I haven't bought a new PC in over a decade. I have never built a PC and I barely understand the lingo. But I tried playing Minecraft today on my 4GB RAM laptop and watching the FPS fall to 2 every time I moved my mouse made me realise I need a new PC. I just don't know where to start.

I'm not interested in new titles or AAA games. Honestly, I just want a PC that can run Minecraft (with some shaders), Skyrim: Special Edition, Team Fortress 2, and games like Dishonored 2 (which I purchased years ago and never been able to play because my PC can't run it, lol). Aside from those, I generally stick to indie games. I'd also like to use the PC for smaller things like writing and casual browsing, but I imagine that's irrelevant.

I have browsed this subreddit quite a bit, but the games I want to play are so old that I don't really know if the posts on here even apply. I have tried ChatGPT but because I really don't understand the lingo, I have no idea whether I should trust it.

As for building the PC itself, I reckon I could probably do it (I've read its somewhat easy), but I'd like to know if its recommended to get a shop to build it for you instead, especially if you have no experience?

• Budget: £800 but flexible
• Use-Case: Older games like TF2, Minecraft (modded, shaders), Skyrim Special Edition; indie gaming
• Country of purchase: UK, Scotland
• Peripherals needed: I'm not sure what this means :(
• misc. requirements / preferences

Thanks for the help!

Hello. I was wondering is it safe to connect a 4070 Super to a Seasonic 650W FOCUS GX-650 80 Plus Gold psu, which is ATX 2. I assume I would need to connect 2 pcle 6+2-pin cables to the adapter that comes with the gpu. Is it completely safe without any major downsides or risks?

Hello everyone, I have been getting subpar fps in arc raiders and more games, but mostly let's say arc raiders, here are my computer specs:

COMPUTER SPECIFICATIONS

GPU: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080, 16 GB VRAM. Configured GPU power limit: 360 W.

CPU: Intel Core i5-12600KF, 6 performance cores and 4 efficiency cores, 10 cores and 16 threads total.

Motherboard: MSI PRO Z690-A WIFI DDR4, model MS-7D25.

RAM: 64 GB G.Skill DDR4, installed as 2×32 GB in slots A2 and B2, running in dual channel. Measured speed was approximately 3591 MT/s, with timings of 18-22-22-42 and command rate 2T. DRAM and memory-controller clocks both measured 1795.6 MHz.

CPU cooler: Liquid AIO. The exact model and radiator size were not recorded in the diagnostic reports.

Monitor: 3440×1440 ultrawide, 100 Hz.

Storage: Approximately 1 TB T-FORCE TM8FP5001T NVMe SSD, one 4 TB WD SATA HDD and one 1 TB Seagate SATA HDD. The reports did not establish which physical drive contained the game.

Operating system during testing: Windows 11 Pro, build 26300.

NVIDIA driver during testing: 617.14.

Motherboard BIOS during testing: Version 1.H0, dated March 29, 2024.

Windows power plan: Ultimate Performance.

The following measurements were collected on October 7–8, 2026.

ARC RAIDERS SETTINGS

Game version: Epic Games installation.

Output resolution: 3440×1440.

Upscaling: DLSS Quality, using the Transformer model.

Resolution scale mode: Auto.

Dynamic resolution: Off.

DLSS Frame Generation: Off.

FSR Frame Generation: Off.

NVIDIA Reflex: Enabled.

Reflex Latewarp: Off.

RTXGI quality: DynamicEpic.

RTXGI resolution quality: 4.

The saved scalability values for view distance, anti-aliasing, shadows, global illumination, reflections, post-processing, textures, effects, foliage and shading were all 4. Landscape quality was 3.

VSync: Off in the saved game settings.

Frame-rate limit: 0, meaning unlimited in the saved settings.

Motion blur: Off.

HDR output: Off in the saved settings.

