After getting my new GPU, I was playing a few games and noticed that the GPU temps were over 80 degrees Celsius… very bad. I thought that I just didn’t have a case that had really good airflow… so, a new case I needed and that’s all I was going to get (forshadowing: it wasn’t). I went through 3 cases before I got the one I wanted to keep.
The first one I had to return because it was damaged. I got the black version even though most of my components are white. I thought I could make that work. To prove that, I bought a second case and this is the result of that:
Before I get to the third case, I went through a lot with getting this to work… sort of.
First, I bent the pins on my CPU. This is bad. I used to be able to unbend the pins, but I also has a super magnifying glass at Fry’s and patience. I had neither. Look at these pins:
I purchased a new CPU and installed that in my PC and it worked for a bit. The first one I got failed to post if RAM was in a certain configuration. I did a lot of testing…
I never got it to work like it was supposed to. So, I decided to return the case and the CPU, it was a Ryzen 7 5700X3D. Almost the best gaming CPU on the AM4 platform. After returning the CPU (and I decided to return the case as well), I got this case. If only a new CPU and case would be the end of the story… shenanigans were to ensue…
I put all of my old components in it along with the new 5700X3D. This one worked… for a day. This was happier times.
I got very frustrated and it must also be my motherboard. I did a lot of research to end up with feeling that If I have to spend the money on a new motherboard and CPU, I might as well move to the new AM5 platform. AMD supports a platform for a number of generations of CPU (AM4 had 4 generations of CPU: 1000 series, 2000 series, 3000 series and 5000 series) and AM5 should do the same (currently, we are on 2nd generation on AM5: 7000 series and 9000 series).
I made the jump. I bought a new motherboard, an AMD R5 7000 series CPU, new RAM (as required on new platform) and just for kicks, a new PSU.
I decided to go with the Gigabyte AROUS Elite AX Ice (white), Corsair Vengeance RGB DDR5 5600Mhz 32GB kit, the AMD Ryzen 5 7600X CPU and an MSI 750W PSU
In addition to al of this, I had to buy a new fan kit so I’d have 3 fans on the front of the case, 1 in the back and the two that came with the liquid cooler. In essence, I practically rebuilt my entire PC since I had already bought a new GPU. Now, I had a new case, PSU, CPU, motherboard, and RAM. The only hold over now is the storage and the liquid cooler and 2 fans. Everything else is new. I even ended up re-installing Windows 11 so even it is ‘new’.
So, here it is today on my new desk. That blog post is coming in a couple of days. This picture is sneak peak at what’s to come…
All I really wanted was a new GPU and while I did get it. So much happened as a result and it was an avalanche of bad things. From the multiple cases to even multiple CPUs that I damaged and ones that I bought that didn’t seem to work… and then changing out practically the entire insides of the computer. I am super happy with the resulting computer, but I would have been happy if it had of just worked in my original case and if that didn’t work out, a new case is not a bad thing. All of the other stuff, I could have done without, but I also had not much of a choice: No PC or put some money into new parts and fix my PC. For full specs of my PCs and Macs, check out What I Use.
PC building is fun and great but … it can also be frustrating.
Onto the next post…
