giggsy1977
Well-known member
The beeps at start up usually give an indication of the issue (a quick Google would likely help identify the culprit).👍
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When should you upgrade your hi-fi? How to control ‘upgradeitis’
DCarmi
Well-known member
Each make of motherboard has it own "beep" configuration to tell you what is wrong. Since it is beeping, it is almost certainly a component failure and not the HDD.
Most likely culprits are RAM or a fan failure. They are not the only possibilities, though. Either of those are probably easy to fix. Anything else would most likely be terminal because you'd probably need a new system board.
If you can find someone who can do a free fault diagnosis, in might be worth investigating but it is not worth throwing a lot of money at the device. Even a lowly but modern I3 processor machine would out perform your old PC by a margin.
flashgordon1952
Well-known member
it was old like me but unlike me it stopped working pc destroyed now kept the good bits ie memory and HDD , and thats it, May get another later . Just have the two now another full size base unit windows 10 and a decent lap top with 10 too. After trying to buy a reconditioned one last week from Amazon and refused credit . "so called digital signature " i call it intrusion myself . Next one i will pay cash The last one died after 6 years or so ( was Windows 7 bought for £70 s/h with 10 on it) So pretty good value i thought so . This one is only 9 years old ex commercial company owned . Had that just after COVID 19 in 2021 .
I did some research and found the Lenovo spec sheet and they have crippled the video ouput and it's limited to 1920x1280 on the HDMI port. I know this revision of HDMI and the onboard graphics are more than capable of the 3440x1440 resolution of my monitor, so they obviously thought HD spec would be all anyone would need. Wrong. There's no graphics slot to add a card, so I will be looking for something else this year. I'm done with building PCs over the last 21 years and will get another small PC with the option of discrete graphics. It's a perfect size and colour this Lenovo and I wish they had allowed customers to upgrade the graphics and storage. It's only a 260W PSU, but I thought I could add a 65W low profile card, but it's not possible.
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flashgordon1952
Well-known member
bought a windows 11 pc ( HP) from amazon for £160 with 1 terabite and 225 fast HD and 32 fig memory works okay with Windows 11 fast yes Just not a fan of Windows 11 my main PC has windows 10 500 gig and 8 gig memory is easier to use but hell of a lot ,slower when starting up. Again a cheapy from this time a Charity shop for £100 several years back . this is a full sized case ( which i prefer) . As a back up have a Dell lap top 8 gig memory 500 gig paid £25 at a boot sale again with windows 10 which i paid £25 extra to have it fitted. its sloww but has the advantage to be used on Video formats ie ZOOM . Shows do not need to pay hundreds of pounds on new stuff when there is plenty of decent s/h ones available on-line . I keep my new PC at my other property ( rented until April||) Graphics do not interest me as i do not play any games . However i run a 24 inch wide monitor here and at my other place. Why do i like big format type PCs ? they tend to run cooler easier to add any memory or graphic cards
Jasonovich
Well-known member
I don't do clear case sides and fancy lights! I'm minimalist in my tastes and don't want stuff that won't add performance. The i5 in my PC is a 65W part and I only hear the fan at power on and that's only after the PC has been unplugged from the mains. I don't do games either, but need better graphics to handle the other stuff I run. I do like the upgrade potential of PCs, but I'm not doing builds again. I have a new case in a cupboard and it must be 15 years old now. Most prebuilt small form factor PCs are more than capable of supplying enough grunt for most people. Only those obsessed with getting stupid frame rates in games need large cases and loads of cooling. I was a techy geek until a few years ago and I don't chase the specs anymore.
Jasonovich
Well-known member
I hear you Pod, not everyone likes their PC's to light up like Piccadilly Circus
I don't bother with specs either, like you I don't care so much for GPU frame rates, it's never ending.
I might go back to the minimalistic, sometimes being understated says more. Below is what I had in mind, I don't know why IKEA comes into mind
Actually, that would make the perfect audio PC!
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Friesiansam
Well-known member
I still self build and, will continue to do so but, in other ways, I feel the same. My case has no window, there are only a few red lights on the motherboard, turned off. Nothing else has lights. I still like the freedom to choose the components and, upgrade from time to time but, the last time I had a (nearly) complete new build was 5 years ago.
