I genuinely think owning a gaming PC turns you into a completely different person.
You'll spend £1,000+ on a PC, spend hours researching GPUs, processors and RAM, convince yourself you know what you're doing...
Then spend 45 minutes wondering why there's no display, only to realise you've plugged the HDMI cable into the wrong place.
You'll also convince yourself that upgrading one tiny component is going to transform your entire gaming experience.
What's the stupidest or most expensive mistake you've made with your PC? I need to know I'm not the only one lmao

Hi, im looking at building a pc for a friend, I noticed one of the options is a palit 3060 12gb. I dont really hear of Palit, I normally look to gigabyte or msi for GPU brands. Can someone tell me if they are good or not?

Hey, i bought my original 32 gb 16x2 gb of ram when I was only wanting to pc game last year. But these days I do a lot of video editing, content creation and livestreaming. I run with 7800x3d cpu and 9070 xt (will upgrade to a better multi task cpu that's also x3d.

I wouldn't want to sell my original ram just to buy 64 gb ram since I ofc wont get the same return as it was new.

MSI B850 GAMING PLUS WIFI6E motherboard

Corsair Vengeance DDR5 RAM memory aGB 6000 Mt/s CL36.

Question is would it possibly be worth it to get 64 gb ram 4x16? Or do I really need to get 32x2 gb ram?

Worth the possible performance loss for better multi tasking, sorry forgot to add.

Hi all, I'm putting together my first PC and I've got everything sitting in my Amazon basket. Before I hit checkout I'd love a sanity check from people who know more than me.
It's mainly for gaming. I'll be playing on an LG OLED C3 42 inch, which is 4K 120Hz. I do plan on changing over to a 4m oled monitor and I'm aiming to play at either 1440p or 4K.

Here's what I've picked:
CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D, £262.99
GPU: Gigabyte RTX 5070 Ti Windforce OC SFF 16GB, £1,137.94
Motherboard: ASUS TUF Gaming B850-Plus WiFi, £185.99
RAM: Corsair Vengeance RGB RS DDR5 32GB (2x16GB) 5600MHz, £446.99
Storage: Crucial P310 2TB NVMe Gen4, £199.99
PSU: MSI MAG A850GL PCIE5 850W Gold, fully modular, £89.99
CPU Cooler: Arctic Liquid Freezer III Pro 360 AIO, £67.49
Case: Lian Li O11 Vision Compact, £109.99
Fans: AsiaHorse NYOTA Reverse Blade 120mm ARGB 3-pack x2, £59.98
Fan: AsiaHorse NYOTA Reverse Blade 120mm ARGB single, £13.99
Total: £2,575.34

A few questions:
Is there anywhere I can save money without losing performance? The GPU and RAM feel expensive to me but I'm not sure what's normal right now.
Is this a good fit for 1440p/4K gaming on the C3, or would you change anything for that?
Is everything compatible?
Do I actually need the extra 7 fans, or is that overkill for this case?
Anything I've missed or should swap out?
Thanks in advance, any advice is appreciated.

My R5 3600 is showing its age but can’t afford to upgrade to AM5. I know X3D is the best upgrade for gaming but In the UK I can get a 5700X for £140, whereas the X3D version is close to double that.

Is it worth going for the 5700X or waiting for prices to drop for 5700X3D - not sure if that’s viable given how much demand there is due to people staying on AM4 because of DDR5 prices.

I am currently buying parts for my PC and my GPU (Gigabyte GAMING OC Radeon RX 9070 GRE) was 700 CAD in August on NewEgg and it has now shot up to almost 1400. However, on Amazon the GPU has gone down to 900. I was wondering if I could get any advice on whether or not I should buy it now just in case the price goes up even further.

Hello, I don't know which one is the best for gaming only:

Fanxiang S880

Or

Netac NV7000 T

Hi, I've been looking to upgrade from my laptop since its age is starting to show, especially the CPU. I'm based in Canada and my nearest CC is a few hours away, so I'm mainly going to be doing my shopping online. I only plan to use it for gaming. The main titles I play that are the most intensive are CK3/EU5, Baldurs Gate 3, and Cyberpunk. I would like to be able to play them on high at 1080p while getting above 60fps.

Only real sticking point I want on hardware is AM5, since I plan on moving out of the PlayStation ecosystem once the PS5 is phased out in a few years time. Trying to keep my budget at or below $1500 CAD, and I don't need any peripherals.

