The story of my first PC

[lozsurviver]

Hello, I'm from Malaysia

    Before we are going straight to my rig, first let's recap what I previously had and why I need an upgrade so badly.
In 2011, I have my first laptop, Lenovo G475. Had good memories of playing good PC games for the first time. Until I used it for over 7 YEARS. Yes, over time the performance is degrading. Parts are falling apart and the last game I played on it was League of Legends, I Had 10 fps with it. Had to change it not because it's getting slower, but it's dead. I can't boot it up without getting a system startup error message. The next laptop I had is Acer Aspire E5-521, A significant improvement from what I previously had. From 10 fps on League of Legends and now, 20 FPS. Nice. But not all things go well. One time there was a thunderstorm. I was using the laptop and suddenly there was a thunderstrike. It blackened out my power outage. Luckily, the laptop was still alive but the VGA port is now broken. Now I can't use it anymore. Rest in peace, only used it for over 3 years. A month later, I finally have my first computer. It was a Lenovo ThinkCentre M700 SFF with i7-6700, 8 GB of DDR4 2400mhz and 512 SATA 6.0GBPS SSD. bought it for only 260 USD and was in refurbished condition. What a steal, literally, the seller accidentally put in the wrong price and I bought it and they give me the wrong spec and I send it back and threatened to sue them. Finally, a decent 60+ fps in League of Legends playing on a 1366x768 monitor. Use it for over a year, but I have dreamed of wanting a gaming PC since 2015 and quit playing this game. So I bought a new PC Case, a new motherboard, a new power supply for it and finally a graphics card. Unfortunately, the price... So I have waited so long until now but, I decided just to build a whole new PC.
 
    Finally, let's talk about what I have to post it here about.

Here is my build

CPU: AMD RYZEN 7 3700X
MOBO: GIGABYTE B550M DS3H
RAM: PNY XLR8 GAMING EPIC-X SILVER RGB DDR4 2x8GB 3600MHZ
GPU: SAPPHIRE NITRO+ RADEON RX 6700 XT
STORAGE: Previous SSD I had lol
PSU: ARMAGGEDDON VOLTRON 600 GOLD RGB
CASE: TECWARE FORGE M

The CPU I bought it for only 100 USD. The motherboard I bought it for only 65 USD. The RAM I bought it for only 35 USD. The GPU I bought it for only 215 USD. All of those 4 components I bought were used.  The reason why I choose this power supply is because it delivers a good bargain for price per performance. Sure it doesn't have an 80 plus certificate but its previous product has it and I assumed they won't do it because it may cost too pricey.
And the case is because it's cheap and nice. I mostly aimed for the value of price performance and here I have it. All of it only cost 515 USD including the CPU cooler which is Snowman MT-6S.

After good 5 hours of assembling ( yes I like to take my time ). Here it is.

And then... something bad happened...

My GPU... Catches... ...

the fire burst out into the motherboard's PCIe slot



So I decided to pick the nearest computer service shop and rush it but... it closed on Holiday...

What really happened there? well... first, I turn it on and then I constantly get a Windows blue screen. After each restart and each blue screen, I just simply decided to do a startup repair routine. Now it's fixed but there are no drivers for my PC. And even worse, there is no internet connection despite I plug in my ethernet cable. So I decided to let it sit in the BIOS menu and wait for my brother to get home from work so I can use his laptop to download the driver installer and port it to my PC. But instead of waiting, I sleep instead. 3 Hours later, I woke up and notice my computer has turn off. I don't find it too strange and so I turn it on. And then this happened, now you know.

Time has passed and now it's Tuesday. I sent my pc to the computer service shop and asked if any parts are still okay. Sadly the GPU is confirmed dead. So they decided to test the motherboard. Surprisingly, the motherboard is perfectly fine according to them but the power supply is dead.

 

I contacted the GPU seller guy and tell him what happened. He told me that he tested the GPU before sending it to me and told me it was fine. According to him, the GPU was previously used for gaming and not mining despite I can clearly see the aluminium oxidation. He also told me that the GPU has a manufacturer warranty that ends in April 2024. They even also have 100+ 5-star reviews on their shop. Also, one more picture of the burnt GPU.

So I asked the GPU seller for a refund because it was clearly not my fault. But they deny it and rather give me a new one. So I asked him more about this new GPU they are giving me, asked for a better condition, how long it was used and what was it previously used for. But now I'm a bit sceptical about it because they told me the amount of more or less oxidation on GPU is fine. I decided to just have faith and agree with him to give it another shot. The next GPU I got is literally in the same condition as last time.

 

I'm worried that it will happen again so I let the computer service guy do it.

 

And yeah... It doesn't happen the way you wanted it...

This next GPU is also dead...

According to the computer service guy, they said " After 10 minutes of stress testing, suddenly the GPU temperature grows. So I immediately unplug the power cable. But when I tested it with a different GPU for 2 hours it was fine and it's okay. Now we try back with your GPU and after 2 minutes it started to smoke. So Immediately unplug the power cable again so it doesn't damage other components. This GPU is no longer safe to use so better not to use it again."

I. AM. SHOCKED. this happened again. How can I be so unlucky?

I contacted the GPU seller one last time. This time I am for real asking for a refund but he somewhat denies it. He will look for another GPU but unfortunately, he ran out of GPU. I have to wait for another one but he finally offers a refund but not a full refund. He offers a 200 USD refund. For no further risk, I accepted it.

And now I'm onto finding another GPU and luckily found one and it's taken better care than last time. I have high hope for this one. It's only been used for 8 months and used only for video and photo rendering. The price is also the same. But the brand is not. Its Asrock Challenger RX 6700 XT.

 

Now at the time of this post, so far so good.

Finally, I'm free... after 10 days of not using a PC... but what did it cost?

All of these used components I purchased had to meet and greet so I mostly spent my time inside a train. Overall probably spent like 6 hours in it especially since I have to keep sending and giving back the broken GPU. The cost for the services luckily is just 18 USD but I had to replace a new PSU and its Segotep AN650W 80+ Plus. it's from the computer service shop and it cost 45 USD. So this whole PC alone cost around 600 USD.

I really don't know where to share my story hopefully this is the right place. I hope you enjoy my unfortunate PC-building story. Stay safe and have a wonderful day.

[jaslion]

44 minutes ago, lozsurviver said:

Segotep AN650W 80+ Plus. it's from the computer service shop and it cost 45 USD. So this whole PC alone cost around 600 USD.

I hate to say it but thats not a good psu too. It's the same danger class like the old one that caused a failiure. Like it's a bit better but not really.

[lozsurviver]

10 hours ago, jaslion said:

I hate to say it but thats not a good psu too. It's the same danger class like the old one that caused a failiure. Like it's a bit better but not really.

unfortunately, I have no choice, that's the only PSU that the computer service shop offers

[SorryBella]

34 minutes ago, lozsurviver said:

unfortunately, I have no choice, that's the only PSU that the computer service shop offers

This is why i hate PC services sometimes. Honestly when they tell you about the dead PSU i wouldve "throw the towel" and then turn to buy an actually reliable PSU. Well, time to play the pray.

[jaslion]

3 hours ago, lozsurviver said:

unfortunately, I have no choice, that's the only PSU that the computer service shop offers

Then order one online and install yourself?

 

I mean this pc is going to die sooner rather than later for the exact same reason the old one broke