Jasonovich
Well-known member
There's a small group of PC builders on this forum, that's pretty cool!
Yes it's exactly that.
ASUS, AORUS (Gigabyte), MSI and other OEMs provide the MB chipsets from AMD/Intel and it's pretty much the standard in terms of pricing and components used. There's little to distinguish one from the other, Asrock tends to be a little cheaper than it's competitors and ASUS ridiculously overpriced.
I would never buy from Curry's and et'al because you know they're going to cut corners. If you open the case (and you're going to invalidate the warranty in the process!), you'll notice there's probably a cheap generic ATX PSU, something as an experienced PC builder you would never skimp on because potentially undermine the reliability of your PC or at worse become a fire hazard. I rather pay the hundreds and stick inside a Corsair preferably modular and have peace of mind.
Yeah it's really nice to touch base on this
I think the PC industry is going to struggle selling as much kit as they have done over the last 21 years. I've seen the market ebb and flow in the IT sector and I think new ideas and markets will be needed. Apart from the video 'anomaly' I have with the Lenovo from Currys, it's a cracking PC and to be honest, the spec is overkill for most of my needs. An M.2 SSD and a 12 thread CPU is way more than I, or many others will ever need. It cost £349 and I'm sticking my neck out, but I think 95% of normal users don't NEED anything more than the spec I currently own. There are power users and developers and they need higher spec and as I said, the gamers out there 'need' 4 GPUs and really expensive CPUs, so there will always be a market for those machines. We've come to a point now where you can buy a very cheap PC and it will just plough through anything you throw at it. It's different from 21 years ago, because the hardware now is much more capable for the software it needs to run. I know Windows 11 has a large footprint and it's resource hungry, but a lot of silicon out there can handle most tasks without breaking into a sweat. Intel, et al will struggle now convincing the masses that they really do need dozens of cores and huge amounts of RAM etc. I did take a look at the PCIe 5 M.2 SSDs on Scan and there is no chance anyone needs this amount of bandwidth on a system drive. IOPS figures are important, especially when searching for and opening many small files, but I don't know anyone who needs to shift 10Gb of data round their system every second. It's true software and new ideas arrive eventually to make use of this power, but this process is slowing down and most kit you can buy now is completely over the top.
abacus
Well-known member
If you use music or video software (Such as in a home studio which a lot of people have in their bedrooms these days), then the higher the bandwidth and Ram the better.
Bill
Jasonovich
Well-known member
Yes it like V12 engine inside your car but you only want to use to drop granny off at Tesco's.
I think if Intel still had the monopoly, the technology would be rather stagnant. It's likely that, Intel would still be selling their top of the range duo-core processors and at prices to make granny blush.
I'm glad AMD have survived the storm and now appears to have the better of Intel; in terms of products and superior fabrication. Getting rid of Global Foundries and outsourcing to TSMC was a shrewd move.
With AMD in the frame, Intel wasn't going ignore it's decreasing market share, innovation and redefining the PC mindset was weaponised by both companies with one continually trying to outdo the other and; this I think it's fair to say, had a positive knock on effect with the old and dated ISA architecture, new technologies such as Sata, USB, infinity fabric, SSD were being developed to support the faster processors etc.
And, here we are today, my idiot guide to PC evolution. It's not going to stop until one rolls over and dies and we've back to a monopoly.
I think monopoly is very much alive in the GPU sector, Nvidia has 80% of the market with AMD and Intel a poor second and third respectively.
Jensen CEO Nvidia has literally been milking the consumers. My Nvidia GTX 3060i GPU I got for £399 and that was heavily discounted!
Crypto mining didn't help with premium GPU's becoming more scarce and both AMD and Nvidia raking up the prices to insane levels.
There is a silver lining though and I hope this becomes the new market trend. AMD's latest batch of APUs, namely the 8700G has the RDN 3 architecture and this would forfeit the need for a medium range discrete GPU and thus; great saving for the consumer.
Friesiansam
Well-known member
I use EVGA for PSUs, they have an excellent reputation for quality, reliability and, if something does go wrong, customer service.
