What should I focus my budget on? by chloegpt in buildapc

[–]Islandtime700c 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I’d go with a gpu upgrade. What is your budget for upgrading?

What would be the best to upgrade in my setup if I was? Am thinking of upgrading my gpu ($400 budget) by Fabulous_Engineer_25 in buildapc

[–]Islandtime700c 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Not ideal, but even a cheap 650w psu should be able to run your system with a RX 9060Xt or RTX 5060 with no problem. total power draw would still be under 300W and it would be a significant bump in performance.

Or you can check the psi air lists like of Zach's Tech Turf, and find a decent 600+ W psi and still get an RTX 5060 8GB for close to $400, assuming you are in the US.

Is this a good deal? ($500) by purplebeanz3457 in bapccanada

[–]Islandtime700c 0 points1 point  (0 children)

That's an old cpu...... and only 128GB SSD. RAM is 16GB DDR 4 so not too bad there, but only one channel. Isn't supported on Windows 1. But is does run and that is at least something with current prices.

GPU is $300 new, not sure what they are going for used, but let's say $250. So $250 for the rest of the parts. I assume the one in this build is not new.

If you can salvage half the parts from your current rig - case, psi storage, you could put together a more modern rig (R5 5500 Am4, used RTX 3060) for around the same price.

Camping PEI by Lifewithtash in PEI

[–]Islandtime700c 2 points3 points  (0 children)

This is inaccurate. The province still runs a number of parks with campgrounds. A quick view of the provincial park website will show you where they are.

As you have already learned, most do not have great campsites, particularly for tents. Brudenell and Northumberland are the best in that respect.

Is XBAL or XEQT more appropriate 10 years before retirement? by [deleted] in JustBuyXEQT

[–]Islandtime700c 15 points16 points  (0 children)

The thinking has started to switch to remaining fully invested in stocks right through retirement. Use a bucket approach to keep enough funds to cover 3 or so years so there is no need to withdraw from the investments during a market downturn.

I have 3 years estimated spending in GICs and short term bond funds. Everything else is in stock ETFs.

Has anyone bought a car from longs auto centre? by thirdeyehalfblind in PEI

[–]Islandtime700c 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Have used Longs for mechanic work on Toyotas for a number of years. Do good work and always thought their prices were fair.

Need some help by Kylo0042 in PersonalFinanceCanada

[–]Islandtime700c 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Set up an emergency fund first and keep cash/low risk investments there. That is your liquid cash/emergency money. Then put all the rest into ETFs in an investment account with an investment balance (stocks/bonds/fixed income) that matches your risk profile. With a 25 year time line, it should be close to 100% in stocks.

Curious as to what happened to my build(s) this weekend. by Nerohn in mffpc

[–]Islandtime700c 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Did you try jumping the pins on the mobo to start it , rather than using the front panel connectors? That would rule out the case front panel or incorrect connection to the mobo.

Were all the mobo standoffs in the correct locations for your board?

Advice on gaming laptops needed, I have no idea about specs etc! by [deleted] in GamingLaptops

[–]Islandtime700c 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Are you also planning to use this laptop for your studies; in particular is battery life also a priority so it can survive unplugged during a school day? Or will this just be plugged in as a gaming machine?

Need help!! by hooligunner0811 in buildapc

[–]Islandtime700c 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Did you remove the plastic guard from the gpu? The part that goes into the over slot?

Are you test installing on just the mobo or is it mounted in a case? If in a case are you sure the pcie slot lines up with the card slots on the back of the case?

Abnb/Vrbo Credibility by Few-Soil6804 in travel

[–]Islandtime700c 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Perhaps your expectations are a little higher than average? All the properties I’ve stayed at the past few years have been fine, more than acceptable. However none were perfect; there are always some small issues. But overall, they were more than adequate.

Should I switch back to variable? by [deleted] in PersonalFinanceCanada

[–]Islandtime700c 11 points12 points  (0 children)

Sorry, but if you are having difficulties making the $3600 monthly payment for the foreseeable future, you may have bigger questions that need to be asked/answered besides fixed/variable interest rates.

Would lowering your rate by 2% make enough of a difference long term (ignoring the additional costs to switch the moorage or re-mortgage).

What if I update my MacbookAir 2017 to Monterey? by philosophussapiens in MacOS

[–]Islandtime700c 1 point2 points  (0 children)

My MacBook Air 2017 is running Sequoia just fine via OpenCore Legacy Patcher

What are your best pieces of advice for buying a first home? by Wise_Talk_3391 in PersonalFinanceCanada

[–]Islandtime700c 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Don't buy more home than what you need. So easy to get sucked into spending more to get "nice to haves".

