Fixing a Viewer's BROKEN Gaming PC? - Fix or Flop S4:E17

[@michaelthompson9798]

Tbh, these prebuilt/OEM PCs are the perfect candidate for the Fix or Flop series as these are genuinely the pc users who need the most help and don’t always have the know how or time to trouble solve with busy lives and / or have kids wanting to play on their computer and pester parents until it works.

[@oussama7132]

we need europe to enforce the ATX form factor or something so these abominations stop being created

[@ResidentWeevil2077]

There are always places for prebuilt PCs, however the proprietary nonsense OEMs like Dell and HP seem to be extremely fond of needs to be rightly ridiculed.

[@SidDTheSimschannel]

If you want a pre-built choice a IBM clone this should allow you to upgrade them later on, as the IBM clone are standized office towers that allows for upgrades in the future.

[@Mirra2003-f9s]

In Europe not many buy OEM systems. If you want a gaming prebuilt you can easily find prebuilt custom PCs in basically any big electronics retailer.

[@babalonkie]

True... but there are also people that cant even afford to upgrade/replace to prebuilds lol.

[@noxproductions6851]

"you're not fixing it by swaping parts out" any mechanic ever: .....

[@ledidier15042000]

Shorted front USB port on the MB preventing it to power on and cut the power supply. I can see it when you showed the front of the case. Worth a try in my opinion 😊

[@Vykno]

went back in the video after reading this and also saw at the 4 minute mark that completely mangled USB port

[@samimermer1982]

I can assume he unplugged everything putting before putting in the ram and hastily plugged it back in.

[@JeffDeWitt]

That's a good catch. BAD things can happen with USB ports. At work we had someone manage to get the cable of a mouse into the arc of a welder, that computer was destroyed. When I got done fixing everything I put in a touch screen monitor, a keyboard with a touchpad, and a "No Mice" sign.

[@eimantasmatuzas]

At the 9 minute mark he said he could smell burning probably from the mangled usb connector getting hot and melting plastic in the connector. or the burning 12v to 5v buck converter killed by the shorted port since that psu only supplies 12v.

[@MenkoDany]

Shit, I see it 03:57 it's completely destroyed lmao (the top one)

[@EXOWill]

I do like content creators that actually diagnose and repair pc components, but on the other hand, I never miss the Fix or Flop series which I enjoy more than anything else computer wise. Your generosity puts you at the top of the list.

[@timmooney7528]

The initial process is the same whether it's new or old hardware. Reduce things to it's most basic configuration, then verify operation of the critical components. I also like watching older hardware being diagnosed, but modern circuitry is more highly integrated into advanced chipsets.

[@P5YcHoKiLLa]

You should get an infrared camera, if, as I assume happened, a capacitor blew (that's what usually gives that (fishy) smell) you would see it on the infrared as it sits there baking. If it's not microscopic then you can usually find out the model and order a replacement. There's quite a few channels that do that although they usually DO have a microscope and mounting equipment/varied solder gear to replace them.

[@SmidgeXp]

i was thinking this too!

[@alexandruciordas4941]

it mostlikely was the shorted USB port at min 3.55😂

[@Anthony-fd8mh]

LOL love the peek by the wife lol. It's nice that you upgraded his stuff I think that was pretty awesome especially when you do it for someone who is not really expecting it and also when they don't really know a whole lot about computers.👍

[@NorthernerInSpace]

00:13:06 - An infiltrator! That HP system looks a whole lot better now!

[@akr4s1a]

It's possible that they fried the motherboard doing the upgrade themself but I'm very glad the viewer got it fixed, we've all been novice builders making mistakes and the poor kid was saving up money to pay for a fix, really really sweet thing to do it for free.

[@Epsilonsama]

It's very unlikely he did. Florida is pretty humid so static electricity is extremely rare and modern Motherboards are pretty sturdy. This was a defective unit which I'm surprised it wasn't under warranty but maybe it's an old build.

[@JasonSaeler]

I've run into several older HP systems that died after simple ram upgrades and I've been building since 92. Everything except the motherboards were good for use in pother systems.

[@unknown14191]

@@JasonSaeler Could be the circuitry for the RAM being tailored for the proprietary board, causing other models of RAMs being totally incompatible and destroying the board. In short whether it's design issue or quality issue it is simply planned obsolescence to keep people buying new stuff to "circulate" the economy.

