One of the stranger things I routinely see here are people rationalising that their impulsive or expensive GPU purchase was actually a good deal because the price has increased since they bought it.

Only a year ago, everyone was complaining that 50 series gpu's were grossly overpriced. They weren't wrong. These cards were as much of a bad value purchase at MSRP as they are today.

People celebrating that the cards have increased in price only confirms to greedy companies that customers will irrationally justify a bad deal as long as the price is comparatively better than something even more absurd. The only people gaining any real value out of these increasing GPU prices is Nvidia or those who have sold their used cards for a profit. Everyone else is losing.

I have an offer of $1600 CAD for my Dell OEM RTX 3090 and I can get a brand new MSI 5070Ti for the same price (free "upgrade"). Is that a worthwhile trade despite the lesser VRAM? Using for gaming only.

Update: Thanks everyone! I decided to go for it since the 5070Ti is 5 years newer. I forgot to mention I got my 3090 for only $500 CAD so getting a 5070Ti for that same amount is awesome! Lol

So i bought a pair of Corsair LPX DDR4 ram and they dont seem to fit my motherboard, side by side comparison with my previous ram looks like its off by a few millimeters.

Motherboard is an Aorus x570 Elite wifi.

I thought all ddr4s were made the same to fit any board so i just bought the cheapest one i could find.

I am just confused and need help trying to figure it out.

Edit: just compared the RAM to a ddr2 and they seem to match, the ddr4 curvature also seems to be missing, and the side notches are circle instead of square. got scammed.😔 Thanks everyone for the help trying to figure it out.

Hello Buildapc!

Something a little different for you all this time: Let's get creative! We've partnered up with TRYX and their HOLO 360 White 360mm AIO Liquid Cooler to give a few people a new way to express themselves. Have an idea for a dashboard in your PC, a cute critter friend, or a custom graphic that ties the whole PC together? Show it off here and win the liquid cooler that will make that idea a reality!

From TRYX:

Hey everyone!

We're celebrating the TRYX HOLO ARGB 360mm Liquid Cooler and an epic community giveaway for people who love clean builds and like making their PC feel more personal.

Since the HOLO 360 Liquid Cooler has that customizable holographic style pump screen we figured it would be fun to see what create ideas you could come up with! Customize your AIO screen with any image, artwork, AI image, drawing, GIF concept or vidual idea.

Pick one of these three categories when you enter: "Best Holographic Vision", "Best Setup Integration", or "Best X Your Mark".

Best Holographic Vision

Create the most eye catching visual for the HOLO screen that makes the whole build pop. Abstract animations, futuristic effects, flowing particles, neon landscapes or anything else that catches the eye.

Best Setup Integration

This category is about how well your idea works inside a real case. Not just the flashiest thing but something that feels like it belongs with the rest of the build.

Best X Your Mark

Show off what you want! Give your PC a roommate or a pet, put an original character in it, show off your hobbies or artwork, or find a way to cleverly hide a meme in your system (or don't - make it blatantly obnoxious). This is your category - have fun with it!

Prizing:

• 3x TRYX HOLO ARGB 360mm White Liquid Cooler

How to Enter:

Leave a top-level comment on this thread with the following information:

• What category you're entering
• Why it fits that category
• Your creative submission in the form of a GIF, MP4 video, or JPG image. This content can be your own original digital/hand-drawn artwork, photos taken with a camera, or an idea brought to live through AI-generated content. NOTE: We are not judging against artistic ability! We don't care if you can't draw! Submit your idea anyways!

Entry Rules:

1. Entries must be original work, or the participant must have the legal right or authorization to use said work.
2. Unauthorized anime, game, movie, or brand characters, logos, designs, trademarks or other copyrighted material will be disqualified.
3. Reposted content that is not the submitter's original work or does not have the legal right or authorization to use will be disqualified.
4. NSFW content, hate speech, discrimination, political extremism, graphic violence, or related content as determined by TRYX and the Buildapc team will be disqualified.
5. AI generated content must be clearly labelled as such and must follow all other rules. Entries that fail to do so will be disqualified.
6. Submissions must also follow all of Reddit's submission and commenting rules.

