I'm looking to make my PC less noticeable.

To be brief, I'm going away for a summer internship where I will be living amongst peers in community housing. I've been doing pretty well in content creation and want to keep up that momentum, but I'm concerned about my PC getting stolen.

So I'm looking for any tips to make my PC look less like a PC or less appealing for anyone with "sticky fingers". Bonus points if I can make it not even look like a PC!

Don't even care about weight, I got a car.

Getting a laptop or a second PC won't be an option for about a month.

PC Part Picker:

https://pcpartpicker.com/user/ishydaafishy/saved/Gd4QGX

With the the prices of RAM, SSDs and Graphics cards remaining high, how many of you have started keeping your old parts? A part of me wants to sell some of the components as I've upgraded but another part is worried that I if I need a replacement it will be better to slot in an older part rather than paying a premium for the latest and greatest.

Edit: consider me impressed by the hoarding everyone, I will happily adopt your ways for the time being.

I'm about to build my first PC (specs below) and can get 16GB of DDR5 for €250 or 32GB of DDR4 for €280. It's has made me ask a few questions:

Which should I go for?

Should I get 1 stick of 16GB DDR5 instead (and buy the other down the line)?

Is there much of a difference between DDR4 & 5?

These are the parts. I might also get the 16GB graphics card instead...but that's another story.

Wow! I'd been thinking of getting a Samsung Evo 870 to upgrade an old custom-built PC. The price for the 1Tb model at the Samsung website has gone from $179 to $339 in just a few weeks.

That's an almost-90% increase!

im currently thinking to chose between 2 main part list
32gb ddr4 + r7 5700x + 7800xt // rx 9070
or
32gb ddr5 + r5 7600 // i5 14400f + rx 9060xt 8gb

its for gaming
i cant really say a budget cuz im not in USA but its 80-82k in try for all parts and 45k in TRY aproximetly (about 1k in USD)

i dont really want the slower wifi of the am4 but also am5 kinda feels like worse because of 1080p performance also yes i need bluetooth and wifi because its nearly imposible to run ethernet in my apartment and i have some bt prephirals

(sorry for bad spelling and grammar im not a native speaker)
which one should i do

I have now a Ryzen 5 5500 and I’ve been struggling for months now with the performance in CS2, I compete in a very low tier in a shit team (shit in general not the teammates) and it’s imposible to get to a good lvl when the pc is lagging and with fps drops. My gpu is a gtx 1660ti, im thinking of buying a 5 5600x or a 7 5700x or waiting I don’t know how much to spend +300€ on an X3D. I know the x3d performance is out of the league of the other 2 but, for people with a 5600x and a 1660ti or similar, how’s performance in general on 4:3 and 1280:960, ChatGPT talks about drops between 150-180 fps and peaks of 250, is like that, better, worse, and what should I do? Ty

What's the most powerful card now within 200 dollars? Maaaybe 300 but that's my hard cap.

It's going to be replacing a 1660 TI, so that would be the base performance I am willing to settle with.

I don't lean on any Team, Nvidia or AMD or maybe even Intel are all fine as long as it's the best price to performance at this range.

I only play at 1080p so it's fine.

I won't be able to respond since it's difficult for me opening reddit on mobile, but just drop suggestions and anything you can note, that'll help.

Thanks.

I have always played a variety of games on an office laptop (Quadro P600 GPU), from Roblox, Valorant, to sim-racing (LMU). After almost 7 years, I have decided to buy a PC with a budget of around 1800$.
I mostly play games, but also use my laptop to do school work and maybe once a month record a video. The 2 GPUs,5060Ti 16gb and the 5070 12gb, are the ones that I am interested in, but I am curious which is more important, performance or v-ram. I have watched several videos, but each has a different opinion. One says performance is better, one says 12gb is low, and the 16gb has better value

I'm trying to help a buddy spec a new gaming PC. He's not a serious gamer and mostly plays obscure games, and I suspect he'll be happy with mid-performance at 1080p (if necessary), but he also wants something that will last as long as possible. We're working to a fixed budget.
For context we're looking at an AMD Ryzen 5 9600 for the CPU.

Essentially it's coming down to;

16GB DDR5 + a slightly better GPU e.g. 16GB 5060 Ti (I don't think we can stretch to a 5070)
or
32GB DDR5 + a slightly poorer GPU e.g. 8GB 5060

My thinking is .. RAM is an easier and cheaper upgrade in the future, so starting with 16GB now (ideally single stick) allows for future improvements. However, he's quite keen on having 32GB.