Jasonovich
Well-known member
I had EVGA, really excellent quality, flawless and very quiet 90mm fan. Served me for 4-5 years. I donated it to my nephews PC, I custom built for him. Still running perfectly.
I had to change my PSU when I upgraded my motherboard CPU/GPU. The Enermax Revolution Bronze 1030W modular I'm using now, is less well known but of similar quality to EVGA.
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I would like to see Intel release a high spec, SFF PC, similar to their Canyon series of PCs, but without the gaming pretentions. All the latest ports and a nice 35W chip with their discrete graphics part alongside. Then 4 M.2 slots to allow any sort of RAID combo and plenty of RAM to be installed. There is no reason Lenovo couldn't have done this with the PC I bought. It's a slightly larger volume and footprint, so cooling wouldn't be an issue. Most PC brands think there are 2 types of PC users out there. People who just browse the web all day and go on forums and then the other user, obsessed with gaming and buying 1500W PSUs and filling their PCs with strobe lights and water cooling etc. There's actually another user out there, like me, wanting a small, quiet and sensible PC with no frills, but can be used for anything, apart from games. It's a very polarised market at the moment and I refuse to buy anything with the word gaming on it.
Friesiansam
Well-known member
I have no time for the RGB nonsense and, my case is a plain white Fractal Design Define R5. Had it for 7 years now, no reason to replace it. If you have a decently ventilated case, with enough quiet fans, there is no reason to go putting water inside your PC. To me, putting water inside a metal box, together with around a grands worth of sensitive electronics, is mad.
I do play games and, for playing at 1440p, have suitably fast hardware but, it is effortlessly powered by a 650 watt PSU.
Jasonovich
Well-known member
I really use to think that, water and electricity not a good combination but curiosity finally got the better of me.
I like them because they're the most efficient form of cooling, they're silent but yes totally agree, no point in them if you don't have glass panels.
Now that I have installed AIO and had it running for 2 years (touch wood!) without problems, I can say if you're thinking about it, go ahead. Everything is perfectly sealed, don't have to worry about leakage. AIO are usually good for 5 years, the pump is first to go, then better to replace.
I think there's very little chance going back to noisy 60-80mm CPU fan set up. My BeQuiet 280 AIO fans hums faintly without breaking a sweat, also no noise from the pump.
If you ask me about Custom Loop, well, I'm nervous about that and I wouldn't bother, not unless you know what you're doing or unable to cool your CPU from other means because you've overclocked your Meteor Lake to over 6 GHZ. That's just for hardcore gamers who have nothing better to do.
Friesiansam
Well-known member
Have you tried a recent high-performance air cooler? My Be Quiet! Dark Rock Pro 4 makes easy work of cooling a Ryzen 7 5800X, whilst always very quiet.
Jasonovich
Well-known member
I'm sure they're excellent cooling solutions. Before switching to AIO, I was using Noctua cpu fans. I kind of liked the beige and brown but they also
came in black. They're probably the best air cooling solutions on the market. Artic Freeze also worked very well.
I was experimenting with Push and Pull and I was getting good results.
I initially switched over to AIO purely for the aesthetics. I was holding back for a long time, because it just seemed nuts having water being piped over the main board.
With water cooling, you have the option of installing the radiator under the lid of the case and letting the fans blow the waste heat directly out of the case.
With cpu air fans the warm air is extracted into the case, so it is important the case fans are strategically placed to allow the warm air to escape from the case.
I use to partake the many PC forums, and often got badgered for not moving with the flock. I guess the momentum finally shifted me in that direction.
It is believed all-in-one water-cooling systems are marginally better when comparing it to the best air cooling solutions but they do have some short comings. I'm using 2 x 140mm fans on the 280mm AIO radiator, 240 or 280mm AIO is the sweet spot for most mid range cpus.
120mm or 140mm water cooler for most purposes, as the cooling capacity is quite limited (approximately 100 watts) and there are better and cheaper alternatives among the air coolers.
This isn't going to cut it, if your cpu is Ryzen 7800 or anything above Intel 14600.
In the above mentioned scenario, I would always recommend a good air cooler or AIO 240/280mm.
An exception can be mini PCs in which there is not enough space for air cooling.
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