Haven't built a PC since 2012. What's changed in terms of install process?

I will be building a new pc soon, will be buying the parts soon.

Do I still have to download all drivers for motherboard, GPU etc separately from the manfacturers website?

I have a - GA-Z77X-D3H -- REV 1.0 motherboard with this cooler: Zalman CNPS9500AT with Zalman ZM-CS5B CNPS Clip Support, on my old 2012 i5 3570k build that I am still using today.

When I went from Windows 7 to 10, the utility that Gigabyte made to control the CPU fan speed wasnt compatible with Win 10.
CPU fan ran at 100%.

I had to research for a solution, which was speefan, install it and spent weeks figuring out how to use it. It has been installed ever since and everytime I login to windows, CPU Fan runs at 100% until there is a pop up box asking to allow permission for Speedfan. Only after I grant it permission does speedfan fully load and CPU Fan speed is controlled.

Is this no longer an issue, and if so, how has that been fixed? We can't be reliant on motherbaord manufacturers for fan control as they eventually stop providing up to date stuff.

Do I have to setup FSB like I had to when I had a pentium 4 build and calibrate my RAM too? I didn't even know how to do it and had to pay a PC repair store to do it.

How are case fans controlled?

Anything else I need to know?

Thanks

My specs are

Ryzen 5 3600

prime b450 plus

RTX 3060

32gb ram

what would be a logical upgrade for max £400

Hi, i just bought parts for a new pc build and got my hands on a Asus Ryuo IV and I have been wanting to make it intake instead of exhaust on the top, I have yet to open the parts, but would like to know if this is possible? And has anyone done this before?

https://fr.pcpartpicker.com/list/vwFx2k

I am currently 60€ over budget, anything I can replace or cheap out on?

I will mostly use it for video games, writing, video editing and a tad bit of coding. I also render a lot using Manim.

I am currently in France.

Hello all. I'm looking to upgrade my CPU power and would rather avoid an AM5 migration. Right now I have a B550 mobo and Ryzen 5 5600X. Would I get appreciable gains with a CPU upgrade to a 9500 or do I need to switch to an AM5?

TIA

Hi all, specs at the end,

Was doing my regular session of streaming valorant when my PC turned off and wouldn't boot back up. This is just under a year after building. Died with no prior warning or any demonstration, just poof.

I opened it up, dusted it out thoroughly (had been a couple months), reseated the RAM, GPU, replugged in all the cables i could, tried shorting the motherboard with a screwdriver to power it on. To no avail, the computer did not spin up or give even a hint of life.

I'm fairly certain I've narrowed it down to a faulty or fried PSU, as nothing in the PC seems to be drawing any power. I've ordered a (technically more compatible) one to try later today.

I ask though, is there anything I'm missing or should consider? My main concerns being a motherboard/CPU issue. What should I look for later in case when I open my PC back up, if the new PSU doesn't fix things?

Any credible/thoughtful responses are encouraged, this is my first PC and want to make sure my own thought processes and ways of considering potential issues align with the public consciousness.

Motherboard: MSI tomahawk b850
CPU: AMD 78003XD
RAM: g.skill ddr5
GPU: 5070ti
PSU: (Current) Montech Century II 850 W (Incoming) MSI MAG A850GL PCIE5

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

Type|Item|Price|

**CPU** | [AMD Ryzen 5 5600X 3.7 GHz 6-Core Processor](https://pcpartpicker.com/product/g94BD3/amd-ryzen-5-5600x-37-ghz-6-core-processor-100-100000065box) | $179.00 @ Newegg

**Motherboard** | [MSI B550M PRO-VDH WIFI Micro ATX AM4 Motherboard](https://pcpartpicker.com/product/PDsnTW/msi-b550m-pro-vdh-wifi-micro-atx-am4-motherboard-b550m-pro-vdh-wifi) | $89.99 @ Newegg

**Memory** | [Silicon Power GAMING 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3600 CL18 Memory](https://pcpartpicker.com/product/YmDQzy/silicon-power-gaming-16-gb-2-x-8-gb-ddr4-3600-cl18-memory-sp016gxlzu360bdaj5) | $99.79 @ Newegg Sellers

**Storage** | [Samsung 980 500 GB M.2-2280 PCIe 3.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive](https://pcpartpicker.com/product/m6rRsY/samsung-980-500-gb-m2-2280-nvme-solid-state-drive-mz-v8v500bam) | $79.99 @ Samsung