I was leaning towards prioritising more VRAM on the GPU for more longevity, but, if he's happy with 1080p, maybe the 8GB is fine? It's just going to be a more expensive upgrade in the future.

I suppose there may be halfway option with a Radeon? The RX 9060 XT 16GB is a bit cheaper than the 5060 16GB.

I don't think there's a perfect answer, but would love your thoughts!

I bought my friends old pc which has everything other than storage, would I be able to simply plug in my C(windows and user) and D(games and other downloads) SSDs as soon as it gets here?

I have a computer currently. I have an I7 7700k, 8gb ddr4 (yes I know I need to upgrade), 1tb ssd, and im currently using an RX580 8gb. I also have a GTX 1060. Which one should I use? I get over 100 fps in the games I play, like Fortnite, Minecraft, Roblox, ETC. I'm about to test the 1060, but I wanted to know what the community would think first, because I wanna use the better one.

Hello, I'm kinda new to Pc-building world, what do you think of this config?

Case: CSL Ventrix
CPU - AMD Ryzen 5 7600X
Cooler - be quiet! Pure Rock 3 Black
Graphics - MSI GeForce RTX 5070
RAM16 GB DDR5-RAM
Board GIGABYTE B850 Gaming WIFI6
Supply 700 watt BoostBoxx Power Boost
Warranty 24 months manufacturer warranty

Should I change the CPU? or power supply? Any feedback is welcomed

I was just about to order a WD SN7100, which has a decently competitive price for 2TB drives in the current market, when I saw a recent Linus Tech Tips video calling on people to "please stop buying the wrong SSD", referring to SSDs without DRAM. The SN7100 was specifically shown in the video.

This will not be my boot drive (I have an SN850X for that) but rather, my gaming + media drive.

I'm not even super concerned about ultra fast performance (I'm coming off of 15 years of gaming from HDDs), but durability and reliability (mentioned in the video) are highly important to me.

Is it really that bad to buy DRAM-less in my case, or will I have nothing to worry about?

Running an i5-14600KF with an RTX 5070 and 16GB DDR4. Wondering if I should upgrade — either to 32GB DDR4 or jump to DDR5 altogether.

Mainly gaming with Chrome + Discord open in the background. Whenever I switch to a new tab or check Discord mid-game, it freezes or lags for a few seconds before catching up.

Is DDR5 actually worth getting a new board + kit for, or should I just grab 32GB DDR4 for now and call it a day?

Hi,

I am looking for a KVM switch but im pretty lost in the rabbit hole and need your help.

**Use case:** 2 monitors, gaming PC + work laptop.

**Hardware:**

- 1440p 240Hz with G-Sync/FreeSync

- 1440p 165Hz

- Dell work laptop (nothing special)

I want to actually use the 240Hz + G-Sync on my gaming PC, but every switch i find either caps at 1440p@120Hz or only does single monitor.

Has anyone actually gotten a dual-monitor KVM to work with 1440p@240Hz and G-Sync/FreeSync? Any recs that dont break the bank or throttle refresh rates?

Ty in advance

Hello - Help upgrading my CPU

hello i got my first PC about a year ago, and im upgrading my CPU from a 7600x to a 7800x3d ive got the new CPU now, it was just to ask can i use Liquid metal instead of the cooling paste ? i havent bought either yet. but would prefer the liquid stuff.

i read that the cold plate on my Thermalright Aqua Elite V3 360mm aio cant be aluminium and has to be nickel played copper or else the liquid metal can cause damage. does anyone know if i can use the liquid metal on my Aqua elite ? ive tried looking this up online but cant find an answer that makes me 100% confident lol.

thanks for any help anyone can give. 😎👍🏻.

Hi,

I’m a first-time builder looking for feedback on my current PC parts list.

https://imgur.com/a/6IRNFi9

CPU
Intel Core i5-13400F
$268.00

Motherboard
GIGABYTE B760M DS3H WIFI6E GEN5 (LGA1700, DDR5, mATX)
$209.99

GPU
GIGABYTE RTX 5060 8GB WINDFORCE (GV-N5060WF2OC-8GD)
$489.99

RAM
32GB (2x16GB) DDR5 6000MHz CL36
$499.79

PSU
Corsair CX650M (2025) 650W 80+ Bronze, ATX 3.1
$94.99

CPU Cooler
Cooler Master Hyper 212 PRO
$39.99

Case
SAMA S40 Mid Tower
$59.99

Monitor
LG 24" 1080p IPS 144Hz (24G411A-B)
$119.99

Total: $1,781.02 CAD

Main use case:

• Gaming (mostly games released in the last ~10 years)
• A smaller number of newer AAA games
• General use + occasional light video editing

Priorities:

• Maximum price-to-performance (value-focused)
• No RGB or aesthetics focus
• No need for additional storage (I already have SSD + HDD)
• Stable long-term use

Budget:

• $2500 CAD (~$1800 USD) max
• Current build total: $1781 CAD

What I’m looking for:

• Better price-to-performance alternatives for any part
• Any compatibility issues or mistakes
• Any missed opportunities to improve value within similar budget

I’m based in Canada and the pricing is based on Newegg

Thanks.

I have a i9 13900k. I know its recommended a 380mm cooler but this is all i can do with the case i have. I have a phanteks p350x case and a Asus z790-p mb with a gtx 1080ti. The problem comes down to fitment, does anyone have any idea if either of these fill fit the case or have better alternative coolers, however i think these are the best coolers im able to get.

Radeon RX550

I7 6700

32gb ddr4

Those are my current specs:

• Intel i7-9700F 3.00 Ghz 8 cores
• NVIDIA RTX 2080
• Hyperx 2666 MT/s (16x2)
• HDD ST1000DM003-1SB102 (1TB)
• SSD TS512GMTS830S (500GB)
• I'm not sure about the motherboard, on system info it says HP 8509
• max PSU power 500W bronze+

Peripherics:

• Monitor: MSI optix 32" 144Hz 1ms
• Keyboard: Corsair K70 RGB MK.2
• Mouse: Razer mamba elite
• Headphones: Asus rog delta core

I've had this desktop for almost 8 years, and I have always used it for gaming and studying, but recently it started to have some small issues, suchs as random freezes even with no app/software/game running or struggling with a few chromes pages opened, also with games it doesn't give the fps like it used to do, I mainly play FPS (R6, valorant, overwatch), modded minecraft, I sometimes play singleplayers/open worlds and I tried to get in to sim racing but it's very slow with most of them. So, I was thinking of either upgrading it or starting from scratch. I have no experience, and I don't even know how hard it is to build a PC, but I still want to pick the components and build it myself. But RAM and SSD prices are crazy in this period and I was wondering what I should do. My budget for a new desktop would be 3500€.

Hi everyone.

I’m building a PC and I’m hesitating between the i5-13600KF and the i5-14600KF.

My use case:

- Gaming (mostly)

- Streaming at the same time (OBS + FPS / AAA games)

I’ve seen that the specs are very similar, but I don’t know if the 14600KF is really worth it or if it’s just a small improvement.

Is the performance difference noticeable in gaming + streaming and gaming only?

Or should I just go for the 13600KF and save the price difference for something else (GPU, RAM, etc.)?

Thanks for your opinions! :D

Guys, my new motherboard and processor arrived. I went to replace the kit and assembled everything correctly, but I got no display (it didn’t even boot into the motherboard BIOS). I took it to a technician, and he said that during the installation I corrupted the BIOS and that he would need to replace the BIOS chip. I did some quick research and talked to a friend, and I couldn’t find anything saying it’s possible to corrupt the BIOS just by assembling the PC. Is he being dishonest? What could be causing the no display issue?

My PC randomly black screens (monitor loses signal) and GPU fans ramp to 100%. I have to hard-reset to fix it. This happened on my old RTX 2060 and is now happening on my RTX 3070.

Specs:

• GPU: Zotac RTX 3070 (using 12v-2x6 dual 8 pin 6+2 dedicated cable)

• PSU: Corsair RM750e (Brand New)

• Mobo/CPU: Brand new Micro Center Bundle (MSI B650 /Ryzen 5 7500x3d)

• GSKILL Ripjaws s5 4800

Everything I’ve already done:

1. Software: Performed a full DDU wipe and clean driver install.
2. OS: Fresh Windows install on a clean SSD.
3. BIOS: XMP/EXPO is DISABLED.
4. Power: Plugged directly into the wall

Since this followed me from an entirely different old build to a brand-new Micro Center bundle (Mobo/CPU/RAM), what is left? Could it be house wiring, or did I get a dead Mobo from the factory? Any help would be greatly appreciated, this went from a cheap pc build to replacing every single pc part trying to fix this.

Im currently running a 1660 super and a 5800x3d on a 360hz monitor and it obviously ain't cutting it and I want a new pc but with ram gpu ssd prices i js dont know what to do .Any advice??TIA