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What about this one? gaming pc 1660 Super | eBay

I missed the one I wanted, and saw this one and bought it msi infinite S | eBay. Similar price. But I think the seller misdescribed it. I think it's the lesser model with the 1660 Ti. (And less RAM and disk). https://business.currys.co.uk/catal...e-i5-gtx-1660-ti-1-tb-hdd-128-gb-ssd/N794927W Looks like MSI have done the usual manufacturer's trick of enticing people with a decent spec for e-commerce channels and building another cheapo version with some corners cut for the bricks and mortar channel. So i'm cancelling.
 
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David Clapson said:
What about this one? gaming pc 1660 Super | eBay

I missed the one I wanted, and saw this one and bought it msi infinite S | eBay. Similar price. But I think the seller misdescribed it. I think it's the lesser model with the 1660 Ti. (And less RAM and disk). https://business.currys.co.uk/catal...e-i5-gtx-1660-ti-1-tb-hdd-128-gb-ssd/N794927W Looks like MSI have done the usual manufacturer's trick of enticing people with a decent spec for e-commerce channels and building another cheapo version with some corners cut for the bricks and mortar channel. So i'm cancelling.
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I'd really want 16GB and an SSD for a gaming PC, although neither of those parts have to be that expensive if the price was right. The first one you linked to had an NVMe drive on the motherboard, which suggests the others have space for one, which is nice.

I'm not sure if get hung up to much on the difference between the 1660s at this price renate
 
Maybe I should replace my motherboard and then get a graphics card separately? I already have SSDs, power supply (Corsair CX750), wifi card, screen and keyboard. Can you suggest a widely available used system board?
 
David Clapson said:
Maybe I should replace my motherboard and then get a graphics card separately? I already have SSDs, power supply (Corsair CX750), wifi card, screen and keyboard. Can you suggest a widely available used system board?
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Depends entirely on the feature set you're looking for. I would say that all the major brands (ones you've heard of) are roughly as good as each other. I tend towards MSI purely due to a very positive experience with their support department and avoid Gigabyte for the same reasons, but everyone's experience will be different.
 
For gaming I want a balanced system which makes good use of a 1660 Super. Preferably quiet. Can't think of any other features I need really. Connectors for 3 drives, plenty of USB ports...the usual! Would be nice if a couple of the USBs are the latest, fastest standard.

FWIW my old board is an MSI 970A-G43 and my case is full size.
 
David Clapson said:
Maybe I should replace my motherboard and then get a graphics card separately? I already have SSDs, power supply (Corsair CX750), wifi card, screen and keyboard. Can you suggest a widely available used system board?
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Sounds like a plan. Do you have any DDR4 RAM already?

I might be tempted with a new CPU/Motherboard and an eBay graphics card.
 
Using a 6 core AMD 5500 would probably tempt me for a new budget build. It appears you can get a 2060 for £200 from ebay if you can stretch that far. I'd read reviews for all the motherboards in that price range if that's the route you were going, but the setup would be a lot better then the ebay ones you were looking at.


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David Clapson said:
Would it be a waste of the 5500 to pair it with a 6GB 2060? I'm looking at the Palit 2060 6 GB StormX. Sells for about 180 on ebay.
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I don't think so. You could probably save a few pounds on the CPU and not see a huge difference in games. However any cheaper CPU is going to be significantly less powerful for not a huge saving. I think the 5500 is a fantastic price at the moment. And of course if you do get a game that's heavy on the CPU then your all set.
 
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It's fascinating to watch the values of graphics cards and motherboards and CPUs on ebay and Idealo. I know that chips are commodities when you're talking about the global trade between the chip manufacturers and the industrial buyers, e.g. car factories, but I never realised that individual end user prices for nerds would track the market so reliably. Maybe the FTX bankruptcy means I should wait a few days to buy a GPU? I'm watching this 12 GB 2060 Palit GeForce RTX 2060 DUAL 12GB GDDR6 Ray-Tracing Graphics Card, 2176 Cores, 14 4710562242966 | eBay Apparently it was designed for mining and the gaming performance is no better than the 8 GB cards More VRAM, But for Who? Nvidia RTX 2060 12GB Review. And sometimes it sells for no more than a 6 GB card.
 