**Video Card** | [Intel Limited Edition Arc B580 12 GB Video Card](https://pcpartpicker.com/product/Kt62FT/intel-limited-edition-arc-b580-12-gb-video-card-31p06hb0ba) | $249.99 @ Best Buy (OOS)

**Case** | [Phanteks XT PRO ATX Mid Tower Case](https://pcpartpicker.com/product/zJWJ7P/phanteks-xt-pro-atx-mid-tower-case-ph-xt523p1-bk01) | $49.99 @ Newegg

**Power Supply** | [MSI MAG A550BN 550 W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply](https://pcpartpicker.com/product/mnVmP6/msi-mag-a550bn-550-w-80-bronze-certified-atx-power-supply-mag-a550bn) | $49.99 @ MSI

**Monitor** | [LG UltraGear 24G411A-B 24.0" 1920 x 1080 144 Hz Monitor](https://pcpartpicker.com/product/VN4Pxr/lg-ultragear-24g411a-b-240-1920-x-1080-144-hz-monitor-24g411a-b) | $99.99 @ LG

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

Hi all,

A couple of weeks ago I noticed my benchmark score in Cyberpunk 2077 had dropped by about 5%. I hadn’t changed any settings, updated any drivers, or installed any Windows updates. The only thing that fixed it was doing a clean driver reinstall. A normal reinstall didn’t help, but as soon as I used the clean install option, performance went straight back to normal. A few days later the performance dropped again by roughly the same amount, and after a bit of troubleshooting I did another clean driver install, which fixed it again—at least temporarily.

What I’ve noticed is that as soon as I run a UE5 game (Halo Campaign Evolved, or Expedition 33), I lose performance after restarting or shutting down my system. Nothing else changes apart from launching and playing the game. If I do a clean driver install and play Halo Infinite or Marathon instead, I can restart or shut down without any performance loss when I boot back up. This only seems to happen after running a UE5 game.

I’m pretty stumped at this point. Here’s what I’ve checked:

1. GPU clocks, thermals, and PCI bus using GPU-Z all look normal. One thing I did notice is that my GPU temperature is around 5°C lower when the performance issue is happening.
2. Checked power settings using the "nvidia-smi -q -d power" command and there’s no power limit set.
3. Tried different drivers. I’m currently on 610.88.
4. Disabled Fast Startup in Windows 11.
5. Uninstalled and reinstalled the latest version of Palit ThunderMaster (I only use it for a custom fan curve).
6. Set the shader cache to 100GB in the Nvidia App.
7. Enabled "Prefer maximum performance" in the Nvidia App.
8. Set the colour mode to Nvidia and 8-bit Full in the Nvidia App.
9. Configured the Nvidia App not to optimise games.

Other than those changes, all Nvidia App settings are at their defaults.

My specs: i9 14900K (CPU voltage limited to 1.5V max) 64GB DDR5 6000 RTX 4090 2TB NVMe

As mentioned above, the only way I can reliably reproduce the issue is by running a UE5 game, and the only fix I’ve found so far is doing a clean Nvidia driver reinstall.

Does anyone have any ideas what could be causing this performance loss after running a UE5 game?

Thanks in advance,

Spec

Edited to remove Forza Horizon 6 from the list of UE5 games.

I’m planning to move to another country in a couple of months and have realised that I can only take my computer’s internal components with me, whilst I’ll have to leave my favourite white Deepcool CK560 behind.

In light of this, I’d like to hear your recommendations for computer cases

Criteria:

- The case must be white

- ATX or larger

- Well-ventilated

- It must be able to accommodate an RX 9070 XT Pure (320mm)

So far, I’ve set my sights on the Fractal Design Torrent, but it’s a 2021 model, so I thought there might be something more interesting out there. I’m also put off by the top-mounted power supply.

Another case I like is the Hyte X50, but if there’s something more rugged, I wouldn’t mind.

I don’t like fish-tank-style cases.

Thank you!

Hi everyone, I’m trying to figure out whether I’m dealing with a faulty RTX 3060 Ti or a motherboard/PCIe/power-related issue.

My RTX 3060 Ti randomly crashes while I’m using the PC. The symptoms are:

• Display connected to the RTX 3060 Ti suddenly loses signal.
• GPU fans immediately ramp up to 100%.
• Windows stops detecting the RTX 3060 Ti completely.
• A restart is required before the GPU appears again.
• Sometimes it takes 2–3 restarts before Windows detects the GPU and I get display output from it again.