[@akr4s1a]

lol what @unknown14191 there are standards for RAM, it would cost so much money to reengineer your DIMM slots and traces to kill the board unless a specific DIMM was inserted, no one has ever done that. They’re just key it differently

[@ihateeveryone8161]

@@akr4s1a There's standards for literally every PC component, doesn't mean theyre followed. AFAIK you're correct about no one changing RAM layouts before but your arguement as to why is as sturdy as a wet paper bag.

[@MetaphysicalEngineer]

What a difference! So wholesome to see (hear?) the reaction to the build! I always like to keep a thermal imager on hand when troubleshooting, both to see what components heat up and to track down the source of the burning smell if anything lets the smoke out.

[@GregSalazar]

Didn't even think to use the FLIR cam. Will have to remember that for the next time!

[@MetaphysicalEngineer]

@@GregSalazar Mine's built into my phone and my prior life working HVAC means it's the first tool I deploy when confronted with any type of misbehaving equipment. Also think the IR images would be cool to include in the video when you're showing the system does a POST and that the CPU is warming up.

[@arc00ta]

@@GregSalazar low voltage injection + thermal camera is one of the quickest board-level troubleshooting tools for shorts. Whatever heats up is usually the problem!

[@warpspeedracer]

Dude I love it. This kid is going to enjoy this computer for years to come. I bet he's going to get the itch and start upgrading the rig. Before long he will be an expert and start rattling off all the different CPUs, GPUs, and chipsets.

[@timberw1lly]

Super happy you got the owner's reaction. It's too bad people still complain about the "fix" process. I really enjoy this series, and PCDC.

[@STRET24]

Good man Greg...that's one lucky customer (yet another one!). Great stuff.

[@_UnDiagnosed_]

I have SO MUCH respect for what you do! You made that kids holiday by fixing and upgrading his PC. You do this kind of thing for so many people and it's very wholesome to see these acts of kindness. Sacrificing your time and energy to make someone's day. I have no idea how anyone can watch a video like this and say a negative remark, but please know that you are appreciated and what you do for random people is admirable 🙏🏽. Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to you and your loved ones 🎄🎅.

[@narius_jaden215]

Really happy for the guy to get a nice looking pc now haha. thanks for always helping others, greg.

[@TechWithJohannes]

Wake up babe a new FOF dropped! (I dont talk like this)

[@LevelUpGamingPress]

Frets on fire?

[@alignedgames]

@@LevelUpGamingPress lol no he means fields of fury...

[@TechWithJohannes]

@@alignedgames 🤣

[@tavomb]

@@LevelUpGamingPress dang, thats an old school ass reference, love it

[@roadk88]

You are the best. You helped someone out you did not know and who did not know any better and bought a pre-built. You made his day when you brought him his new pc. Learned my lesson. The first gaming pc I bought for my kid was a Acer pre-built. After it stopped workin, I realized I could not repair it because of the priority parts in it. After looking around I realized I could build a better pc for less money than buying another pre-built. I will never buy a pre-built again. If something fails, just go to Micro Center and replace that one part. Have a great new year.

[@_Sn0_]

Not sure how I Missed this one... Very clean re-build!

[@reqfps]

You are officially the guardian angel for people that are new to PCs ❤ much love Greg! 🙏🙏

[@nbrowser]

Greg has a heart of 80 Plus Gold, he has always Ryzen to the occasion to Fix the Flops that come across his bench...even if it means rebuilding the Viewers Broken PC to this point, once again vanquishing the Pre-Built with Vengeance.

[@dashkataey1740]

That was very nice. Glad you were able to help him out. Hopefully, he can pick up a better GPU in the future and I feel he'll be all set for years to come.

[@paulcohee5869]

Great stuff man, wish there were more people out there like you!

[@merdusk237]

Not only did you help a needy person out, you gave them a beatiful looking system. Keep up the great work, I think this is my favorite series.

[@chrisamon5762]

Fantastic video Greg! And Gigabyte showing out with the freebies! Love their boards!

[@GregSalazar]

Thanks for watching!

[@dennissmith1435]

I had an HP PC in which the PSU and motherboard bit the dust. These days OEM components are often cheap as well as low end.

[@milescarter7803]

The quality on the ones I've run across have been fine. I would imagine with the millions they make a few do die. I built 3 or 4 of the older 2400g and i5 9400 version of this system. Nothing really wrong with it. They live a hard life with their cooling vents blocked in a cupboard/desk or by pet hair. I've got a 5700G that needs a home, would love to revive that system 😥

[@bktebeau]

Great that you could help him. Thank you.

[@eyekona]

Found it before troubleshooting even started. 2:37 - top USB port is shorted. Will prevent system from turning on.