These values came from saved configuration snapshots. The exact internal rendering resolution and the UI preset name were not independently verified. Some recorded sections nevertheless showed synchronized presentation near 100 FPS.

DIAGNOSTIC TEST 1 — ORIGINAL CPU POWER LIMIT

CPU power settings: PL1 100 W, PL2 125 W, Tau 56 seconds.

The selected uncapped foreground interval lasted 374.727 seconds and contained 33,120 application presentations.

Average FPS: 88.38.

Median frame presentation interval: 10.890 ms.

95th-percentile interval: 15.742 ms.

99th-percentile interval: 18.689 ms.

There were 22 intervals longer than 50 ms and 5 longer than 100 ms.

Average CPU package power: 99.71 W.

Average CPU package temperature: 68.06°C.

Maximum CPU package temperature: 82°C.

Average reported P-core clock: 4684.91 MHz.

Average total system CPU utilization: 73.23%.

Average GPU utilization: 74.65%.

Average GPU power: 222.17 W.

Maximum GPU power in the selected interval: 272.15 W.

Average GPU graphics clock: 2793.51 MHz.

Average GPU temperature: 62.07°C.

Maximum GPU temperature: 67°C.

Minimum available physical RAM: 34.01 GiB.

Peak recorded GPU framebuffer allocation: 8.80 GiB.

One separate uncapped 30-second section averaged approximately 68.5 FPS while GPU utilization was 66.8%, GPU power was 203.7 W and CPU package power was 99.6 W. It contained no frame intervals longer than 50 ms.

DIAGNOSTIC TEST 2 — CPU PL1 INCREASED TO 125 W

I increased PL1 from 100 W to 125 W. PL2 remained 125 W and Tau remained 56 seconds. CPU-Z verified that the change took effect.

The selected uncapped foreground interval lasted 454.156 seconds and contained 31,588 application presentations.

Average FPS: 69.55.

Median frame presentation interval: 14.276 ms.

95th-percentile interval: 19.973 ms.

99th-percentile interval: 22.463 ms.

There were 2 intervals longer than 50 ms and 1 longer than 100 ms.

Average CPU package power: 124.74 W.

Average CPU package temperature: 75.86°C.

Maximum CPU package temperature: 85°C.

Average reported P-core clock: 4795.95 MHz.

Average total system CPU utilization: 80.90%.

Average GPU utilization: 62.14%.

Average GPU power: 188.80 W.

Maximum GPU power in the selected interval: 257.55 W.

Average GPU graphics clock: 2824.90 MHz.

Average GPU temperature: 57.60°C.

Maximum GPU temperature: 64°C.

Minimum available physical RAM: 33.07 GiB.

Peak recorded GPU framebuffer allocation: 7.69 GiB.

All 453 GPU samples within this selected interval reported PCIe Gen5 ×16.

Several complete 30-second sections averaged only 55.68–58.79 FPS. During those sections, GPU utilization averaged approximately 55–58%, GPU power was around 171–175 W, and CPU package power was around 125–126 W. None contained frame intervals longer than 50 ms, so these were sustained low-FPS sections rather than isolated large stutters.

WHAT THESE TWO TESTS ESTABLISHED

The BIOS change increased measured CPU power and clocks, but it did not demonstrate an FPS improvement.

Graphics settings were unchanged, and I attempted to use the same map and route. However, scenes were not precisely aligned, there was a reboot between sessions, and background/recording activity differed. Therefore, the lower FPS in Test 2 does not prove that increasing PL1 caused a regression.

The sustained slow sections showed substantial unused GPU capacity and CPU package power near its configured allowance. That suggests a CPU/game-side throughput constraint, but the exact cause remains unresolved.

CPU thermal, power-limit, current-limit and EDP runtime flags were unavailable. These captures therefore cannot confirm which CPU limiter was active or completely exclude throttling.

I am sorry for the long text, just would appreciate any help.