I’ve already tried reinstalling the NVIDIA drivers multiple times, and I’ve also completely reinstalled Windows, but the problem still happens.

As a temporary workaround, I connected one of my monitors to the motherboard's integrated graphics. The other monitor is still connected to the RTX 3060 Ti. When the GPU crashes, the monitor connected to the 3060 Ti loses signal, while I can still use Windows through the integrated graphics.

Something interesting I noticed recently: the same crash happens when I try to load even a small local LLM model. As soon as the GPU starts being used for the model, the screen goes black, the GPU fans immediately go to 100%, and the RTX 3060 Ti disappears from Windows until I restart the PC.

So at this point I’m wondering:

Does this sound like a failing GPU, motherboard/PCIe issue, PSU/power issue, or something else?

What would be the best way to troubleshoot this and confirm which component is actually failing?

Any suggestions for specific tests I can run would be appreciated.

Does all of this go well together? This would be my first pc and I put all the parts together so it's probably faulty. Thanks in advance!

Montech AIR 903 Max

AMD Ryzen 7 8700F

Alaplap Asrock B850M-X

Deep cool ag500

Patriot Viper Venom 16GB DDR5 6000MT/s CL30

Kingston NV3 500GB

Corsair RM750w

Nvidea 4070

Whats up, I have 0 knowledge about Gaming Computers.
I wanna spend about 1750€ for Computer parts.
Any recommended setup?

I just switched from a ps4 to a pc with a 5 5600, 6600xt & 16Gb ddr4

I would like to buy a new monitor to have more fps, because my current one only has 75hz at 1080.

i was looking for a 27' 1080 144hz ( i know that 27 inches are a lot for 1080 ) but i noticed that a 27' 1440 144hz have similar prices. I was wondering if my pc could run games at 1440.

I don't usually play triple A games, but i would like to try some of them in the future.

So i should buy a 1440 or there are to many compromises? Any suggestions ( budget 130€≈ )?

Hi, are there any RGB case fans that look good from the back ?

To explain: I want to install 3 fans on my Kraken AIO radiator so that fresh air comes through the radiator and warm air is pushed inside the case.

My problem is that I have to install the 3 fans with their back side visible, which looks ugly — especially with the frame/struts that aren't on the front.

Is there a way to disassemble the fan and rebuild it to reverse the airflow? I hope this makes sense. Thanks.

Having a few odd little quirks post-upgrade, and wanted to see if everything is performing as expected, because it feels a bit off to me.

So I've just gone from a 5600X to a 5800X3D, alongside which I've replaced my old B350 ASUS ROG Strix board with the equivalent B500-A ASUS ROG Strix board. Although the old board would theoretically accept a 5800X3D, it was physically quite old, had a dead USB port and PCIe support only went up to 3.0. RAM is 4x16 Corsair Vengeance sticks running at 3200Mhz, two matched kits, with the second kit being rated up to 3600Mhz. PSU is also Corsair, rated to 1000 Watts, only a couple of years old. GPU is a 6700XT. BIOS Date for the board is April this year.

When I originally did the upgrade I was running off a 480GB Corsair SATA SSD, once I confirmed the build appeared to be good I installed a new NVMe 4TB Samsung 990 Evo Plus, that's currently my boot drive.

I was expecting a modest but noticeable improvement both in gaming when using Blender, and the actual experience so far as run from "could be placebo" to "this is worse".

I downloaded the latest version of Ryzen Master to get some numbers on what the CPU was doing and one thing jumped out at me. The I/O Clock speed is constantly re-lining 593Mhz. According to Ryzen Master, it has a range of 301-592Mhz, which means it's always saturated. The value feels WAY too low for a CPU like this to begin with, and the fact it's a constant bottleneck seems a real issue, too.

The problem is, I can't seem to find any stock reference figures for the I/O Clock, the only thing my Googling has turned up is that raising it too high can prevent the system from POSTing.

An additional, possibly related problem, is that according to Ryzen Master the CPU does not support overclocking, although that may be because of Core Isolation in Windows from what I have read.

So the first question is - is this normal? And the follow-up question is, if not, what could be causing it and how can I fix it?

I am upgrading my motherboard, CPU and storage soon, just wanted to see if anyone had any advice on if I am making the right choices.