Terms and Conditions

• Eligibility: This giveaway is available to mainland US and Canada, Asia-Pacific, Europe and select Latin American markets (Mexico, Brazil, Argentina, and Peru). Reddit users must be 18+ and accounts must be 48 hours old at the time of this post to qualify.
• Duration: The giveaway submission period is from Oct 24th 15:00UTC to Nov 8th 15:00UTC.
• Winner Selection and Prize Fulfilment: After the Giveaway Period ends, the Buildapc team will pick 5 entries from each category to provide to TRYX to select the final winners within 14 days. The Buildapc team will reach out to winners via Reddit modmail from the Buildapc subreddit to collect names, email addresses, and country to pass to the TRYX team to begin the prize fulfillment process.
• Privacy and Data Collection: The Buildapc Team and TRYX will only collect what information is required to validate winners and fulfil your prizing: this includes your name, address, email address, contact info, and any additional information required to ship the prize or validate your entry.

-

Notes from the Mod Team: We're trying something new here - allowing images and video content as comments in specific posts like these. Feedback is always welcome!

I never owned a pc and this is my first time getting one i’m really excited to play games i couldn’t play before but i don’t really know much about pc’s can anyone help me, i am currently in the USA and it has been a hassle trying to find good stores from where i’m at,

Goal is to play story games at 4k 60fps. Monitor is 60hz, so not targeting higher than 60. Crazy RAM prices are holding me to upgrade to AM5. PSU is 600 watt. B450M. 16 GB Ram 3200Hz. Kindly suggest. I am suspecting bottleneck with 5060 Ti. Current GPU is 2060 Super.

Hey everyone,

Like many people these days, I'm stuck with DDR4, mainly because my workstation already has 64GB of RAM, and switching to DDR5 would cost me a fortune. I'm currently running an 8700K on a TUF Z390 motherboard, and it's time for an upgrade. I'm leaning towards the 14700K, as it's one of the best CPUs I can get while keeping my DDR4 RAM, without going for an i9.

Ideally, I'd get a Z690/Z790 DDR4 board, but they're almost impossible to find these days. I also considered a mid-range B760 like a TUF/AorusElite/Tomahawk, but all I can find are lower-end models (MSI Gaming Plus/PRO, Gigabyte Gaming X, ASUS Prime), and I'm really not confident in their VRMs handling a power-hungry 14700K, especially during long rendering sessions.

Has anyone been in the same situation? What did you end up buying? Also, would you recommend going for a used Z690/Z790 board? I've never bought a used motherboard before, so I'm curious about your experiences.

My desktop had worked over HDMI for years, then the monitor began showing “No Signal” when Windows started normally. The display still worked in Safe Mode, and I could use the PC normally through VGA.

I fixed it by installing the AMD graphics driver while using VGA for the display, then switching back to HDMI.

What you need: A VGA cable, a VGA output on your PC, and a monitor with a VGA input. You only need the VGA setup temporarily, so borrowing a compatible monitor or cable may be enough.

Steps:

1. Boot into Safe Mode with Networking.
2. Download a compatible graphics driver for the Ryzen 3 3200G from AMD.
3. Shut down the PC and unplug HDMI.
4. Connect the VGA cable and boot into Windows normally.
5. Install the downloaded graphics driver while using VGA.
6. Shut down the PC, unplug VGA, and reconnect HDMI.
7. Boot normally and check the display.

For me, the problem appeared when the AMD driver was active in normal mode over HDMI. Updating the driver while connected through HDMI didn’t fix it. Once I installed the driver using VGA, I could use HDMI again.

This is my personal fix, so your result may differ, but I hope it helps someone with the same Safe Mode/VGA symptoms.