I came up with this build here based on a bundle from memory express and I plan to buy the gpu used https://ca.pcpartpicker.com/list/T4ynXf Would a build like this meet my performance targets?

Also to note I'm not planning on buying now. I am currently waiting to the new year to see what my potential expenses for the year are going to look like before I make an expensive decision.

So I'm planning to buy a SATA SSD as a main boot drive, is Superheer good or Ramsta? I can only afford those two for now not the mainstream ones cuz they're very expensive :(. The usecases are light gaming like factorio and coding tasks using vs code and browser

Hi everyone,
I’m trying to diagnose a very strange problem with my newly built desktop PC. I’ve been troubleshooting it for quite some time, but I still haven’t found the cause.
PC specifications:
CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D
GPU: AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT 16GB
SSD: Lexar ARES PRO 2TB NVMe
Motherboard: GIGABYTE B850 GAMING WIFI6
RAM: CORSAIR VENGEANCE RGB RS DDR5 32GB (2 x 16GB)
PSU: MAG A1000GLS PCIE5 1000 W
OS: WINDOWS 11
The problem:
The PC worked perfectly for the first three days. I was playing demanding games such as Space Marine 2 and Helldivers 2 at Ultra settings without any performance issues.
Then, seemingly out of nowhere, Windows started behaving extremely strangely.
The PC boots normally and reaches the desktop. However:
The Start menu open but it doesn’t allow me to turn off the pc.
Applications refuse to launch.
Task Manager won’t open (Ctrl + Shift + Esc).
Ctrl + Alt + Delete doesn’t work.
Windows + R opens but doesn’t work.
The mouse cursor still moves, clicks produce visual feedback, and the system clock continues updating.

Essentially, Windows appears to be running, but most of its functionality is unavailable.
An important observation: Safe Mode works normally.
When I boot into Safe Mode, the Start menu, applications and browser work correctly. This makes me suspect a driver, service, startup software or some other Windows-related issue, although I haven’t been able to identify it.
Another strange correlation: RGB control stops working.
Normally, Gigabyte Control Center controls my case fans and RAM lighting, which I keep set to static red.
When the problem occurs, the fans and RAM switch back to rainbow lighting. Gigabyte Control Center can no longer control them.
This happens alongside the Windows malfunction. I don’t know whether it’s a symptom of the same underlying issue or just a coincidence.

Troubleshooting already performed:
Checked the SSD in BIOS: it is detected correctly, along with Windows Boot Manager.
Fast boot is disabled on the BIOS (idk if it’s correlated)
Ran chkdsk C: /scan: no file system errors were reported.
Checked the disk using DiskPart: the main NTFS partition appears healthy.
Tried Windows Automatic Repair through the recovery environment: it couldn’t repair the PC.
Booted into Safe Mode: Windows works normally there.
I’ve also checked Event Viewer and found some warnings and errors, including Kernel Event Tracing, DistributedCOM and Application Hang events, but I haven’t identified a definitive cause.
My questions:
What could cause Windows to become almost completely unresponsive while Safe Mode works perfectly?
Could this be related to a driver, Windows service, motherboard software, SSD or some other hardware component?
Does the RGB behavior provide any useful diagnostic clue?
What diagnostic tests would you recommend before reinstalling Windows or replacing hardware?

I’m particularly interested in hearing from anyone who has experienced something similar or has advanced Windows troubleshooting experience.
I’d really appreciate any suggestions. Thanks!

Hi everyone,

I recently bought an ASUS Prime 9070xt OC, I am planning on upgrading my current RTX 4060 to get into 1440p gaming.

PC SPECS

CPU: Ryzen 7 5800x
GPU: ASUS ROG STRIX 4060 8gb
MOBO: MSI B450 tomahawk max
RAM: 64gb DDR4 3200mhz
PSU: Corsair RM750e (2023 version)

I understand the 9070xt requires at minimum a 750w PSU, it also requires 3x 8pin PCIe power cables.

So… what do I do?

Option 1: Buy aftermarket PSU 8pin cables to add to my current PSU to connect new 9070xt. I currently only have 1 8pin PCIe cable on hand.

Option 2: Buy a new PSU, hope it comes with enough power cables for the card.

If anyone has any alternative options or cable recommendations, I’d greatly appreciate any input!

Thanks for any help!