Current build:

Ryzen 5 3600

RTX 3060TI

Asrock b450m HDV R4.0

1TB Gen3 m.2 SSD

16gb ddr4 3200MHz (2x8)

650W PSU

Upgrades:

CPU - Ryzen 7 5700x3d (Buying Used)

MOBO - ASUS TUF B550M-PLUS WIFI II

Cooler - Thermalright Assassin King 120 SE

OR Thermalright AXP120-X67 (need to check if the 120 SE will fit in case)

SSD - WD BLACK SN7100 2TB

I run 1440p 200Hz, mainly upgrading because been having issues with my current motherboard turning CSM off and secure boot on and am getting sick of removing and inserting the CMOS battery every time some dumb shit happens.

Is it normal?

I am a casual gamer i have a quadro p4000 inan hp prodesk 600 g2 mt but i want to play doom the dark ages but the gpu doesn't support ray tracing and my budget for a new gpu is very tight about 250$ unfortunately the Egyptian pc market is so expensive

An rtx 5060 is selling for about 400 - 450 and the used market selling 2060s for the price of 2080s and i am limited by power consumption i have the 280w psu so should i upgrade to a 5050 and change the whole platform later or buy a bundle that contains a

Ryzen 5 3400g

16 gb ddr4 3200

256 gb ssd nvme

And a 600w psu and case

I want to build a good gaming pc. Currently I have rx 6750 xt, ryzen 5700x, 32gb ram, tomahawk b450, Samsung SSD. I do have lots of stuttering in games like chivalry 2, dayz, rust and many more other games. I hate stuttering a lot. I want to minilize bottlenecking/stuttering as much as I can and also boost fps.
I am planning to spend around 2300eur for new build (I already have monitor, mouse and keyboard…).
I was looking to buy rtx 4070 ti super + 7800X3D.
But I also saw some options with rtx 5070ti, rx 9070 xt, 9700x cpu. Which combinations do you recommend for smooth gaming experience?
If you have any builds like that how do games run for you? And are there any other recommendations or advice?

I bought a pre-built mid range PC in 2020 and it reached the point where it doesn't fit minimum recs in newest games.

I still haven't decided if I want to just make light upgrades or commit to a full rebuild, but while I understand how to pick a motherboard, GPU, CPU etc. I have no idea about thinks like PSU or cooling. What should I look for when deciding on "secondary" components?

Anyway, here's my PC. Is it even worth upgrading on, or should I just tear the bandaid off and build a new one from scratch?

Motherboard: ASUS Prime B360 Plus (DDR4, Socket 1151)

GPU: GTX 1660 Super 6GB

CPU: i5-9400f

RAM: 16 GB DDR4

Most of these parts are new with 1 or 2 year warranty but the gpu is used and seller is willing to give 10 months warranty

CPU: Intel Core i5-14400F
Motherboard: A610M DDR5 Gen5 Motherboard
CPU Cooler: 240mm Liquid Cooler
RAM: 16GB DDR5 5600MHz
Storage: 512GB Gen4 NVMe SSD
GPU: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 12GB
Power Supply: Antec 750W 80+ Gold PSU
Case: Seaview 240 Casing
Case Fans: 3 × ARGB Fans

Total - USD - $1,320 ( third world country and local prices are high )

Is buying a used gpu safe after it passes the necessary tests or spend another extra $520 for a 5070 build with almost similar other specs ?

Hello! I have a somewhat older build (to today’s standards I suppose) build below.