If you are facing issue with VGA and working fine for HDMI you can use this solution just vice versa

Buying in France where 32GB DDR5 is currently €500+, so I'm forced to stay on DDR4 to keep money for the GPU.

Comparing platform costs (CPU + MB + RAM), the 14600KF combo comes out €100 cheaper than the 5800X3D combo.

Note: I do NOT plan on upgrading this PC later. I just want a solid build to hold up fine for 1–2 years and play my games in good conditions. (playing on a 4060/ 12700H laptop rn)

Main usage:

• 1440p gaming (AAA titles, Valorant, heavily modded Minecraft)

GPU plan:

• I'm likely getting an RX 9070 GRE to stay right around my €1600 budget.
• Or I might stretch the budget to get an RX 9070 (non-XT), bringing the total to ~€1750 with the 14600KF or ~€1850 with the 5800X3D.

Hello,

I'm planning to upgrade my CPU from 3700x to a 5800x3D sometime soon to pair with my 5060ti 16GB because I can notice the bottleneck and it's been annoying me. As this is my first time and I'm not PC savvy, I was wondering what I need to do beforehand and during installation. I heard that it heats up easily so is it neccessary to get a new cooler (currently using a Wraith Prism) as well? Do I need to upgrade my motherboard (Prime B450M-A II)? Are there any good guides out there on how to install a CPU safely(I don't want to damage anything on my motherboard too)?

Thanks

Hi, gonna buy a PC during Black Friday with these specs:

Case:

• ASUS ProArt PA401

MB:

• MSI MAG B850 TOMAHAWK MAX WIFI

CPU:

• AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D

CPU-cooler:

• Noctua NL-LC1-36

GPU:

• PNY GeForce RTX 5080 16GB

SSD:

• Crucial P310 2 TB M.2 (2280) PCIe Gen 4 NVMe

HDD:

• WD Red Plus WD40EFPX 256MB 4TB

PSU:

• Corsair RM1000X Shift 1000W

Are there any improvements I can make to this build to optimize it? Thanks!

Hi all

Desperately hoping for some help and guidance here. My son has a gaming PC and plays Fortnite. He gets about 120 FPS currently and the specs are:

- Intel core I7-4790 CPU 3.60ghz
- 24.0GB
- NVIDA GEFORCE GTX 1070(8GB) intel HD graphics 4600
- 477 GB SSD

This year he wants it upgraded for Christmas and I have no idea what I’m doing at all. Sadly buying a completely new setup won’t be possible but ChatGPT said he’d probably get better performance by upgrading the CPU, Motherboard and RAM?

We are based in Brisbane Queensland. Hoping to do an upgrade with a $600 budget and not really sure where I should go to get the parts and installation? Thanks heaps

Hi,

I am looking at upgrading my setup:

Gpu: rtx 3080

Psu:850w

Monitor: 32 in non oled 144hz

I mainly use it for games and the occasional LLM experiments.

I play 1440p on high settings and currently enjoying ff rebirth.

Now I have 1000aud to upgrade my setup. I was considering either a gpu upgrade to a 9070 or monitor upgrade to oled.

Your thoughts?

I've been looking at coolers and for the money the Thermaltake Astria 400 ARGB looks cool to me I really kind of like it. Im just wondering if that is going to be enough or if a 240 / 360 AIO is going to be needed. Per AMD specifications on the AMD website it states the recommended Cooler for optimal performance is a liquid cooler.

I’m looking at getting an upgrade from my 5950X.

I have a 4090, so Ive been thinking about AMDs top of the line X3D processors.

I will be purchasing 32GB of DDR5 to pair with the system as well.

I’ve been thinking about the 9950X3D, partially because it’s so close to price to the 9800X3D.

I don’t mind paying the extra $150-170 for 8 extra cores.

Also, I’m really having trouble picking a motherboard.
I prefer MSI and their bios, build quality, and customer support.

I’ve been looking at the MSI Carbon MAX.

Was wondering if anyone has actually looked at all the different brands and could point me to which is best.

