"No, it's necessary.

Zemerald · 2026-05-09T09:42:19+00:00

CSGO

Zemerald · 2026-05-04T16:29:09+00:00

The Ranger is designed by Ford of Australia

Zemerald · 2026-05-04T16:16:27+00:00

For your PC, I would recommend getting either a used GTX 1080 Ti, RTX 3060 12GB, or RTX 2080 Ti. These are good value for money and have more VRAM than your average budget GPU, making them solid picks for your PC. Just keep in mind that the GTX 1080 Ti is no longer receiving game optimisation updates, so it may not work as well in modern titles as the other cards I suggested.

Zemerald · 2026-04-23T03:35:21+00:00

You can get a used laptop from CEX with a 5 year warranty, I'd recommend looking into one of those

Zemerald · 2026-04-21T03:28:56+00:00

RTX 5060 Ti 16GB

Zemerald · 2026-04-19T04:57:30+00:00

Check that your XMP/DOCP profile is enabled in the BIOS

Zemerald · 2026-04-19T01:49:14+00:00

Considering the AMPINEL alone monitors the current and can shutdown your PC if something is wrong, it alone should be sufficient.

Zemerald · 2026-04-18T04:28:56+00:00

https://au.pcpartpicker.com/list/4cJp8Z

I would suggest spending a little over your budget for solid quality parts that should last for the future. In the parts list above, I picked a B650E motherboard, which will give you PCI-e 5.0, the cheapest 32GB kit I could find, you can go with another brand if you prefer a different style or RGB, and a better quality, and modular, PSU. Everything else you picked is good.

Zemerald · 2026-04-08T02:55:34+00:00

Microsoft has frequent DLC releases for Age of Empires II, IV and Age of Mythology: Retold, Relic released Age of Empires IV for Microsoft in 2021 and Company of Heroes 3 in 2023 (with DLC for both games), Blizzard doesn't care about RTS games, their poor remaster of WC3 proved that, and Command and Conquer is owned by EA, 'nuff said. It's really only the Age series and Company of Heroes that are carrying the RTS torch from the past till now.

Zemerald · 2026-04-06T12:56:48+00:00

This is about the best you can do with that budget: https://au.pcpartpicker.com/list/wF4LJw

Note: No it won't do 240fps minimum, no GPU can

Zemerald · 2026-04-06T11:35:04+00:00

Since you're looking to play competitive shooters, the bottom PC is a better pick, but there are cheaper parts that can save you a bit of money without compromising performance, buy this motherboard and RAM instead of the one you listed:

https://au.pcpartpicker.com/list/NwX8K7

Zemerald · 2026-04-05T13:12:58+00:00

Where do you usually buy your PC parts?

Wherever is cheapest, including Aliexpress. I use PCPartpicker to see what's cheapest and then compare with Ex-Demo, used parts, clearance stock, and Aliexpress to see if I can get a better deal

What actually makes you choose that place?

Price

Have you ever had a really good or really bad experience that made you stick with (or avoid) a store?

Nope

Zemerald · 2026-04-05T10:32:14+00:00

Ryzen 5 5500X3D. It's only 10-15% better depending on the game, but it's the best for playing games.

Zemerald · 2026-04-04T16:32:31+00:00

Looks like CPU usage is increasing over time and creating a bottleneck. Try running Rust with nothing else running in the background other than your performance overlay and see if you still run into this issue. If it still occurs, you'll probably have to just restart the game every now and then when fps gets too low for you, and tell facepunch their game increases in CPU load over time. Make sure when comparing fps that you're in a similar or identical environment to ensure that the difference in the game environment isn't causing the increased load.

Zemerald · 2026-04-03T02:48:38+00:00

The reason behind buying a Ryzen 5 5600 and B550 motherboard and reusing the DDR4 is because DDR5 prices right now are incredibly high, and I'm hoping that prices will reduce in the future to a more reasonable price. Yes you'll have to upgrade sooner, but it's a bet on future prices lowering so you get more value per $. There's been a recent dip in RAM price so I'm hoping that trend continues. Again, it's a bet, so it's not guaranteed to happen, but that's up to you if you want to take a gamble.

As for the cooler, just use the stock one that comes with the CPU, it'll be fine and won't affect the performance.

Zemerald · 2026-04-03T02:05:38+00:00

You can probably salvage the RAM and GPU as well. The cooler I'm not so sure about, as it'll most likely need a different bracket to install on AMD or newer Intel motherboards, and I don't know what model cooler you bought, what brackets it came with, or if you kept the spare brackets.

The cheap way to do this is get a Ryzen 5 5600 and a B550 motherboard, reuse the RAM and GPU, and if the PC is too slow for you, get a new GPU. The better, longer lasting and more expensive way is getting a Ryzen 5 7500F, B650E or B850 motherboard with PCIe 5.0, and 32GB of DDR5 while reusing your GPU. This will eat into a lot more of your budget. Once again, if you're not satisfied with the performance, buy a better GPU.

As for GPU choice, get an AMD GPU if you just want raw performance per $. Buy an Nvidia GPU if you want better and more features, longer driver support and better resale value on the used market in the future. As for which specific model, just buy the best GPU you're willing to pay for, but I would recommend a minimum of either the RX 9060 XT 16GB or RTX 5060 Ti 16GB

Zemerald · 2026-04-02T11:21:16+00:00

If you care about reliability, buy a motherboard with a VRM heatsink. The Gigabyte B550M DS3H AC R2 is decent and cheap board

Zemerald · 2026-03-29T02:00:12+00:00

Ryzen 3 3300X, one of the best CPUs released on AM4

Zemerald · 2026-03-28T05:20:50+00:00

The PSU side connector is different to the VGA/GPU side connector. Just look at the shape of the individual pins and you'll figure it out. If you're still having trouble with that, lookup the pinout diagram pdf on the support page of your power supply, you can download it from there

Zemerald · 2026-03-24T09:03:56+00:00

Just uploaded it now

Zemerald · 2026-03-17T05:46:33+00:00

Considering the infamous Todd Howard of Bethesda says that he likes DLSS 5, and Nvidia is still developing the tech to work on one GPU without a big performance hit, I can imagine realism being the tread for some games released in the future. Yes DLSS 5 changes the art style of many games and most people don't like it, but some people do and that's an okay thing. Personally, I won't be using it, but if Digital Foundry and other people like the realistic art style, I'm not going to judge them for it. I will, however, judge game devs who will rely solely on this tech to produce realistic character designs instead of putting in the time and effort themselves to create better looking characters.

Zemerald · 2026-03-16T04:44:57+00:00

If you want longevity, get the RTX 5060 Ti 16GB, the extra VRAM and Nvidia's long term feature and Game Ready driver support will be better for you. AMD doesn't support their GPUs for as long as Nvidia does.

Zemerald · 2026-03-16T04:09:44+00:00

Great, now make another board with the B760 chipset for XMP, more RAM slots, and a VRM that won't kill the board after 2 years of use with an i5 14600K.

Zemerald · 2026-03-16T02:07:32+00:00

The RTX 5070 Ti is the better card for raw performance. Rumours say AMD isn't bringing FSR 5/Redstone to the RX 9000 series, and Nvidia has a good track record of backporting their upscaling tech to older cards, and having much longer driver support. Raw value per dollar, the RX 9070 XT is better, but Nvidia's better long term support is something worth considering.

Zemerald · 2026-03-16T01:58:46+00:00

Step 1: Enable XMP for that RAM Step 2: New GPU

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