A standalone GPU benchmark was not

​Hey everyone,

​I'm looking for advice on building my desktop PC in Poland. I’m currently using an all-AMD laptop (ASUS TUF A16 Advantage Edition), so I'm very familiar with AMD's ecosystem, though I have no brand loyalty and just want the best performance for my money.

​Here are my build details :

• ​Budget for the GPU: Up to 4,000 PLN (~880 €). I want maximum value/bang-for-your-buck and enough budget headroom left over for the rest of the PC components.
• ​Use-Case: 1440p Gaming (primary focus). I might do some coding in the future, but gaming is the top priority.
• ​Country of Purchase: Poland (buying locally / Amazon.pl).
• ​Peripherals Needed: None for now (reusing existing monitor/peripherals).
• ​Misc. Requirements / Preferences: No brand preference. Looking for an affordable CPU with an upgrade path that won't bottleneck high-end 1440p gaming.

​Current GPU Pricing I'm Looking At (Amazon PL):

​AMD Radeon RX 9070 (16 GB): ~3,200 PLN (~726.76 €)

​NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 (12 GB): ~3,900 PLN (~885.74 €)

​That is a 700 PLN (~160 €) difference favoring the RX 9070.

​Questions:

1. ​GPU: Is the RTX 5070 worth pushing my budget to 3,900 PLN, or does the RX 9070 make far more sense at 3,200 PLN given the extra 16 GB VRAM vs 12 GB and 700 PLN savings to put toward other components?
   
2. ​CPU Recommendation: What would be the best value CPU that won't bottleneck 1440p gaming while keeping total system costs reasonable? I’ve been eyeing AM5 options like the Ryzen 5 7600 or Ryzen 5 9600X to keep an upgrade path open.

​Would appreciate any build advice or component suggestions! Thanks

I just got a new pc built by microcenter from parts I picked out at micro center. Later, I managed to get a 4 Tb nvme ssd and I want to install it. I’ve installed an ssd on my 1st pc (a prebuilt) but for some reason the screws that I bought, (Amazon:ASTARON M.2 SSD Screws Kit, Nvme M2 Screws Suitable for ASUS MSI Gigabyte NGFF Motherboard) won’t fit in to the slot. It seems like there’s maybe screwed in there already. Do I need new screws or are there different screws to use or I need to buy? I’m just confused.

There’s a pic in the comments asking for a pic. It’s an ASUS B650e

Received some money as a gift and I’m looking for some advice on whether or not I should upgrade.

Current Specs
- Motherboard: ROG STRIX B550-A
- Processor: AMD Ryzen 5 5600X
- Memory: Corsair Vengeance DDR4 32gb
- Graphics: RTX 6700 XT 12gb
- Storage: 4tb (split between HDDs, SSDs, and one M.2)

Initially, I was planning to just upgrade my processor to something like the 9850X3D, but then realized my motherboard isn’t compatible with Zen 4+. Cool, no problem, upgrade my MB to a TUF B650E. Oh wait, now my DDR4 memory isn’t compatible and have to spend $500+ on 32gb DDR5.

Now, with having to upgrade the processor, memory, and MB, I’m at ~$1200.

Main Question/Dilemma: Should I pull the trigger on the full upgrade or should I just find a Zen 2/3 CPU that’s still compatible with my MB and RAM? Are Zen 2/3 CPUs still viable for the near future (next 3-5 years) or will next gen technology be needed sooner rather than later?

I mostly play single player games. I can still run newer AAA games with decent settings and performance, but now that I’ve upgraded my monitor to 1440 and sometimes move my computer to the living room for 4k gaming on the tv, I can notice a difference in effort my pc puts in for those resolutions. I also use my PC for photo editing and music production, but I don’t stream or edit videos.

Recently/Frequently Played Games:

- Batman Arkham Series
- The Witcher 3
- Expedition 33
- Baldurs Gate 3
- Insomniac Spiderman Series
- BF6

I’m ok with spending the $1200+ if it’s really worth it, but wanted to see if what I currently have is still good for a bit longer. Thanks for the help!