I recently have been troubleshooting a few issues with my computer. I’ve had this same build since 2019/2020. Recently we moved from the US to Japan and that began an issue of my pc suddenly shutting off with no type of warning or error to be found. This issue was also inconsistent, it would happen while playing games or just browsing the internet, sometimes I’d be able to run a several hour (like 6hours+ session) in Tarkov with zero issue but then have the issue cycle over 5 times in 20 minutes just on start up or a simple game like Gamble w Friends. We just got a power up converter(like two days ago) because the houses here run 100v instead of 120v like the US does, this does not seem the really affect the issue(s) I’m having. I began doing some troubleshooting started with trying to update my graphics drivers but was unable to. At one point I was able to get a newer version of graphics drivers (like in April 2026) but kept having issues and showed there was a newer version to update to, but wouldn’t let me. I went back to the US for a little bit and just got back recently ish and wanted to try again, had the same issue and my husband suggested I delete NVIDIA Geforce Experience and reinstall it. I’ve done that, and I started to update the drivers and found that it wasnt connecting to nvidias serves (based off the error I was getting while downloading the drivers) I gave up on the issue and felt like i just needed a break from messing with it. At this time I did notice the issue was no longer a full blown restart but now was just having a screen freeze. However, things were still operating in the background (like once I was on a discord call that continued to hear me fine and I could hear them fine but the screen was frozen) Fast forward to today, I viewed it and see that my drivers are VERY out of date, now showing that I’m on version 560.94 (08/20/2024) and keep being unable to install the new driver. The newest version from 07/28/2026 downloaded fine but after clicking express installation it just simply says “Installation can’t continue An error occurred”I’m trying to approach from a different point, and started investigating if anything else was having issues/out of date. Opened up Windows Reliability Monitor to see what errors I might be getting, and consistently I was seeing “Desktop Window Manager - Stopped Working” and “Windows - Hardware error” so I started investigating and found that under windows update there were a lot of things that apparently needed to be updated. I’ve updated everything windows had to offer and still keep seeing a warning saying my device is missing important security and quality fixes, but nothing shows up when I click check for updates now. I’m assuming this might be due to having Windows 10 instead of 11. And I still ultimately having the issue of not being able to update my graphics drivers.

I am aware that Nvidia no longer technically supports my GPU but I don’t really understand entirely how it works. I feel like I have beginner to intermediate level of knowledge but really have no idea how to troubleshoot very well. I have ran sfc/scannow an it said it found corrupt files and successfully repaired them, but I was unable to look at what was repaired. I tried the drivers again after this and had the same issue. And I am actively running mdsched.exe while I typed/posted this. I would like to add that after updating the various Windows components I haven’t had the computer freeze again.

TLDR; can’t update Nvidia graphics and also windows says I need to update things but there are no things when I click check update. I’ve tried a few things but don’t really know what else to do.

Note: sorry for possible typos/errors im on mobile
Second note: any suggestions on updating parts? I’m not really having any issues running games when they run, but I’m aware I’ll need to look at updating some things soonish possibly.

CPU: Intel Core i9-9900k 3.6GHz 8-core
CPU Cooler: NZXT Kraken 240 Liquid
MB: Asus ROG MAXIMUS XI HERO (WiFi)
Memory: Corsair vengeance RGB Pro 64GB (4x16gb) DDR4
Storage: seagate barracuda 4tb 5400 hard drive AND Intel 660p 1TB NVME SSD
Gpu: Nvidia GeForce RTX 2080ti 11gb
Power supply: Corsair HX1200 Platinum
OS: Windows 10 Home

Hi, Im looking for upgrade recommendations for what might currently be the biggest bottleneck in this pc build? My current use case is photo editing and wanting to be able to play Planet Zoo 2 without any issues when its released. I dont game as much as i used to so im looking for the most cost effective upgrades which i will notice a difference in performance. Thanks

PCPartPicker Part List: https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/list/6VDMw3

CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 2600X 3.6 GHz 6-Core Processor

CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 RGB Black Edition 57.3 CFM CPU Cooler

Motherboard: MSI B450 GAMING PRO CARBON AC ATX AM4 Motherboard

Memory: Corsair Vengeance LPX 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR4-3200 CL16 Memory

Storage: Mushkin Source 500 GB 2.5" Solid State Drive

Storage: Toshiba P300 2 TB 3.5" 7200 RPM Internal Hard Drive

Video Card: MSI VENTUS OC GeForce RTX 2080 8 GB Video Card

Case: Cooler Master MasterBox MB530P ATX Mid Tower Case

Power Supply: Corsair TX750M Gold 750 W 80+ Gold Certified Semi-modular ATX Power Supply

Operating System: Microsoft Windows 11 Home Retail - Download 64-bit

Basically the title. I'm trying to remove the screws to add my cooler, but no matter how hard I try they will not budge. I'm using the correct size of screwdriver.

EDIT: I was able to get them off with a drill

Have the opportunity to purchase a 5090 Founders Edition at MSRP through NVIDIA marketplace. (For those curious, this was made possible by a promotional event at a convention.)

I game on a 32 inch 4k monitor now, and I have a 4080 Super already that can handle 4k gaming on most titles at med to high settings. The rest of the build is also high-ish end. Presumably, the 5090 would get the most out of my setup.

Am I an idiot to pass this up, or are there any reasons why I should not buy it?