Rip Gaming Rig

Post by **Sebastian Lawe** » October 3rd, 2015, 4:41 am

So, my gaming computer I got 2 1/2 months ago has officially bit the dust.

Went to play GTA V on it and was wondering why I was only getting 20fps. I blamed the game thinking maybe Rockstar released a shitty patch. Played a different game, it ran terrible too.

Task Manager revealed the CPU would drop to terribly low speeds when playing games.

My thoughts were that maybe the Dynamic CPU speed adjusting setting I had on wasn't working properly anymore, so I set the BIOS to use a fixed CPU clock speed (voltage would be auto calculated by the BIOS still).

Alrighty, so at that point I was no longer able to get past the Windows logo. I went back to the Dynamic setting I was originally at. Again, no longer able to get past the Windows logo.

So, I set the CPU clock to 1/3rd of whats its capable of. Got past the Windows logo. At this point, I thought maybe the CPU just couldn't handle OC anymore.

I set the CPU clock back to the vanilla settings, and now, the motherboard is screwed. When I turn on the PC, theres no BIOS or display, and I can't turn the computer off via conventional means. I have to unplug it. And If I plug it back in in turns back on.

Welp, the PC Master race was indeed fun while it lasted. 2 1/2 months is really terrible tenure, and my $600 I spent on the system, plus the games I got for it will now go to waste. I have nothing else powerful enough to run them.

I was expecting at least 2 years out of this thing, as overclocking generally only cuts 30% of a components lifespan, and it had been working very stable up until this point. Actually, I'm surprised the motherboard was the first component to fail.

All my other parts are probably still fine.

For the future, I'm sticking to consoles (I'll have to stick to consoles). Sure, they're shitty, but gaurunteed to work when you go to do your casual gaming.

These were my specs. Most of which are quite popular for these budget gaming rigs. The original build I sourced my parts from suggested a GTX 960 as well.

Post by **Entity** » October 3rd, 2015, 11:05 am

Could you not just buy a new motherboard (and whatever else the bottleneck is)? I'm not knowledgeable enough to identify it, but if your graphics card/PSU/HD/RAMetc.. are fine it seems like a waste to not.. (the graphics card was half the price)

Bad At Gravity · Post by **Bad At Gravity** » October 3rd, 2015, 11:52 am

How much were you overclocking?

Post by **Sebastian Lawe** » October 3rd, 2015, 4:47 pm

Entity wrote:Could you not just buy a new motherboard (and whatever else the bottleneck is)? I'm not knowledgeable enough to identify it, but if your graphics card/PSU/HD/RAMetc.. are fine it seems like a waste to not.. (the graphics card was half the price)

Money though.....I dont have much of that. I have to save quite long for these things.

Bad At Gravity wrote:How much were you overclocking?

Original clock speed was 3.2ghz, and I overclocked to 4.0ghz. Really, that only clocked it 20% faster. Was quite stable for a long time too (2 months). The CPU isn't charred, darkened, or anything either. It had a good enough cooling that I doubt it was part of the problem.

I think the motherboard was either a flake, or couldn't handle the stress of overclocking (even though its advertised for it), and me changing the voltage back to vanilla settings made it cough its last breath.

Post by **Wowfunhappy** » October 3rd, 2015, 8:35 pm

Only 2 and a half months? Send that motherboard in to be repaired!

Bad At Gravity · Post by **Bad At Gravity** » October 4th, 2015, 11:18 am

Probably wasn't the overclocking then.

ElectroYoshi · Post by **ElectroYoshi** » October 7th, 2015, 10:14 am

Honestly, this is part of why consoles are where I spend most of my gaming time. I just think overclocking would be more trouble than it's worth. Well, that and I suck with computer parts...

Honestly though, I would hold onto your parts and save up for a better motherboard if I were you.

Post by **Entity** » October 7th, 2015, 10:57 am

ElectroYoshi wrote:Honestly, this is part of why consoles are where I spend most of my gaming time. I just think overclocking would be more trouble than it's worth. Well, that and I suck with computer parts...

Well you can still have an objectively superior experience graphics-wise without overclocking at all (for around the same price as a console). Only problem is you can't get Smash on PC though

ElectroYoshi · Post by **ElectroYoshi** » October 7th, 2015, 10:58 am

Entity wrote:Only problem is you can't get Smash on PC though

That's my main reason actually.

Post by **Sebastian Lawe** » October 7th, 2015, 7:09 pm

Entity wrote:Well you can still have an objectively superior experience graphics-wise without overclocking at all (for around the same price as a console). Only problem is you can't get Smash on PC though

I'd say Brawl running in dolphin is good enough. I have Smash Bros U, and I cant say they really innovated much with it aside from maybe a different selection of characters.
(The UI is even the same!)

ElectroYoshi wrote:Honestly, this is part of why consoles are where I spend most of my gaming time. I just think overclocking would be more trouble than it's worth. Well, that and I suck with computer parts...

Honestly though, I would hold onto your parts and save up for a better motherboard if I were you.

Unfortunately, my motherboard has a 4.5 star rating with 130 ratings. I just got a defect is all. Will be sending it back through warranty, and ordering a new motherboard in the meantime.

The part I'm more frustrated about is I now have to buy thermal paste for the CPU, as the stuff that came with it is used up from the first placement.

bennieDus · Post by **bennieDus** » April 25th, 2019, 6:36 am

I have a 3DS, I play it in 3D a lot, we also have a 3D TV, but I wouldnt imagine playing 3D as much....for gaming, we only watch a few movies in 3D, but I almost prefer them not. I think that is gone nuts just to rip us off some more at the cinemas, there are only a few movies like Avatar that it worked for and the rest dont really need it.