Why not to buy a pre-built PC from a major company.

King Damager

King Damager

King Damager

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Ok, so here we go. I've been delving into the depths of the PC that my parents bought me a year and a half ago, and that hence I can't convince them to let me upgrade yet.... Aiming for summer hopefully...

Anyway, started to run some monitoring software, see how it worked out...

I've made my own judgements on how appallingly these things have been put together, but I'll let you judge when you see the picture. At the time, it was the top of the range HP media PC....

If anything this has convinced me more and more, that I must convince the parents to let me build my next pc....

Anyway, make your own judgement, and whilst we're here, I may as well invite you to tell stories of your own bad pre-built experiences...

I should add by pre-built I mean something which is created by one of the major firms, who supply some of the largest stores that the average joe could walk into....

Anyway here we go... this is after 5 Minutes of p95

44013242.png


Edited in CPU-Z as requested
70386965.jpg


I'd also point out I've managed to get the GPU up to 71C after 2 games of MW2....

Absolutely shocking xD

In some ways I actually think this computer was built to die. I'm also sure they've never actually done a stability test of this.....

Anyway, thought this would provide some giggles :)

kd
 
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70c on a GPU is not to bad, most of my gpu's when under load run between 60 - 80c

Core temps look very warm, was this at load - Seen your running P95 :)
 
Well the CPU is on the warm side, but the GPU looks fine.

Rune CPU-Z and post screenshots? Possible chance you can reuse the 920 in summer as it's still one of the best CPUs at the moment. Also maybe the RAM too.
 
I stuck in Cpu-z into the original post as well.

May well use the cpu in summer, not too sure yet.

Yeah the CPU was at 100% load, had been running P95 for 5 minutes...

and yes, it is pretty much at stock... not quite...

And the VCore's up ;p

That was exactly my thought when I saw it :p

Idle temps are around about 50C

I might point out, I haven't touched the BIOS since it came out of the box... so this is how it comes brand new to consumer

kd
 
Core Voltage 1.64?! for a stock i7 920?!

Mine needs 1.28v for 4.2GHz

Download the latest CPU-Z, may be an error that is wrong! Check what it is in the BIOS?!


stulid said:
some people have Fermi cards running cooler than that:D
Click to expand...

lol. GTX 470 800/1760/1600 @1.050v tops out at 72 degC after an afternoon of BF:BC2
 
HW monitor shows the VCORE the same, whats the max voltage a i7 920 can take.

I'm at 4ghz and I think I have 1.3v ~
 
Yeah, it's some cheap throw on Cooler - AVC created...

I could indeed probably get a much MUCH better cooler for less than £30 to fix to it, however, at the moment I don't have the time really to remove the CPU cooler and fit a new one...

Another noted flaw that is slightly related to this is that the side panel the motherboard is mounted on is non-removable....

kd
 
Prebuilt pcs often have parts that only just make the spec. Often poor quality psu's are used and towercases are cheap and weak and motherboards used that have had slots removed to save costs or 80mm fans when they should have 120mm+.

I once fixed an old pc made by now bust "tiny computers" and literally the mobo had all the pci slots missing, the second ram slot missing, agp slot missing, bow string cables, a underated really terrible psu, no case fan and last but not least a heatsink that cud not even keep the cpu cool enough at stock speeds.

In short if you cant know every component before you buy dont buy.
 
Reapply the TIM on the CPU and see if you can put a decent cooler on it. My Dell XPS 420 was incompatible with every cooler on the market that wasn't built by Dell.

If you want to kill your computer "accidentally"...
-Throw it out a window
-take to it with a sledgehammer
-throw a metal paperclip behind the mobo
-remove the CPU cooler and GPU heatsink and play MW2

Anyways, thats all i canthink of ATM
 
This one seems to be a bit hit and miss tbh on components. Thankfully it's not the same as AceTK. The PCI slots are still there, and it has all the slots still for RAM xD. Must say however the PSU is atrocious... some company I'd never heard of and about 430W max.

If I wanted to kill it, I'd probably just unplug a power cable from the HDD or something. Parents don't know enough about computers... However in all honesty I could easily get away with convincing them... the only reason I haven't actually done anything is because yeah, at uni with this, so it would be a pain IF anything went wrong... Whilst it probably wouldn't losing a computer would be annoying...

kd
 
You've got an i7 and MW2 and you play on a GF120? :confused:

I'd upgrade the gpu in the summer as you say, and I'd reseat you're cooler with some new tim or buy a better cooler (and overclock) in the meantime :)
 
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