[@shadowwolf3098]

I started with an hp omen prebuilt because I didn't understand pcs that well when i ordered it. Got it around 2017. Started out with i7 9700 (non k), gtx 1660 super, 1x8gb sk hynix 2666 ram that was locked at 2400 for its entire life (the motherboard didn't support xmp), and 500w psu (no idea of the rating). Thankfully nothing was proprietary except the motherboards plug layout. The placements were a bit weird according to other tech youtubers, but the plugs were all the proper shape/size. Won the lottery there i feel. First upgrade was another stick of ram to bring me up to 2x8gb, about 6 months later. Just being dual channel felt massive because i no longer had stutters in vr gaming. By this time i was discovering my passion in pc build/repair, so i knew quite a lot more about pcs. Second upgrade was GPU which spiralled into GPU, case, and psu. upgraded that warm, loud, single fanned 1660 super to a 3070, upgraded the 500w unrated gpu to a corsair 850w gold, and the oem case to a nzxt h510 flow. That upgrade felt incredible, finally having rtx support. I also made sure the psu could support future upgrades, which is why i got 850w instead of 650w which the gpu reccomended as a minimum. About a year after the gpu upgrade i finally got myself a 1440p 165hz monitor. While the upgrade from 1080p165 to 1440p165 isnt thaaaat noticable to me truthfully, i can definitely feel it and i feel like it was worth it. I run a dual monitor setup so having both at a similar refresh rate is also nice. Truthfully the best part of that monitor upgrade was going from an extremely ghosty va pannel to a silky smooth ips pannel with a (slightly) better viewing angle. in my opinion and in my year or so of having this combination of cpu/gpu, i think i can say that 3070 and 9700 is the PERFECT 1440p combination of hardware. 1080p gave me a slight cpu bottleneck, 1440p used them both equally in the games i played. (medium to high graphics, apex, minecraft with shaders, dying light 2, no mans sky, as examples) In about a year after my gpu upgrade, i went all in. Told myself to go big or go home and got one of the best current cpus (as of 2023). got a ryzen 7 7800x3d, upgraded ram to 2x16gb ddr5 6000, and got a gigabyte x670 aorus elite ax, and got a wd black 850 2tb nvme ssd. And MY how i can tell you, having a usable bios is incredible, thats probably my favorite upgrade here. the BIOS. and the better sound card this motherboard has, since I'm a minor audiophile. this boards sound is incredible. the audiophiles and sound nerds will know what i mean by this, but this motherboard has much clearer sound, clearer bass, and the highs aren't absolutely painful. I thought i had sound sensitivity, it turns out i have bad audio quality sensitivity. I now have a massive gpu bottleneck because 7800x3d is an absolute OVERKILL cpu but i cant see myself upgrading it for maybe 5-10 years. gpu sits chugging along at 90-100% usage while cpu is at a measly 30-40%. In the games i play (at 1440 medium to high graphics to clarify, starfield, apex, minecraft with shaders, minecraft modpacks which btw went from about 60 fps in rlcraft at 8 render distance to 120+ at 32 render distance) My pc is now fully custom built, everything has been upgraded, theres not an oem piece left inside it except for the nvme ssd i have windows installed on. And the best part? Since nothing was really proprietary, I run the original pc as a pihole/droppy server sitting in a cabinet in the corner of my room. Been going strong for about 3 months now. And the painful part about the server pc? Its running off a 2tb external usb hdd. I dont know why i do this to myself. I have extra sata ssds. But no i use an external 5200rpm EXTERNAL USB3.2 HDD.

[@CrimFerret]

The finished rig looked amazing. The small amount of RGB (I assume there is some on the AIO pump/block) will be just the perfect accent.

[@Stigmakso]

Good stuff as always ! You made that kid's day (or even week/month)

[@sitordan]

That's a pretty fabulous transformation. He sure was thrilled with the outcome. Once again, very well done, Greg!

[@kamui004]

By that logic a mechanic most of the time doesn't fix a car either, he just swap components.

[@rasmusvedel]

Yayyyyy FoF is back! This is my favorite series on KZbin!

[@HiBennyRogers]

Love the reactions at the end!!! I recommended you should start capturing it at the end and i love it

[@johnt.848]

Beautiful Case and I like those NZXT AIO coolers.

[@RenatoG1848]

You da man Greg, another computer saved

[@safn1949]

Well done, that was very decent of you and the sponsors.

