Your daily dose of practical, easy to follow tech tips!
Question from Travis: I’ve been wanting to build a gaming PC for a while and I’ve finally saved enough money to build one as long as I can keep the cost of the CPU and motherboard to around $400 total.
I’ve found several combos in that price range but I’m most interested in this Intel Core i5 CPU and ASUS ROG motherboard.
Do you think these will make a good gaming computer if I install 16GB of RAM and a good video card?
Rick’s answer: [Read more…]
Question from Nathan P.: I just finished building my first computer from a bare-bones kit.
Everything worked fine from the moment I first powered it up, but the BIOS says the RAM is running at 1333 MHz even though the RAM sticks are rated at 1600 MHz.
My CPU is an Intel Core i5 and the RAM sticks are Corsair Vengeance 8GB DDR3 / 1600 MHz. Is it safe to bump up the clock speed in the BIOS to match the RAM’s rating of 1600 MHz?
This is my first build, and I seriously don’t want to fry anything by overclocking the RAM if there’s some reason the motherboard is running it at a slower speed..
Rick’s answer: [Read more…]
Question from Aaron P.: When my PC died I decided to build my own computer instead of buying one off the shelf to replace it.
This is a list of the parts I used in the build:
After the parts arrived I put everything together but I can’t get it to power up. The screen stays blank and there are no beeps or sounds of any kind except for the case fans and PSU fan noise.
I’ve double-checked everything I know to check. Any ideas?
Rick’s answer: [Read more…]
As as general rule I don’t recommend replacing a perfectly good motherboard with a newer, faster model, but every now and then I run across a motherboard that offers something so great that I think an upgrade would be worthwhile.
The Sabertooth Z97 Mark 2/USB 3.1 Motherboard from ASUS meets that standard quite nicely in my opinion.
And best of all, it’s affordable – even for those of us who happen to be on a strict budget. [Read more…]
Question from Max R.: I’m planning to build my first home-built computer using an Intel Core i7 CPU and two Corsair 8GB DDR3 RAM sticks (all gifts from my uncle).
I don’t have a lot of money to spend so I need a recommendation for a good, but cheap motherboard that will work with that CPU and RAM. What do you suggest?
Rick’s answer: [Read more…]