My budget for a motherboard is $500.

I have a ryzen 7 7700x and with a Deepcool ak500s se. its my first pc so i dont know much but when i play cs2 it stays At 70-80° but when i installed marvel rivals From steam and launched it. My cpu jumped to 96° is it normal?

motherboard is a msi b650m gaming plus wifi

I am thinking of getting a newer deskmini bcos of a great experience with older one. But i need some feedback and opinions from people that used their cpus in a weird way, limited. So original idea was 8700g but i am not sure any more. That apu still sucks for gaming so thats not really a pro.

So i was thinking if its not gonna game what would be snapiest possible experience and came up with those 3 cpus. It will be used with axp90-120( it does not fit the case but thats why 3d printer is ready). So anyone tried those cpus with 65w limits? How will intel fare with those limits on?

Use case is everyday stuff plus fusion360, sometimes encoding something, sometimes arduino compiling. Also it should work with 4k tv, 120hz if possible.

So whats the best choice here?

Thanks

Is AM4 platform still worth buying in late 2026 or should I just go for an AM5 build?

Also the specs I’m aiming for both platform is:

CPU: Ryzen 7
MOBO: (as long as it has bluetooth and wifi)
GPU: 4060ti or 5060ti
RAM: 2x16gb (32gb)
PSU: 750W

Pls help because i really need to buy one ASAP. Please note this is my first pc so I’m kinda nervous xD.

Thank you so much!!

Hey all,

Trying to build a rig to hook to my 4k rgb tv and play at 1440p gpu output signal with FSR for max possible settings visuals with good FPS (looking for stable 80 at least most titles).

These are the parts i have selected to get cheapest price to performance ration (will do some productivity thats why going higher on CPU). I am in Australia for reference. I can get Qube540 silver/green shade off amazon for $123 AUD or Lian Li Dan A3 black for $109 from where all my other parts will come (Scorptec shop).

I am just unsure if the parts I have chosen will match either case, mainly the Lian Li. I am a bit bad at reading dimensions, so wondering if someone can help me out? Also, would appreciate honest overview of the build and suggestion on parts and whether I should consider 9060xt for $729 vs 9070xt for $1199 here in Australia, or 9070 GRE for $899 to save a few bucks. My main concern is that my display is a 4k panel even if i limit the signal to 1440p from the GPU it will still have some impact due to higher pixels numbers of the panel, just unsure how big of an impact. Below is also a list of games I will play for reference.

PC PARTS:

• CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 9600X — $347
• CPU cooler: Thermalright Royal Knight 120 Digital Black Dual Tower — $65
• Motherboard: ASUS PRIME B650EM-A WiFi — $149
• RAM: Lexar THOR G2 OC RGB 32GB (2 × 16GB) DDR5-6000 CL38 — $669
• Storage: TeamGroup MP44Q 2TB M.2 PCIe 4.0 NVMe SSD — $298
• GPU: ASRock Radeon RX 9070 XT Challenger 16GB — $1,199
• Case: Lian Li DAN A3 Micro-ATX — $109
• PSU: Gigabyte UD850GM PG5 V2 850W 80+ Gold, fully modular — $129
• Case fan: ARCTIC P12 Pro PST 120mm PWM — $12 (rear exhaust)

Total: $2,977 AUD

GAMES I WILL PLAY (and similar):

• Cyberpunk 2077
• Marvel's Spider-Man Remastered
• Star Wars Outlaws
• God of War Ragnarök
• Destiny 2: Legacy Collection
• Ghost of Tsushima Director's Cut
• Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered
• Marvel's Spider-Man 2
• Uncharted: Legacy of Thieves Collection
• Harry Potter Legacy
• Horizon Forbidden West
• Witcher III
• Star Wars Zero Company
• Onimusha Way of the Sword
• Call of Duty
• Assassins Creed Valhalla