[@bury101]

Pre-builts are what's gonna keep Greg's channel going till the end of time!😂

[@ttcustompcs]

Aesthetics over everything 🤣🤣 sweet looking parts, Tylercan upgrade cpu/gpu/storage/ram at will now!

[@Klwl127]

you're a good man Greg Salazar! I'm sure you put a huge smile on the young lads face, love the videos.

[@jandrewanntwonn8666]

If I had to guess what the issue was: the top USB port on the front IO at 2:40 is definitely broken. When I was a repair tech for a gaming PC company I saw that short systems all the time. Fortunately, if you unplugged it from the MOBO the PC would be able to power back on. Looks like the front IO is attached to the MOBO in this case. Would love to see if that's actually the issue!

[@milescarter7803]

Easy fix too, just put some insulation on the pins and a sticker over the port so it won't get used. Maybe little pieces of heat shrink tube for example. I liked your comment so maybe he sees this

[@GraveMakerLP]

First thing I noticed too.

[@waize]

Weird you didnt see the shorted out usb port in front. Also sulphur smell is from a leaking capacitor.

[@ricardorevuelta3057]

Hey Greg!! I feel you’re highly regarded in the PC building and repairing community. I thank you for what you do and I really enjoy learning with you. Keep it up.

[@ultronmd]

Thats a nice upgrade for him, good stuff Greg

[@PreztoPH]

Great job Greg, it feels christmasy for giving all those components. Thank you Gigabyte and Be Quiet for the sponsorship!

[@absentmindedjwc]

Need to invest in a FLIR camera. Probably would have had a good idea of where specifically the issue was right away. Not that it would have actually let you *fix* the problem, you would have just had a little bit of extra "yep, there's `yer problem!"

[@Dirtzoo]

I like those gigabyte boards, I have a couple of those

[@jeffreylyons1531]

Thermal camera really helps when diagnosing a board like that

[@cloudborne1]

Hope this can serve as a point of reference to those considering prebuilts!

[@ms-dosmanfred249]

Man! You did a great job! I always also thought that fixing these broken prebuilts sucks, when the motherboard or the psu dies. But honestly for me the worst case is, if the gpu dies, because it's the most expensive part usually. If the motherboard or the psu dies on these prebuilts i would replace them with a cheap case, motherboard and psu. The are so many great value options if you think about it.

[@tallgeese3pilot]

The black and white looks super clean and he now has a fantastic upgrade path later down the road (maybe 5700x or 5800x3d with a rtx4070 or rx 7800xt)

[@Jules_Diplopia]

Nice work as always. One very happy "customer".

[@starview7045]

Now, that's a great video, and perfect timing just before Xmas. Great job as usual 🙂

[@NijoJade]

Great Job! Nice to see you helped the kid out with this nice looking system. Greetings from Deutschland. :)

[@carbon_no6]

GamersNexus has a field day with prebuilt OEM computers!

[@ronaldyeohsengchoy4707]

H. P. Is also known as "Headache Product" and that is really true here! Oh and that rotten smell is a short-circuit on the board!

[@timnevitt2993]

u did that kid a huge favor thanks i watch all ur series

[@rynosraceroom66]

That case is super nice ! Congradts to the owner .

[@jdnims]

awesome vid as always, luv the content. and was that a wife photo bomb, awesome when folks include the family into the mix as well!

[@dozer4981]

Thanks for your ch and everything you do for us your viewers!! You inspired me to get back in to pc wolrd!!! I took a amd a4-3400 with a old gigabyte a54m-ds2 mb ,bought used 16g ddr3 1600mhz , gtx 760, evga 600w 80 silver pws, 1tb 2.5 ssd, and for fun a 120 master light cooler master, and turned it into a batocera retro gaming machine !!! 😂😂 ty it was fun and I plan on build something else

[@dennissmith1435]

There are prebuilts and there are OEM prebuilts.

[@prrocker9637]

One thing that I do like about the replacement parts you used while thr 850w psu is overkill for thr current parts if the viewer in the future ever decides to go super high end they could run a 5800x3d and 7900xtx off that psu so you gave him a lot of room to upgrade

[@Energizer37]

Thanks to all your sponsors! People being good to people is getting rare these days!!

[@mrN3w7]

Yeah, that is why I hate prebuilt PCs like HP especially... if you don't use their stuff nothing works anymore.

[@forbiddionexile7287]

If this was more a technical system repair yes it should be more but this is fix or flob love the series your doing a good job and a good thing much love

[@BladePocok]

How many red-flag users have contacted you over the years that you had to refuse? Dozens, even more?