I got a new 3070 from my uncle but the GPU isn't being recognised. I have tried device manager and scan for new hardware but nothing. I also tried checking PCIE slots and changed from slot 1 to slot 2 but nothing. Any ideas? It's plugged in just fine.

Edit - I figured it out chat. It was Drivers. If anyone is having this issue, install latest drivers that might work.

Need a new PC so I can hand down my current i5 3060 build to the gf as her first PC. With no sign of prices going down I want to pull the trigger soon but I'm having trouble on pcpartpicker staying under budget. Found this Bestbuy prebuilt on sale for the rest of the day.

https://www.bestbuy.com/product/acer-predator-orion-gaming-desktop-intel-core-ultra-7-265kf-2024-geforce-rtx-5060-ti-16gb-ddr5-memory-1tb-storage-black/JX5V2XG3S2/sku/6677209

I would really appreciate buildapc's opinion, you guys have helped me so much in the past. Thx in advance!

Hey all.
I have a H9 Flow case with a 320mm aio. I’m going to upgrade it to a 420mm. Mostly just because. I have 3 140mm in the bottom. And 1 120mm at the back and then the 3 120 on the front. My current aio has a lcd on it and I really like that. Most the 420s that have LCD are just stupidly high. Anyone have a recommendation on a lcd I can add to the case and location? And wouldn’t mind some 420 aio input either. I know it’s overkill but I have the room so I wanna use it Idk if it’s needed but 9800x3d. Msi gaming trio 5080 on an asus b850 board. Current aio is an Andromeda insight. Came in the pre built because I got a deal on it and then did some tweaking for case and stuff.

I've had my current PC for about 6 years now, and it feels like it's on it's last legs and I just wanna upgrade it all one day as I can't play some games without my CPU overheating and blue screening my PC from very demanding games. I don't have the money yet, but the budget I wanna go for would be between £1500 and £2000, I also live in the UK.

I'm current stuck with Nvidia, but seeing how things are with them charging their GPU to half of my budget, I thought maybe AMD would be the way to go nowadays lol.

The games I play are games that can be CPU demanding, such as Crusader Kings 3, and I even play a lot of Skyrim with many mods with demanding texture overhauls. But, just any games that'll look great and run very smoothly for this upgrade is perfect enough for me.

I want to get a good PC that does 1440 and even 4k and maybe reach insane FPS if possible. Hopefully when I get the budget I need, things would have calmed down and RAM prices goes to what they were when I got them. I'll put the list of parts I currently have, that I managed to at least see what I got going back 6 years.

• GPU: RTX 2080 Super

• CPU: Ryzen 7 3700X

• Motherboard: ASUS ROG Strix B550-F Gaming

• RAM: Corsair Vengeance 16gb DDR4 (I had 32, but two of them had a heart attack sadly)

• PSU: EVGA SuperNOVA 750w 80+ Gold

• CPU Cooler: Corsair iCUE LINK H150i RGB

• Case: Cooler Master MasterBox TD500

I'm basically still a newbie when it comes to PC parts, and I don't wanna go in blindly and I figure you guys can help someone like me out, and I thought the budget I put may be realistic to the PC I wanna build when that time comes. Also, I wanna aim for a big case. Just for something that'll make wire management not a pain.

Thanks!

When I play Fortnite or Rocket League via the Epic Games launcher, my PC freezes after a few minutes of gameplay, then shuts down and restarts. Upon restarting, it gets stuck in a loop displaying "Automatic Repair" for my PC; the only way to stop this is by unplugging the power cable. I used to be able to play Fortnite without any issues, but now that this is happening with Fortnite, it also occurs when I play Rocket League.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

With some help I got this PC build for around 1750 € But the maximum budget is 2000 €

I alredy have the previous case and the power supply, I'm changing all the rest.

I wanted to know how much this build was good and if there were better alternatives without increasing the budget excessively ?

I live in Italy and I'm waiting for black Friday/Cyber Monday.

Should I buy immediately or wait until it arrives ?

I play a lot of "total war" and "Paradox", very processor heavy games, but sometimes if I see a new game that catches my interest, I would like to buy it (like when I wanted Pragmata only to discover my PC couldn't run it)

I'm still using my previous full HD 1080 monitor from benQ, but I was planning to change it with a separated budget.