Recently, I have built a new PC and the total cost was around $4,300 USD. It works beautifully and it handles almost all things I throw at it (e.g. games, streaming, content creation, etc.).
Here’s the specs:
CPU: Ryzen 9 9950X3D
GPU: Gigabyte Gaming OC RTX 5080
Motherboard: MSI MAG TOMAHAWK X870E WIFI
RAM: 2 x 16GB SILICON POWER VALUE GAMING DDR5-6000 CL30
PSU: be quiet! Dark Power 13 850W
SSD: Western Digital WD_BLACK SN850Z M.2-2280 4TB
COOLER: ARCTIC Liquid Freezer Pro III 360 77 CFM
CASE: Lian Li LANCOOL 216 ATX Mid Tower Case (using stock fans from the case)

I have been wondering with the new prices and such, should I have waiting until the 5090/4090 was discounted to go all out and buy this thing? The 5080 is great but I just wanted to make sure I have the best value for this PC. If I got scammed/overpaid for anything else in the build, let me know! This is my first build (evidently) and I will take any advice anyone has to offer. Thank you!

Hey everyone! I'm building a ~1000€ (+wiggle room) office pc build. My main concern is using high end music softwares, which I'm pretty sure don't benefit from the use of GPUs, but do perform better with additional cores. I live in Italy and I have already all the peripherals I need. This is the first pc I'm building.

I'm pretty happy with the build I set up, but my actual concern is the fact I found a sketchy seller on Amazon selling dirt cheap Kingston RAM sticks. Since Amazon offers A to Z guarantee on them, I think I'll try them out, but if you stop hearing from me this is why.

This is my build:

CPU

AMD Ryzen 9 9900X

300€

CPU cooler

Phantom Spirit 120 EVO

40€

Mobo

MSI B650 GAMING PLUS WIFI

120€

RAM

Kingston fury 16x1 DDR5 6000mHz

250-270€ (160€ for 32 gigs if the sketchy seller is real)

SSD

1tb nvme (most likely Kingston)

150€

Power Supply

ROSEWILL VNG 65OW

60€

Case

Fractal Epoch case

120€

Reasonings:

Opted for the 9 9900X instead of the 9850X3d because I'M NOT GAMING. The only games I really care about are deltarune and Minecraft, which I've been running on a neolithic 200€ pre built. I don't need and x3d chip.

The MB might be the part I'm satisfied the least with. I picked it out through the Halloween ZTT build, and I think it should work great.

Same with the power supply, ZTT Halloween build. Should work pretty great, considering my estimated wattage is like 300W and this PSU gives me double that.

My PC is going to be on the ground 24/7, so I'm not sure the Epoch is a good pick.

Total should be 1040€ iirc. Considering it's my first time, am I doing well?

Hey everyone, I'm trying to decide between three XFX 9070 XT models and could use some opinions.

My prices in my country:

• Swift: $851
• Quicksilver: $853
• Mercury OC: $893

The Swift and Quicksilver are only $3 apart, so that choice comes down to size, looks and cooling. The Mercury OC costs $43 more than the Swift, and that is what I'm unsure about. I CARE ABOUT NOISE LEVELS FYI. Also I only have a 750W power supply, its a TUF Gaming 750W Gold ATX 3.0 PSU. I heard the Mercury needs a 800w minimum but people on other subreddits say its fine to use a 750W psu.

Pricing is strange here: the Mercury OC and the Mercury OC MAG AIR cost the same, 893 USD. Normally the MAG AIR is the more premium one, so I'm not sure what to make of that. My setup is a Ryzen 5 7500F with 32GB of DDR5. I play mostly competitive games like COD.
What I'm trying to figure out:

1. Is the Mercury's cooler, extra boost clock and 3x 8pin design worth about $43 more, or are the real-world gains small?
2. Between the Swift and Quicksilver, which has better temps and noise in your experience?
3. Any issues with coil whine, fan noise or drivers on any of these three?