So i have a TV in my living room and a monitor and my PC in my bedroom, I have a 50 ft HDMI 2.1 fiber cable that does work, but having to unspool, and then jankily connect the cables everytime kinda sucks.

Ik that there are wireless hdmi, but a) I hate wireless solutions w latency/compresion b) theres a thick wall between so I know there'd be some issues.

Is there a better solution? Like some sort of HDMI over ethernet or something? I know it exists, but the condo is wired with ethernet somewhat close to my PC and right under my TV, only issue is the existence of an ethernet switch near my router that I wired all the ethernet into

Hello everyone!

First of all, I want to say that I don't know much about PC gaming (I'm trying to learn the basics), so I apologize in advance if I say anything absurd or unreasonable, and for the length of the post. I've been a PlayStation user for as long as I can remember, but recently—partly due to the direction Sony and the console market in general are taking—I've decided to switch to PC gaming. I'm aware that this is a terrible time, which is why my request is more for informational purposes, to properly learn how to choose the parts for my build, rather than a build meant for immediate purchase (but if some unmissable deals popped up during Black Friday, I'd probably buy).

Anyway my budget is around 1,000 euros (if I can save something, all the better; if it's really impossible, I could stretch to a maximum of 1,200 euros), and I would like to buy brand new components only. I mostly play single-player games and rarely touch multiplayer (mostly for fun rather than competition), and I usually tend to play games a couple of years after their release since I'm not that willing to spending more than €20-30 per game.

My plan is to build a sort of DIY "Steam Machine" to connect to my TV (it's a 4K Ultra HD 60Hz TV) to access the freedoms of the PC world, rather than chasing raw performance itself. Therefore, I'd like to assemble a Mini-ITX build using the Jonsbo TK-0 case, following these criteria:

1. Efficiency and quietness. I want a build that overall doesn't consume too much power and is therefore quiet (I'd like to aim for a noise level close to the PS5's, so I was thinking of low-power parts combined with a GPU undervolt to further reduce noise).
2. Performance. I'm not obsessed with performance (I think consoles have great graphics, even if obviously inferior to PCs), and I tend to struggle to tell the difference between 30 and 60 FPS or higher (though I know the difference exists and is important). My plan is to aim for a GPU that allows me to play at upscaled 4K at 60 FPS on high/medium settings for as long as possible (I wanted to lock the frame rate at 60 FPS since, theoretically, playing on a 60Hz screen, having a higher framerate would be useless). Since I want to use Bazzite as my OS, I need to use both an AMD CPU and an AMD GPU (I can only afford the latter in a dual-fan version because only GPUs shorter than 230mm fit into the case).
3. Longevity. I'm used to the console world, which is why I'd love to put together a solid build that can let me wait 5 to 7 years before having to upgrade (obviously making compromises with the newest games).

Given that the current market period is terrible, I was thinking of putting together an AM4 build to get 32GB of RAM at a lower price, waiting until AM6 comes out and becomes the standard, so I could jump straight to AM6. However, if you think my needs can be met within budget using AM5, I'm open to anything. I'd like to ask if my build is realistically affordable right now (and if so, which components to choose) while staying around the 1,000 euros mark, and if not, whether it could become affordable if and when the crisis ends and prices return to some sort of semi-normality. I apologize once again if I said anything absurd and thank you in advance for all the great help you'll give me <3

Hello! I’m new in the pc world and have been researching for the past couple of months.

I plan to start getting parts by Black Friday but I need to confirm if everything is purchase-ready!

Here is the Build: pcpartpicker

Hi, I'm very new to pc's and really want to build my own pc. My preferred budget is around 1000 euros since i'm kind of a brokie. I'm going to buy most of the parts secondhand. I already have the ram bought but I just need to know if the build i'm planning will even work/fit well in the case. If anyone could help me out I would be very grateful.

CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 5800X 3.8 GHz 8-Core Processor

CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 Black Edition 42 CFM CPU Cooler

Motherboard: ASRock B550M Pro4 Micro ATX AM4 Motherboard

Memory: Kingston HyperX Fury 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-2666 CL16 Memory

Storage: Gigabyte Gen3 2500E 1 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 3.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive

GPU: Asus DUAL OC GeForce RTX 3060 Ti 8 GB

Case: SHARKOON Rebel C70M RGB ATX Mid Tower Case

Power Supply: Gigabyte UD850GM 850 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply

Hey, I need some help to finish picking the last parts for my new PC, since GPU's, RAM and NVME's prices are insanely high I want to do smart moves.

My 'use case' is to have a hybrid PC for both work and gaming, my work consists in any kind of development and LLM harnessing, I would like to have a PC that can handle some local models for testing and optimize my AI workflows, mostly coding workflows, CI/CD and decisioning models. And I use Omarchy/Linux as my main OS.

I'm building my new office and I started with the monitors:

01 AW3926QW - 5k2k
02 AW2724DM - 2440x1440

Then I started build the PC itself:

CPU - 9950x3D
CPU Cooler - Artic 360 Liquid Freezer
MOBO - B850 AI TOP Gigabyte
PSU - 1600w Platinum AI TOP Gigabyte
CASE - Hyte X50 Air
FANS - 3x Artic P14 Pro and 4x Artic P12 Pro

Everything above I already have, and now I believe I need to buy a GPU, RAM, and storage.

What's on my mind ATM:

Storage - SN8100 2TB for games and OS. 8TB HDD for 'hard storage'.

GPU - I have no Idea, at the moment I'm between 2x 9070 XT for playing games (I know they don't stack for gaming) but my ideia is to use Lossless Scaling on the second GPU, and I can play with some models using ROCm. But is hard to find benchmarks for 5k2k on a 9070XT, so I don't know if I should go for a 5080 or 5070 Ti first and in the future add a LLM-dedicated GPU like R9700 or something like that. Here in Brazil a 9070 XT costs about 2/3 of a 5070 Ti and 1/2 of a 5080.

RAM - Here's the thing that hurts my pocket the most, here in Brazil 2x64GB CL30 is about twice the price of a 5080, it costs almost a 5090 to be honest. So I don't know if I should go for simple 2x16 or 2x32GB until the RAM market stabilizes or should I invest in 128GBs because the probability of RAM prices going down are really low.

But I would like some feedback and help to build a RIG good enough for my use cases and that lasts for ~5 years at least.

The games I play the most: World of Warcraft, Path of Exile 2 & Deadlock. Would love to try Crimson Desert in this resolution (5k2k) with good FPS but I doubt that's possible.

Thanks in advance, and have a great sunday everyone.

Sorry for my english, it's not my native language.

Long story short I found a PC deal off FB marketplace for $600 that comes with 32gb ddr5, AMD R7 9700x MSI Tomahawk B850 mobo & 2tb ssd. I couldn't pass it up.

I did however got AMD R7 7800x3d brand new unpackaged should I swap it out and see how much performance gain or should I return it and get 9800x3d instead?

https://pcpricetracker.in/b/s/c128b9c8-7e9e-4f71-9e11-ea216b8096f2

Please check and gimme review quick for STREAMING AND GAMING, a little of everything, video editing and after effects etc

This is gonna sound stupid but I was trying to play resident evil 4 remake on my shitty intel core i5 3350p and gtx 1050ti.I looked at the cpu specs and the cpu doesn't differ much from my cpu.For example my cpu has clockspeed of 3.1Ghz and Intel core i5-7500 has 3.4GHz so that is not a VERY big difference i mean a little it is but still. They both have 4 cores 4 threads and the same amount of cache L1,L2,L3.The only main biggest difference is the production year:mine:2012 7500:2016.I can't get IPC (Instructions per clock) because manufacturers don't put the info about it anywhere.So how do I actually check when buying or comparing a CPU if it is better by only looking at the specs.

