PC Builds - This Broken Cashies Gaming Pc Turned Out To Be One Of The Best Deals I've Ever Found

I was quite happy when I found this custom gaming system at Cash Converters for 160 pounds including postage, down from 399.99. The item page didn't go into much detail, and the graphics card was apparently non-functional. With the make and model being emitted altogether, I thought that this was a good deal anyway, especially as I could make out an ASUS Strix logo on the motherboard in one of the pictures.

This, in combination with the included Ryzen 5 3600, surely makes this thing worth the money already. After all, the b450f gaming still sells for over 100 pounds new and there are loads of secondhand Ryzen 3600s. Floating around for around the same price, just as stated, this thing didn't display a picture.

The only thing it did output was a lighting display that could give the Blackpool illuminations a good run for their money. Of course, my first thought was to replace the GPU and test again, so I removed what I soon discovered was an asus rog strix rx 578, gigabyte, an excellent choice for 1080p gaming, by the way, and slapped my gtx 1630.

In this PC. I tested all the PCI-Express slots, and even so, there was still no display by this point. I tried different memory in all the slots too, because I had noticed a flashing yellow light, which according to the manual, indicates a RAM related problem. Still, no DD4 modules in any configuration resolved this.

I then followed a couple more of my go-to troubleshooting tests, like resetting the bios and repasting the processor, but still no luck. They weren't it's been a while since I've held a Ryzen 5 3600 in my hand. What a brilliant chip this was when it came out, one of AMD's finest in my opinion. While doing this, I noticed some cat footprints on the side panel but on the inside, so how they got there I don't know.

This is why I took the PC back outside, by the way, because if my dog got a whiff of this, he would go absolutely nuts, but it didn't help. He still smelled the PC from the other side of the house. There's a shitcap in there. With dog dribble and extra hair added to the internals of this system, it was time to test the parts on their own.

If they weren't even more broken by now, I was surprised to see that the rx 570 did actually work. I tested it with a couple of different motherboards and it gave me no issues before or after driver installation. First of all, I swapped the horizon for the athlon 3000g and then used different memory once again.

I also removed the liquid cooler simply for convenience's sake. To my surprise, the PC actually booted. I thought maybe the bios needed updating and the 3600 wasn't supported, but the 3000g came out after the 3600. The bios version, although old, still supports both CPUs. Perhaps removing the board's battery and shorting the pins was unsuccessful in clearing the bios settings beforehand, but swapping out the processor ensured a reset.

With this in mind, I put the original single stick of RAM back, swapped the Athlon back out for the Ryzen, and hoped for the best. I noticed this time around that the motherboard led flashed a few different colors before settling on green, and after that, just like before, the system booted. Now the number of times I fixed the PC by taking all of the parts out of the case and just swapping a few components out and then back in is actually quite ridiculous.

My first port of call when troubleshooting is always swapping bits out for other bits, but it is definitely worth taking the system apart first, as it's not only easier to work on but it could help you to pinpoint any specific issues. In this case, I'm not exactly sure what fixed the system. I had already replaced the RAM and reinstalled the CPU as well.

Maybe there was an issue with a loose cable inside the case that I couldn't quite see, whatever the specific fix was. I'm not saying that you should look for 40 PCS to buy in the hopes that the problem will be a small one that's easily resolvable, but sometimes things aren't as difficult to fix as they first seem.

I definitely recommend checking them out now, though a quick word on performance. Because there are a couple of things I'd change about this PC. The most obvious is the RAM. A single stick of 2666 MHz DDRI4 and just eight gigs of the stuff will be problematic in some games, especially modern ones like the newly released Spider-Man remastered.

It's a bit of a stuttery mess and, as you can see, the memory is maxed out usage wise. Adding two eight gigabyte sticks of 3200 MHz memory instead does the trick. I think this board supports up to 128 gigs, but in my opinion, that's totally overkill, but 32 wouldn't hurt. I'd have to say that 16 is probably what I'd call the best bet in 2022.

Going forward, probably not the minimum just yet, as 2 4 gigabyte sticks in dual channel will still be okay, but if you can, 16 gigs is definitely the way to go. Don't forget that Windows and whatever else is running in the background will use it too, not just the games you want to play. As far as these specs go, though, the Ryzen 5 3600 and RX 570 still make a nice combo, and I'll be expanding on the performance of the processor another time.

We looked at the 570s' performance a couple of months ago, so I definitely recommend watching that article for a more in-depth rundown. It's a different model, but performance won't be too different. I had a Ryzen 3600 a couple of years ago and for a while I replaced it with an i5. 10 400 f. I think, for some reason, it was more of a side grade, but I wanted to review the chip, so I bought it and then ended up just keeping it in my personal rig.

The 3600, however, is still a really good choice these days. It's got six cores and 12 threads, after all, and I'll be making a dedicated article on it sometime soon because there are some great bargains to be had on second-hand selling sites. Thanks again to the Stockport Cash Converters for the speedy delivery.

I'm going to say it was probably a loose cable somewhere, or perhaps I was unsuccessful in resetting the bios the first time around. It's always a mystery, and troubleshooting PCs is never straightforward. Sometimes you just can't explain why things start to work or why they stop working in the first place.

We'll probably be checking out the CPU or perhaps a pretty cool gaming laptop.