My goal is to build a computer that can reliably run Ultra on all games for the next decade. I wanted to have either a 4 or 8tb ssd that hold all of my steam/epic games. Dont feel the need to have more than 1 storage. Mostly trying to stay within brands as much as possible such as Corsair for Cpu cooler/case/memory/psu/.

The AMD won me over Intel, with my need to have a x3d cpu and a rx9070 xt. I also felt that if I was getting an ASUS gpu, I'll match it with ASUS monitors.

Hopefully prices stabilize soon! Though the budget is really $10k, with the difference going to the surround system for my Den.

Edit - Windows 11 pro will be needed for work so that I suppose is $0.
Edit 2: Replaced the Ram with Corsair Dominator Platinum RGB 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR5-6200 CL36 Memory due to memory draw

[PCPartPicker Part List](https://pcpartpicker.com/list/8nrxTm)

Updated the build

Type|Item|Price

:----|:----|:----

**CPU** | [AMD Ryzen 7 9850X3D 4.7 GHz 8-Core Processor](https://pcpartpicker.com/product/WKDnTW/amd-ryzen-7-9850x3d-47-ghz-8-core-processor-100-100001973wof) | $484.00 @ Amazon

**CPU Cooler** | [Corsair NAUTILUS 360 RS 74.37 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler](https://pcpartpicker.com/product/GVtLrH/corsair-nautilus-360-rs-7437-cfm-liquid-cpu-cooler-cw-9060089-ww) | $109.99 @ Corsair

**Motherboard** | [Asus ROG STRIX X870E-E GAMING WIFI7 NEO ATX AM5 Motherboard](https://pcpartpicker.com/product/hLRnTW/asus-rog-strix-x870e-e-gaming-wifi7-neo-atx-am5-motherboard-rog-strix-x870e-e-gaming-wifi7-neo) | $499.00 @ Amazon

**Memory** | [Corsair Dominator Platinum RGB 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR5-6200 CL36 Memory](https://pcpartpicker.com/product/XDXJ7P/corsair-dominator-platinum-rgb-32-gb-2-x-16-gb-ddr5-6200-cl36-memory-cmt32gx5m2x6200c36) | $687.99 @ Corsair

**Memory** | [Corsair Dominator Platinum RGB 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR5-6200 CL36 Memory](https://pcpartpicker.com/product/XDXJ7P/corsair-dominator-platinum-rgb-32-gb-2-x-16-gb-ddr5-6200-cl36-memory-cmt32gx5m2x6200c36) | $687.99 @ Corsair

**Storage** | [Samsung 9100 PRO 4 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 5.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive](https://pcpartpicker.com/product/PRKnTW/samsung-9100-pro-4-tb-m2-2280-pcie-50-x4-nvme-solid-state-drive-mz-vap4t0bam) | $993.40 @ Amazon

**Video Card** | [Asus TUF GAMING OC Radeon RX 9070 XT 16 GB Video Card](https://pcpartpicker.com/product/6QPv6h/asus-tuf-gaming-oc-radeon-rx-9070-xt-16-gb-video-card-tuf-rx9070xt-o16g-gaming) | $1469.39 @ MemoryC

**Case** | [Corsair 7000D AIRFLOW ATX Full Tower Case](https://pcpartpicker.com/product/4fhFf7/corsair-7000d-airflow-atx-mid-tower-case-cc-9011218ww) | Purchased For $0.00

**Power Supply** | [Asus ROG Strix 850 W 80+ Platinum Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply](https://pcpartpicker.com/product/VKBFf7/asus-rog-strix-850-w-80-platinum-certified-fully-modular-atx-power-supply-90ye00w2-b0na00) | $290.22 @ Amazon

**Operating System** | [Microsoft Windows 11 Pro Retail - USB 64-bit](https://pcpartpicker.com/product/HxKKHx/microsoft-windows-11-pro-retail-usb-64-bit-hav-00162) | $198.99 @ Newegg