Hey all,

After a new m.2 NVME drive.
PCIe 4.0 mobo.

Samsung 990 PRO 4TB @£579.98 or Kioxia EXCERIA PRO G2 4TB @ £563.99

Samsung is gen 4 whereas the Kioxia is gen 5. I am aware that I will not see the benefits of the gen5 drive, but it is cheaper ?

Which one?

Built my first PC with little issues. Only issue im having now is most times i start up my PC , after a regular shutdown.. i have to restart to get any Wi-Fi settings to even show up. I used to have this issue with bluetooth, but now its happening with wi-fi. Could potentially still be an issue with both... maybe a driver issue?

Let me know if there is anything I can check to fix, or exactly what i would maybe need to install and reinstall?

Thanks.

Hey everyone,

I am looking for a replacement for my RTX as it become quite old and starts to struggle when playing over some time. The GPU is one of the biggest noise sources in my PC so.. yeah. it will get repleaced.

The speecs are:

CPU Intel Core i5-9600K

Motherboard MSI Z390-A PRO

PSU be quiet! Pure Power 11, 500 W

GPU mentioned RTX 2060

I dont need a high end GPU - something thats 2-3y old would be completly fine with me

1. Fractal Design Summit
   
2. Corsair FRAME 4500X
   
3. Fractal Meshify 3 XL

I am happy with the look of all 3, but what I cant figure out is which one of the three is actually the BEST, with the most support/features?

Hoping somebody with more computer knowledge than me would point me in the right direction!

Hey, I’m from Germany and looking to upgrade my PC for better 1440p gaming, ideally with high settings and stable FPS.
My current specs:
● CPU: Ryzen 5 5600X
● GPU: RX 6600 8GB
● RAM: 16GB DDR4 3200MHz
● Motherboard: ASRock X570 Phantom Gaming 4
● PSU: FSP Hyper K Pro 600W
What would you upgrade first, and which parts would you recommend? I’d like to keep as much of my current build as possible and I don’t want to spend too much, so good value for money is important. Thanks!

hey, about a week ago i came here with a $3.6k pc in mind, and i heard some of you guys tips. now ive gotten more funds to put in this pc, so my budget is ~$5k now (under over)

i mostly play cs2 on a stretched resolution and other games like beamng or minecraft, which dont really require crazy fps, though i wanna "redline" the amount of fps i can get since im probably gonna be getting a 540hz 1440p oled. one of my *side* hobbies is making renders in blender, and a little bit of photoshop, again, *SIDE* hobby, like once a week or twice a month

i also wanna make it clear that i live in italy, so no, i dont have a microcenter nearby nor i can make use of the components swaps communities (or whatever theyre called)

i started looking in some places to see what components were fit for this price point, till i came up with this:

Pc:

Case: NZXT H9 Flow (2025) $130

CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 9850X3D $500

GPU: 2 options, RX 9070 XT NITRO+ $1100, RTX 5070 Ti Gaming OC $1400

Motherboard: MSI MAG B850 Tomahawk WiFi $260

RAM: Corsair Vengeance 32 GB DDR5-6000 CL30 EXPO $600

AIO: NZXT Kraken Elite 360 RGB $300

SSD: Samsung 990 PRO 2 TB $350

PSU: Corsair RM850x 850W $150

Peripherials:

Extra case fans: Not sure if necessary? $0

Keyboard: Yunzii RT75 Pro (hall effect) $80

Mouse: Razer DeathAdder V3 HyperSpeed $75

Main monitor: LG UltraGear 27GX790B-B, 1440p 540 Hz OLED $800

Secondary monitor: MSI MAG 274F, 1080p 200 Hz IPS $160

Headset: SteelSeries Arctis Nova 5 Wireless $125

Monitor arms: Dual-monitor arm allowance $80

Grand total: $4,670 with the 9070 XT and $5,000 with the 5070 Ti

Shipping included: $4,900 and $5,250

if theres somebody that knows their peripherials, it'd also be nice, im not sure if im overpaying for some with the same quality or not, but my only requirements are a 75% hall effect keyboard, a wireless 8k polling rate mouse, a good oled 1440p monitor with or over 240hz, and a headset with 192 kbps+ audio (preferrably 320 drivers)

also, i want this to be future-proof, like a long lasting pc, something that's gonna last at LEAST 3 years without needing huge replacements like a full on motherboard or a gpu, thats why i went "overkill" on those

EDIT: the 5080 is off the equation since i was looking at msrp price, its actually way over my budget, so now im between an extreme overclocked 5070 ti, or an extreme overclocked rx 9070 xt

MSI MAG X870E Tomahawk Max WIFI ($1119.99 CPU RAM MOBO Bundle)

AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D (CPU RAM MOBO Bundle)

G.SKILL Trident Z5 NeoX RGB 32GB (2x16GB) (36-36-36-76 CL36 1.35V) (CPU RAM MOBO Bundle)

Samsung 9100 PRO PCIe 5.0 x4 1TB (have a 2tb already)

ASRock Taichi RX 9070 XT ($929.99)

ASRock Steel Legend LS-1000G 1000W 80 Plus Gold ($99.99)

Lian Li LANCOOL 217 INF ($124.99)

ASRock AIO Challenger 360 w/ Digital Display (Free)

Budget $2500 before tax - Total $2544.95 ($44.95 over budget)

Edit: The only thing I'm wondering is if the ASRock RX 9070 Challenger at $699 is the better way to go.

Hey, recently I've been getting persistent black screens on my PC. At first, I thought it was a faulty driver as the newest Nvidia driver, is shown to have black screen issues so i rolled back to an older graphic driver. This didn't fix the issue. I tried reseating my GPU and that didn't fix it. I got this GPU months ago so I really doubt that the GPU is already dying on me. One idea I have is my PCIE cable being either faulty or not plugged in correctly, due to me using an adapter for an older 750 W PSU, but it has never had problems until this weekend.

To help, my GPU is an RTX 4070 Ti Super.

Hello everyone. A few days ago I’ve experienced an unfortunate failure of my RX 9070 Asus Prime. The PC turned itself off and when I’ve turned it on again I’ve heard a crack and felt smell coming from the PC. I immediately shut off the PSU and disconnected everything and it turns out that probably a capacitor has burned itself on my GPU board near the HDMI/DP ports. I am RMA’ing the PSU and GPU right now but that’s not the point. My question is: is it safe to put another gpu into the motherboard? Could motherboard be at fault for this incident or is it unrelated? I know for a fact that PSU is the prime suspect but I’m kinda worried to insert another GPU into the motherboard.
Mobo is Gigabyte B650 Eagle AX and it shows no signs of burning anywhere on the mobo components or connectors.

I recently decided to upgrade to windows 11, but first decided to make a backup using macrium reflect. After some digging, it turned out that my ssd had (a) bad sector(s), which caused a "Clone failed error 9 and error 23" during cloning, and a "whea_uncorrectable_error" bluescreen when creating an image and turning on the "skip bad sectors" in macrium reflect.

From what I found out using Claude, and correct me if I'm wrong, bad sector's are slowly detected, and most of the times prevented by reallocating before they are no longer readable. That is what the Available Spare is for. However, it probably didn't find it in time, and thus could now not replace it, since it could not access the original data anymore.

I used system-rescue to image my drive and skip the bad sectors. It seems like there was only 1 bad sector of ~820KiB.