[@SEDakotaFarmer]

So much better than the pre-built!

[@XeloX]

At 2:43 as soon as I saw the top USB port was mangled I figured the mobo was dead

[@zackdsac3214]

same

[@GregSalazar]

NGL I didn't notice this until now. Wow. That port really is beat up Lol.

[@CoreyPL]

If something is getting hot enough to produce smell, just get a thermal camera addon for your phone or as a standalone unit and you will be able to identify it.

[@DctrGizmo]

You can always count on HP for making crappy PCs that will end up in a landfill within a few years.

[@Lurch-Bot]

In my experience Delta and Lite-On are the best OEM PSU manufacturers and the PSU in a rig this new would probably be the last thing I suspected. I used a 325W Delta Dell OEM PSU from a 2009 Optiplex that had already seen a decade of office use to run a RTX 3060 to mine Eth for 18 months and it is still working just fine, back in its original rig. With the rotting egg smell, I'm thinking it could be burning capacitor electrolyte. Maybe there's a cap installed backwards. It can work for awhile but will quickly degrade and eventually become a short circuit. Would love to see you do a crossover with Northridge Fix or Northwest Repair where they take over and repair the board. I think, in general, this would improve the series quality by actually fixing nearly everything. You're still going to run into situations where you have a bad CPU which you can't fix or bad RAM which isn't worth fixing but you could be having a lot fewer flops if you can get a board repair expert involved. It also is an opportunity to clue people into the cost of board repair because it can really be the cheaper option in a lot of cases. If I am right about a backwards electrolytic capacitor, one of those guys will have it fixed in about 3 minutes. You're seemingly confused about what the word 'fix' means. What you did here is called 'Overhaulin', lol. Maybe you should get ahold of Chip Foose instead. Seems like an opportunity here for you to divest Fix or Flop into two separate but equally entertaining series. Start really fixing and do a separate series where you do the overhaulin'. If you run into something cost prohibitive to fix at the board level then you move it on over to the overhaul series. You can fill out the second series by taking older gaming rigs that work fine and upgrading them. Turning one series into two seems like a great way to increase views.

[@rickcrawford7307]

Wish I had seen your channel earlier. Bought a prebuilt at bestbuy after building my first ont years ago. Just got lazy now I stuck with my Onen but it works fine but up grading might be a problem. Keep up the good work.

[@milescarter7803]

The bigger Omen are standard parts. These little office machine ones have 400w PSU options. But usually if the CPU is worth keeping just get a lower end CPU and new SSD (20 bux for OEM 512GB) to put in your old one and sell it off to fund the new build 😆

[@MrBeetsGaming]

Could probably get a 5700 xt pretty cheap and have a decent 1080p gaming PC there....

[@BiggestMichael]

You should look at the top USB port on that motherboard. There might be a pin short to ground as it looks damaged.

[@milescarter7803]

Thank you, I saw it clearly in a couple spots too!

[@bikedoc4145]

WTG Greg he was a very worthy candidate for this one. I have a HP MB and power supply out of this same prebuilt except mine had a Ryzen 5 3500 and a GTX 1650 Super which I still have put up if you ever need them. I will probably keep the CPU and GPU but the rest is brand new. I needed a GPU to get me by by when you couldn't get them unless you paid tripple.

[@OanBinHaseeb]

You just turned his system from Saiyan to Super Saiyan.

[@llwellyncuhfwarthen]

Nice to see :) With the HP systems, a very VERY common issue with them is the bracket/case mounting, when you take out cards (ram/cpu/video etc) and put in new/replacements the motherboard can often short to the backing case, they are VERY poorly designed with proper separation and flex allowance.

[@WillPlaysGames1993]

2:43 looks like the pins in the first usb slot are smashed in since it missing the black plastic in it thats probably why it wasnt powering on (just started watching the video at the time of posting this comment)

[@KpaBaPa]

Any ideas why my b450 max is only running x8 pcie lanes? when i go to bios and turn on x8+x8 it doesnt detect the GPU ( RX 6600)

[@mruczyslaw50]

RX 6600 is a card that is limited to x8 speed, even though it looks like x16

[@gamingcyber334]

The rx 6600 only uses 8 lanes even though it has 16 physical lane sized pcie slot. So nothing wrong with it, other than the slot could (and can) be a 8 lane slot

[@Xironium]

I recently upgraded my CPU thanks to your Fix of Flop series. I just wanna say thank you, you make PC tech so much more easier for someone like me (with autism). Before upgrading me own CPU, i've cleaned several pc's (no deep clean tho), and you make it easy to follow, what to do, and how to do it. Hell, i got a iFixIt kit just because i felt comfy doing it. So thank you Greg, you're an inspiration to alot of people, and it needs to be said sometimes :)

[@PCTechHustle]

Good on you Greg for taking care of him! He should be well setup for years to come!

