concern is that my locked memory speed (2400MHz) could possibly become a bottleneck. This is an X370 chipset board, so I'm not sure why it's limited to 2400MHz- X370 is capable of much better speeds, I think. But it also being X370 means that this system does have an enthusiast chipset, even if it is last gen. I'm likely going to get a 1TB M.2 SSD as well. Here's the link to my pcpartpicker for the theoretical new system: https://pcpartpicker.com/user/athlon-power/saved/MQfmgs

I am currently using the same system I've had for a little while now, a Dell Inspiron 5676 with an AMD Ryzen 5 1400, 12GB of DDR4 2400MHz RAM, and an AMD RX 570. I did something incredibly stupid, for reasons which I don't find to make sense anymore, and decided to try to change out the thermal paste on the CPU. The first thing that went wrong was that the thermal paste had already gotten dry and hard enough to stick to the CPU like glue. The moment I put enough upward force on it, out the CPU flew from the socket with the locking arm still down, with the heatsink. After this happened, I decided to go further and try to remove the CPU from the heatsink using the twisting method- the CPU did twist off, and it also took incredible force to do so, so when I finally got it off, it flung off and I scraped a knuckle on the heatsink pretty good, while bending several pins alongside the edge of the processor at the same time. I also somehow managed to get a little bit of the dried thermal paste onto the CPU pin area, and I couldn't dig it out very easily. I decided to get a very thin wire I had laying around, and soften the old thermal paste all in the pins with some rubbing alcohol, which I mostly did successfully. I couldn't tell you if some residue was left behind or not. I bent the pins back as straight as possible, and the CPU went into the socket with only a tiny bit of extra force. The system POSTed, and I got into Windows just fine, but noticed that the idle temps were higher than they were before, and also noticed very sporadic thermal changes- 47c up to 50c in a second, and then 50c to 55c a second later, and then it would tank back down to 46 or 47c. I decided that I had probably put too much thermal paste on there, so I removed the heatsink and tried again, and investigated the pins further. The CPU socket had bent them all back to where they should've been, and there are none missing. I was able to put it back into the socket like butter, and gave it fresh thermal paste and booted it. The temperatures are still occasionally wonky. It usually stays around 46c, but this is a higher idle than what I was getting, around 40c. I am using Arctic Silver MX-4 thermal paste.

This is an extension of a prior post I made where I was originally going to get an entirely new system, but I ended up scrapping that idea in favor of continuing to use my current system and push it as hard as I can, upgrade-wise. Essentially, I want to push this thing to its absolute physical limits (this includes the kind of processor I will be installing, etc.), before I damage something in it. I was told that I'm limited by 65 watt TDP processors, which would leave my maximum processor upgrade at a Ryzen 7 2700. However, I have seen different Inspiron 5676's with Ryzen 7 2700X's in them- these processors have a TDP of 105 watts. I'm not sure what to believe on this topic, or if the motherboards in those Inspiron 5676's are different than the one in mine. I figured out that my motherboard uses the AMD x370 chipset using Speccy- this means that, among other things, it should support RAM that is faster than 2400MHz (2666MHz), but from what I can tell, Dell states the official maximum RAM speed as 2400MHz. I'm not sure why this is, or why Dell would cripple their systems, even with something as trivial as that. This, among other things, was a reason that I strongly wished to outright replace this system- if there's limits on the RAM that diverge from the basic chipset provided to Dell by AMD, it's untelling as to how many other changes they've made to cut costs while simultaneously lowering performance.

That PSU isn't going to cut it. 460W, standard Dell PSU. I think it may have 80+ Bronze, it may not. First thing I would do if I were working with that upgrade path would be to change it out with something better. This comes with Dell Update so I've got whatever updates they've sent out.

I never insinuated that my thought process was completely derived from logic. It was dumb, but for a little while, I genuinely thought that way. Funnily enough, I have two Pentium III systems- one has a PIII Katmai @500MHz and the other has a PIII Coppermine @600MHz.