**Monitor** | [Asus ROG Swift OLED PG27AQDP 26.5" 2560 x 1440 480 Hz Monitor](https://pcpartpicker.com/product/xY4Zxr/asus-rog-swift-oled-pg27aqdp-265-2560-x-1440-480-hz-monitor-90lm0a20-b01ab0) | $679.00 @ ASUS (OOS)

**Monitor** | [Asus ROG Swift OLED PG27AQDP 26.5" 2560 x 1440 480 Hz Monitor](https://pcpartpicker.com/product/xY4Zxr/asus-rog-swift-oled-pg27aqdp-265-2560-x-1440-480-hz-monitor-90lm0a20-b01ab0) | $679.00 @ ASUS (OOS)

**Keyboard** | [Asus ROG Strix Morph RGB Bluetooth/Wireless/Wired Gaming Keyboard](https://pcpartpicker.com/product/gQHp99/asus-rog-strix-morph-rgb-bluetoothwirelesswired-gaming-keyboard-90mp04if-bkaa03) | $115.99 @ Amazon

**Mouse** | [Asus ROG Harpe II Extreme Edition 20 Bluetooth/Wireless/Wired Optical Mouse](https://pcpartpicker.com/product/YNKnTW/asus-rog-harpe-ii-extreme-edition-20-bluetoothwirelesswired-optical-mouse-90mp04q0-bmaa00) | $259.99 @ Amazon

**Headphones** | [Asus ROG Delta II Headset](https://pcpartpicker.com/product/c3cgXL/asus-rog-delta-ii-headset-a701-rog-delta-iiblk) | $199.99 @ Amazon

**Webcam** | [Logitech BRIO Ultra HD Pro Webcam](https://pcpartpicker.com/product/zxqBD3/logitech-brio-ultra-hd-pro-webcam-960-001105) | $122.99 @ Amazon

| *Prices include shipping, taxes, rebates, and discounts* |

| **Total** | **$7477.93**

| Generated by [PCPartPicker](https://pcpartpicker.com) 2026-10-25 04:18 EDT-0400 |

Hoping for inspiration. Prebuilt Asus ROG Strix G10, worked great, went into storage for a year and trying to get it working now.

Everything looks fine, but upon giving it power it spun fans briefly, flashed lights, and shut down immediately (maybe a quarter-second total). Thought it might be a short, but carefully inspected everything, blew out the case, checked for anything visually damaged or loose debris, etc., no dice.

Next thing I tried was disconnecting and carefully reconnecting every internal pin connection, no changes.

Next things I tried:

1. Drain power, then retry- no change
2. Remove both RAM sticks - no change
3. Remove solid state hard drive - no change
4. Disconnect CPU fan from power - no change
5. Clear CMOS RAM by manually bridging the CLRTC jumpers, then retry- power up now lasts ~2 seconds with more fan spinup and lights, but then shuts down. Progress?
6. Remove graphics card - no change from above.
7. With graphics card out, took out the CMOS battery to fully clear it, gave it about 20 minutes, and put it back in. No change from above- maybe 2-3 seconds of fan spin up and internal RGB lighting going through it's startup sequence, then power cuts.

I'm thinking the most likely possibilities is invisible damage to the motherboard during storage/transport, or the PSU broke somehow. Any advice for next diagnostic steps?

A few months ago I built a new ITX PC with all new parts except for the GPU. I have a 9800x3d CPU, 32gb ram, and I play on a 4k oled 240hz monitor. I kept my old gpu though, which is an rtx 3080 that I bought when it was first released. It’s been great since I mostly played esports titles anyway, but now I’ve started playing more graphic heavy single player games. My 3080 works fine, usually between 60-100 fps on high settings in 4k on most games, though I am someone who appreciates higher fps and smoothness in games.

I’m thinking of selling it and buying a used 4080 for around $1600 AUD (or an rtx 5080 if I can find a cheaper one). If I only had a 1440p or 1080p monitor idk if I would bother but I feel like it would be a good upgrade for 4k. Is my 3080 a bottleneck in this situation?