[@MotorcitycrownsPod]

Now usually Greg would test the cpu in a known working motherboard. Unless he did it off screen ...but I get it you want to test the motherboard at the same time too

[@napstablook3935]

this was very heartwarming, definitely one of my favorites of the series now!!

[@brendandelear1145]

The psu fan should go on full blast if it was working when you jump the pins

[@mikedobb1140]

Take it outside, power up old motherboard until it catches fire. Should be able to tell where the smell was coming from at this point lol

[@gamertrem1884]

You could hear how genuine he is in that clip. Glad he got his PC fixed. Good stuff!

[@personaldronerepair6141]

If the unit showed up not working and left working, it has been repaired.

[@mrchirp]

During pandemic I was able to pay some of my bills by picking up refurbished Ryzen/1650 super Pavilion systems on Walmart and transferring into new case and Motherboard barbones being sold on New Egg. Then the HP barebones case still sold on eBay for like $150

[@mowcowbell]

886K Subs... Greg, keep up the good work. Love the work you do and how you methodically sort out the issues and even show your goofs. Hoping to see you hit 1M subs in the near future!

[@justsumguy2u]

Strange. I have an HP Omen 25L....not sure of the year, but it came with a Core i7 10700F, if that narrows it down. Anyways, there isn't one single proprietary component on it. I know, because I case-swapped it. It came with a standard Thermaltake PSU with regular connectors, removeable rear I/O shield, standard micro ATX mobo, etc

[@Roger44477]

Great stuff as always man!

[@DanielleEmberley]

With these AMD 5600G B550 systems can you get all of the USB ports to work reliably? Can you leave a portable HDD plugged into any / all of the USB ports for 24 hours and do scheduled backups without the video freezing and system locking up?

[@Addeatt]

Bah, I'm dealing with a HP prebuilt unit right now. A lot of similarities as this here video. I was adding a PCIe Wi-Fi card and when I went to turn the PC back on the fans spin, PSU fans spin, motherboard lights up but nothing else. No beep codes, Keyboard/Mouse don't work (actually none of the USB ports work) and no display. I've run every test imaginable, even testing everything individually and everything works except when they are all together inside the case... lol. Anyone have any suggestions?

[@Jumbro6]

Oh yeah he needs a new cpu cooler, surely its a stock AM4 cooler "cuts to an aio elite upgrade for a 5600g" haha. He's set up for the future! Hopefully he gets a new gpu for christmas!!

[@anonymoususer7985]

360 aio I would be surprised if that cpu even warms up, the aio is probably more overkill than the psu; Lucky kid though….. Psu, motherboard, aio, case and fans. 5*00x3d and a good GPU is the drop in upgrades for the future; Christmas comes early

[@Leppux]

I've told friends, to speak with me when building a PC. Because, I don't want them to buy a pre-built, they suck.

[@OcDmn]

Major prop to Be Quiet, NZXT and Gigabyte for being a big part of this series. also with the PSU and mobo and RAM upgrade, the kid is set for very bright upgrade path what with AMD keeping AM4 updated still lol

[@michaeloneill1360]

Thanks for showing some Love to: Gigabyte AORUS Motherboards!! I've got the B450 Model & It's Rock Solid!!

[@AAjax]

Used oem builds often are tremendous value, but are only an option if you don't need to upgrade - otherwise they become a money pit of half-baked power adapters, lesser value gpu choices, and guerilla modding. Sunk cost fallacy sets in really quick. My mother-in-law greatly appreciated the cute little 6th gen i5 optiplex micro that I picked up for not much more than $100. For the gamers in my life, I started them off right with decent cases and power supplies, even when I couldn't sink a whole lot of money into the platform.

[@Dan-Simms]

Haha, I said oh god is it an HP system? Right b4 you zoomed in on the HP logo. It really sucks that PC noobs fall for buying proprietary garbage from those big companies like Dell, HP and Lenovo. Probably b/c they have the most advertising.

[@timeverhartofficial]

I always recommend an ASUS or MSI prebuilt PC for people that ask me what is my opinion or suggestions for prebuild computer being ASUS and MSI use their motherboards which give you and upgrade path.