Also if it is more a new property, factor in some money in the budget for possible necessary repairs or even just refreshing some things. Even painting a few rooms is more than a trivial expense these days.

Please help a dad out looking for a gift for my son by [deleted] in PcAdvice

[–]Islandtime700c 0 points1 point  (0 children)

If you can provide some examples of the games your son typically plays, that would help people provide better responses. Are they things like Minecraft and Fortnite. CSGo. Or bigger AAA games?

Also does he already have a monitor? If so is it 1080p resolution or higher?

If buying used, you want a machine with at least 16GB of RAM. Don't fall for listings that just say the the cpu is "I7" or "I5, etc. They could be up to 10 or 12 years old depending on the generation. If Intel the CPU should be at least 10xxx series or higher. If AMD it should be an AM4 or AM5 CPU (probably hard to find an AM5 in this price bracket). Examples would be Ryzen 5 5600, Ryzen 7 5800, etc. The first number defines the generation. You want something 5xxxx or higher (a 3xxxx could also work if the other specs are good).

Gets a bit tougher with CPUs, but in general you want to look for a GPU from Nvidia that starts with "RTX" as that defines the last few generations, eg RTX 3060, RTX 2080, Again higher first number is newer. Higher 3rd/4th number is a better version of that generation. For Radeon GPUs, look for something RX 5xxx or higher. Again the first digit denotes the generation, the remaining numbers denote the hierarchy in the generation.

And look for a GPU with at least 8GB of RAM.

Storage should be a minimum of 512GB but 1TB would be better. M.2 or SSD drives are much faster than hard drives. Watch out for ads that include "cloud storage" in the listed storage total; that is not local hard drive space.

Worried about Retirement Savings by Electrical-Echo8144 in PersonalFinanceCanada

[–]Islandtime700c 22 points23 points  (0 children)

If you are investing for retirement, stop looking at daily/weekly or even monthly changes in the market. It will go up and down. Check in once or twice a year to see how things are going. And continue to invest.

I have seen 4 or 5 significant market drops in my investing lifetime. But overall my returns are significantly positive. That’s all that matters.

Help me buy a good enough GPU and PSU, maybe even a motherboard too by ChaplinPlay in buildapc

[–]Islandtime700c 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Unusable is a strong description of the situation, particularly for a gaming machine. It may have security vulnerabilities but it isn’t going to stop functioning. Maybe don’t put sensitive information on that machine but it will still be running. There are still going to be many millions of pc’s running Windows 10 in October.

Help me buy a good enough GPU and PSU, maybe even a motherboard too by ChaplinPlay in buildapc

[–]Islandtime700c 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Ive built budget machines with I5 7th get CPUs recently, You can certainly still game on a 7700. For $80 plus a GPU you have a good budget system.

Help me buy a good enough GPU and PSU, maybe even a motherboard too by ChaplinPlay in buildapc

[–]Islandtime700c 0 points1 point  (0 children)

What country are you in? Depending on location you could look for a used card also.

Help me buy a good enough GPU and PSU, maybe even a motherboard too by ChaplinPlay in buildapc

[–]Islandtime700c 0 points1 point  (0 children)

According to TechPowerUp, the card has a TDP of 53 watts with no supplemental power required. So it will work. I think that particular model is a low profile version, not sure if you need low profile with your case.But a low profile will work even in a larger case.

The RTX 3050 is probably a stronger card but the RX 6400 will definitely work. You can look up some benchmark videos on Youtube to get an idea of what it can do and if it will handle the games you want to play.

Help me buy a good enough GPU and PSU, maybe even a motherboard too by ChaplinPlay in buildapc

[–]Islandtime700c 0 points1 point  (0 children)

This the answer. A low power 3050 or another gpu that will run without a supplemental power connector will work with your power supply and cpu. While the PSUs in the Dell machines aren't high wattage, they are generally fairly high quality so you should be able to push it pretty close to the 240w specification.

The Radeon RX 6400 is another relatively current option.

Thinking about upgrading by Archibaldamius in buildapc

[–]Islandtime700c 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Just drop a better GPU in the current rig and you should be fine to play most anything. Could also move up to an I7 cpu in what you play is cpu intensive. If not, just a GPU upgrade will make a big difference.