Two problems with my kids' rig.
Two problems with my kids' rig.
I'm here to help with your concerns. A year ago, I assembled a basic gaming setup for my kids using parts I found online. It's quite simple: a 3rd generation Intel i5, 16GB DDR3 RAM, a 2TB Seagate drive, and an RTX 2060 graphics card. The main problems I encountered were:
1. Graphics Card: Over time, the card would stop showing a signal during boot. Even when it was up, it wouldn't display properly. I had to reinsert it and reset it, which resolved the issue temporarily. However, after a few months, it would still crash and black out. This wasn't related to the card itself but possibly a faulty PCI-E slot.
2. Hard Drive: When I experienced another black screen, the drive made a grinding noise and vibrated. After fixing it, loading windows took about 5 seconds. The drive also performed poorly during Windows operations, running at only 26 MB/s compared to its usual speed. I ran diagnostics and the drive appeared healthy, but I'm concerned about its long-term reliability.
Considering these issues, it seems the hardware might be struggling. I'm thinking about replacing it and cloning the drive before it completely fails. What do you think? Any advice would be appreciated.
There may be a PCIE slot issue, or it could relate to the display output or the cable itself. The intermittent failure is hard to pinpoint without detailed data. Issue 2 suggests it's time to replace the HDD before it fails completely. Prices for SSDs have dropped, so a 500GB SSD should be affordable around 40 USD, and a 2TB WD Blue or Seagate Barracuda HDD could cost about 50 USD.
Unfortunately not. It's just a mini itx board so it only has one pcie slot. I do have other computers in the house to test it though. That's what i was worried about. Just needed someone to confirm it. Thanks for that. Thanks for your advice. You're prices were spot on. I've just ordered a crucial 500gb sata ssd for £40. Got a 2tb seagate barracuda compute drive for £50. That should be more than enough for them. Later down the line i will buy them a better mobo/cpu/memory set and upgrade it properly. I've been planning it for a while. Its just i need to wait to have the right money for it.