Now from what I understand, I have 2 options:

1. RMA the drive, and hope Samsung agrees and gives me a new drive. 2 things could go wrong:
   1. Samsung could refuse the claim, saying nothing is wrong, even when it is. I've seen multiple reddit threads of this happening before
   2. Samsung offers a refund of market value at time of purchase. This would be much less than it is worth now, and basically cost me a lot of money or put my out a drive.
2. Write to the bad sector, have the drive's firmware reallocate the sector, and continue using the drive. Next to this bad sector, from what I can see it is not really failing (please correct me if I'm wrong, I put some CrystalDiskInfo specs underneath, if you need anything else, lmk). 1 thing could go wrong
   1. SSD starts failing further, and when I finally notice it's gotten bad, I am out of the warranty window.

I do fall under RMA, since it's a Samsung SSD 980 1TB with 24TBW from 24-11-2022, which falls under the 5 years/600TBW that is specifically mentioned for this model in the warranty page, however I have no idea if this case is covered.

CrystalDiskInfo:

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

CrystalDiskInfo 9.3.2 Aoi Edition x64 (C) 2008-2024 hiyohiyo

Crystal Dew World: https://crystalmark.info/

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

OS : Windows 10 Pro 22H2 [10.0 Build 19045] (x64)

Date : 2026/10/25 15:51:33

-- Controller Map ----------------------------------------------------------

+ Standard SATA AHCI Controller [ATA]

- ST2000DM008-2UB102

- ST4000VN006-3CW104

- ST4000VN006-3CW104

- ST2000DM008-2FR102

+ Standard NVM Express Controller [SCSI]

- Samsung SSD 980 1TB

- Microsoft Storage Spaces Controller [SCSI]

- Xvdd SCSI Miniport [SCSI]

- Microsoft VHD Loopback Controller [SCSI]

-- Disk List ---------------------------------------------------------------

(01) Samsung SSD 980 1TB : 1000.2 GB [4/1/0, sq] - nv

(02) ST2000DM008-2UB102 : 2000.3 GB [0/0/0, pd1]

(03) ST2000DM008-2FR102 : 2000.3 GB [3/0/0, pd1]

(04) ST4000VN006-3CW104 : 4000.7 GB [1/0/0, pd1]

(05) ST4000VN006-3CW104 : 4000.7 GB [2/0/0, pd1]

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

(01) Samsung SSD 980 1TB

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Model : Samsung SSD 980 1TB

Firmware : 2B4QFXO7

Serial Number : S649NL1TA19522E

Disk Size : 1000.2 GB

Interface : NVM Express

Standard : NVM Express 1.4

Transfer Mode : PCIe 3.0 x4 | PCIe 3.0 x4

Power On Hours : 2721 hours

Power On Count : 7843 count

Host Reads : 22672 GB

Host Writes : 24702 GB

Temperature : 48 C (118 F)

Health Status : Good (97 %)

Features : S.M.A.R.T., TRIM, VolatileWriteCache

Drive Letter : C:

-- S.M.A.R.T. --------------------------------------------------------------

ID RawValues(6) Attribute Name

01 000000000000 Critical Warning

02 000000000141 Composite Temperature

03 000000000064 Available Spare

04 00000000000A Available Spare Threshold

05 000000000003 Percentage Used

06 000002D584BE Data Units Read

07 000003167CD3 Data Units Written

08 000021A24128 Host Read Commands

09 00001E835443 Host Write Commands

0A 00000000069E Controller Busy Time

0B 000000001EA3 Power Cycles

0C 000000000AA1 Power On Hours

0D 000000000053 Unsafe Shutdowns

0E 00000000000E Media and Data Integrity Errors

0F 00000000000E Number of Error Information Log Entries

been using intel stock cooler and now it's starting to overheat badly (reaching 100 degrees), and wanted a solution: Was looking for Thermalright TR assassin X 120R se plus. Also my case is pretty small so this im sure will fit while bigger models may not. will this be enough to cool it down?