This originally formed from my interest in older computers. Early on, I wasn't as... versed as I am now, and I was generally distrustful of any technologies which strayed very far from the status quo formula we have been using for decades (CPU, RAM, HDD, Video Card, Sound Card, Etc.). For me, making chips like that into a primary storage medium made no sense. I was also referencing ancient reports, back when SSDs were unstable- of course, that has improved greatly. I was of the thought process that we had perfected HDDs over the course of decades, and we had not yet done that with SSDs. I felt that they were glorified flash drives being adapted to be used as HDDs, and it seemed like a bad idea to me in general.

I did enable GPU acceleration, if that's what you meant, to limited success. The program I use automatically uses GPU accelerated streaming, I think. I don't prefer to do a custom build as there is a much higher up front cost and I'll have to save money for several months- at least, to achieve the results I'm currently looking for.

The G5 isn't mine, it's my mom's, so until she's done using it (which she's expressed that she won't be done with it for another 1.5 to 2 years), I won't be able to use it. By then, it will be fairly outdated compared to other upgrades I could seek.

1) This computer does okay, but I've upgraded roughly each year since I first got into this whole jig. It's on the 10 month mark, and this is the first time I've ever had my own income. I'm not exactly rich, so being able to get a high-end machine has always been a dream of mine. With the money I'm getting from my job, I can now do just that. 2) I enjoy streaming occasionally, and this system just doesn't have the horsepower to stream, say, the new Battlefront II, or games of similar spec.I will get dropped frames very often, and I have Charter Spectrum internet, so my internet is not what's bottlenecking. I have a brand new router, and I am connected to it via a Cat6 ethernet cable, so nearly every internet-related bottleneck I can think of is eliminated here. On the same note, my video card is incapable of streaming DOOM 2016 due to buggy driver issues. The capture software I use (OBS) refuses to pick the game up. Looking it up online, I found that due to software issues (which still haven't been patched, by the way) are the root cause. 3) Faster usage in general. I use an HDD for both boot and games, and while I used to strongly dislike the idea of using an SSD, I am now acutely aware of how slow things load off of the good old spinning disks. Also, other models support faster RAM (which may or may not really affect performance- but that part sort of ties in with the latter of reason 1). 4) No integrated CD/DVD drive. While I do have an external USB CD writer, I also need to write DVDs when I'm working with, say, my 2008 Core2Quad Q9550 build, for which I need a copy of Windows Vista Ultimate, or for bootable Linux DVDs for various projects, etc. (The front panel on this thing is also solid- I'd have to damage the front panel permanently to get a DVD drive in there). There are various other reasons, but these are some of the larger points of contention.

I had zero clue you could get parts like that from Dell. I knew you could get memory upgrades (that's why I now have 12GB of RAM, rather than 8). Oops. That does make that option far more appealing. Also, my mother has roughly $300 worth in credit on NewEgg, so I could theoretically offput the GPU on Dell and the CPU on NewEgg and pay for it as I go.

I'd have to wait two months, with the $484 limit, because both GPUs are roughly $600. Also, I'm going to be perfectly honest, I want a new, shiny thing as well. Every upgrade I've had has provided that so far, so once I get a new one, I like the shiny aspect. My first build ever was made in late 2016, a modified Dell studio 540 with a Core2Quad Q6600, 8GB of DDR2 800MHz RAM, and an AMD Radeon HD 6770. My second one was a modified Dell Inspiron 620, with a Core i5 2310, 8GB of DDR3 1333MHz RAM, and a nVidia GTX 1050ti. My third upgrade was the Inspiron 5676- every time, I've gotten a whole new system, and I think that's spoiled me for a bit. The most expensive system I've had yet has been the Inspiron 5676, as the total for the Inspiron 620 was roughly $400, and the total for the Studio couldn't have been more than $100.