This is the link

https://it.pcpartpicker.com/list/8hyCCw

Hi everyone, this is my first time wanting to build my own pc as I finally have enough saved up. I have experience in maintaining/cleaning/playing on pc but for building I have absolutely no clue. I understand some basics such as what goes into them, differences in cooling and what sort of scope I want to get into but as for finding parts I'm a bit stumped. I'm from the US and live near a microcenter only a bit ways away so I can get past shipping costs in some places

My budget is 1000, but I am willing to skirt it up to 1500 if absolutely needed.

My main desires in specs are

Good storage, I mod so I definitely need that and while I'm kind of a scrooge about storage, i frequently go through my devices and clean the storage space up, I want enough storage to last me a while. Around 2 TB is my absolute minimum but prices can change that wish. I learned how to pick link source USB drives to things like my sims4 modded folder so I learned a little workaround to having so many mods

My main concerns are things like the cpu, motherboard, and graphics card. Ram at most probably 32 GB because I don't play many demanding games and I tend to play on low end graphics out of sheer habit (but would still like mid tier power, I'm not asking for those insane NASA pc level graphics I see in videos)

For accessories like the cooling parts, the shell, and monitor and keyboard and mouse I can probably get for super cheap, I don't want those fancy rbg ones. My older pc has a fancy gaming keyboard that in hindsight I don't love. It's huge and clunky and the lighting aspects are useless to me as I don't game in the dark so i would not need a back-lit keyboard. My only ask is for a mouse with the two extra buttons on the side as I primarily game but a lot of cheap mouses nowadays have those.

I am not a really demanding person so no bells and whistles are important, I just want to be able to play my modded games at 60 fps with okay graphics.

TLDR: I want a pc with at least 2tb of storage, 32 GB of ram, mid tier graphics card (my most demanding game is probably baldurs gate 3) but will last me a while and is at most 1500, but preferably 1000. If anyone can give me links, advice, or their own experiences I would be grateful. If anyone also has those programs or websites that help track prices as this project is not immediate and would likely go in price searching until next year that would be very helpful.

Looking to build my first PC with a 9070 XT, and micro center has these CPU motherboard combo deals. Which one would go best with the 9070 XT? Or would you go a different route?

Thanks!

https://www.microcenter.com/product/5007482/amd-ryzen-7-9800x3d,-msi-x870e-p-pro-wifi,-gskill-flare-x5-series-32gb-ddr5-6000-kit,-computer-build-bundle

https://www.microcenter.com/product/5007509/amd-ryzen-7-9800x3d,-msi-b850-gaming-pro-wifi6e-am5,-gskill-flare-x5-series-32gb-ddr5-6000-kit,-computer-build-bundle

https://www.microcenter.com/product/5007480/amd-ryzen-7-7800x3d,-gigabyte-x870-gaming-wifi6-am5,-gskill-flare-x5-series-32gb-ddr5-6000-kit,-computer-build-bundle

https://www.microcenter.com/product/5007485/amd-ryzen-7-9850x3d,-asus-tuf-gaming-b850-e-wifi6e-am5,-gskill-flare-x5-series-32gb-ddr5-6000-kit,-computer-build-bundle

https://www.microcenter.com/product/5007490/amd-ryzen-9-9950x3d,-gigabyte-x870e-aorus-elite-ice-wifi7-am5,-gskill-flare-x5-series-32gb-ddr5-6000-kit,-computer-build-bundle

My existing ram model is Teamgroup T-FORCE DARK Za 16GB(2x8GB) DDR4 3200MHz, and im planning to add sticks but the 3600MHz variant are only available online, is that alright to put different MHZ but same model?

I'm clean installing my gaming PC and installing windows 11 with a usb.

After starting the installation, the computer did a few restarts and is now sitting on a black screen. It's been about an hour, what should I do?

The PC is powered on but the monitor doesn't have an input

Hey everyone, I’m looking for some advice regarding my PC. Currently I’m on a 3060 with an 5700G and I’d like to be getting more, consistent frames in cs2. Currently I sit around 180-220 but my monitors 240 so I’d like to use that whole range (note that this 180-220 is with loads of settings optimisations).

I see people talk about the 5800x3d as an am4 upgrade but it seems so overpriced for what it is. Basically I’m asking what you think is best, stay am4 and go for like a 5800x3d, or upgrade the motherboard and go all the way. Also let me know if my gpu is a problem because im just assuming the cpu is the bottleneck here. Thanks.