David Clapson said:
It's fascinating to watch the values of graphics cards and motherboards and CPUs on ebay and Idealo. I know that chips are commodities when you're talking about the global trade between the chip manufacturers and the industrial buyers, e.g. car factories, but I never realised that individual end user prices for nerds would track the market so reliably. Maybe the FTX bankruptcy means I should wait a few days to buy a GPU? I'm watching this 12 GB 2060 Palit GeForce RTX 2060 DUAL 12GB GDDR6 Ray-Tracing Graphics Card, 2176 Cores, 14 4710562242966 | eBay Apparently it was designed for mining and the gaming performance is no better than the 8 GB cards More VRAM, But for Who? Nvidia RTX 2060 12GB Review. And sometimes it sells for no more than a 6 GB card.
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Yes, I'm watching GPUs closely. When I built a new PC a year ago, I couldn't bring myself to pay the inflated GPU prices from mining and covid, so was using geforce now. I'd had hopes for the new series, but as they seem to be silly money and the mid range cards won't be out till next year, I think I'll go second hand. They are starting to drop and I'm hoping we'll see some more falls when we start seeing more 4080/4090s in the UK and people upgrade.
 
UnderAnOpenSky said:
Yes, I'm watching GPUs closely. When I built a new PC a year ago, I couldn't bring myself to pay the inflated GPU prices from mining and covid, so was using geforce now. I'd had hopes for the new series, but as they seem to be silly money and the mid range cards won't be out till next year, I think I'll go second hand. They are starting to drop and I'm hoping we'll see some more falls when we start seeing more 4080/4090s in the UK and people upgrade.
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The used 6GB 2060 prices seem a bit high in the context of this https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07MVNP...grd-gb-1446083327803917800-21&geniuslink=true
 
I've bought a used MSI A520M-A Pro and a new Ryzen 5500 and new Corsair 2x8 Vengeance 3600. (Also bought a used RTX 2060 but it's delayed by the Royal Mail strike.) So I'm going to try installing the board and CPU and RAM in my case with my old HD7950 GPU. I also have a new SSD to be the C drive. (My old C drive SSD, which has my Win10 install, is dead.) And I have my old D drive HDD. So I'm hoping I can boot off a Win10 ISO on a memory stick. Fingers and toes crossed. I don't have the experience for this, so it's poke and hope. About to watch an AMD video. https://www.amd.com/en/support/kb/faq/cpu-install No manual included with the 5500. I think the thermal paste is preapplied. There's definitely something gloopy on the underside.
 
So everything powers up, including the D drive HDD and CD drive. But the display doesn't wake up. Just stays in power save mode. And there's no beep from the Power On Self Test. There's a warning light on the motherboard which means boot device fail or not detected.
 
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Hmm. Well not all motherboard have a speaker on them for beep codes, mine doesn't for example. Are you totally sure that you've got all the cables connected as they should be (for example I forgot power to cpu when building once, but things spun up as the motherboard had power). The thermal paste should be a pad on the bottom of the heatsink.

I've done some googling for you and it appears that MSI motherboard may need a bios update to recognise the CPU. This seems more likely if you've bought a second hand one, whereas a new one would have been more likely to ship with the current one. Sadly I think you'll need a compatible CPU so it actually posts to do this update.

Edit: Short of sending it back do you have any small PC repair shops near you. They may be worth a call and see if they can do this for you.
 
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Idea: buy a cheap Ryzen 3 on ebay. £45 would be enough. Sell it when it's done its job. Probably cheaper than a PC repair shop, and there isn't one I trust in Brixton. It will take a few days but I like the idea of doing the whole job myself.

Edit: the price would probably be higher, because I need a 3rd gen Ryzen. A Ryzen 3 isn't 3rd gen unless its first digit is 3. So I'm looking for a cheap 3200, but can't find one.
 
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I'm getting some very interesting help from an MSI forum:
BOOT LED is completely normal when there's no OS for the BIOS to boot. A520M-A Pro (for me, bad choice of board model, too low-end) has graphics outputs, but your Ryzen 5500 has no iGPU, only the models ending in -G have one. So the graphics outputs on the board are dead and you have to use a GPU to see anything. If you are using a graphics card already (you don't mention one), then try all its outputs. If you are using a TV as your monitor, try a normal PC monitor.

The issue with the CPU support is not the explanation here, because then, the board would show the EZ Debug LED "CPU". When it shows "BOOT", it means that the checks have already gone further, so the BIOS is probably loaded but you can't see it at the moment.
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David Clapson said:
I'm getting some very interesting help from an MSI forum:
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My reply:
I've bought a MSI RTX 2060 Super, but it's been delayed by the postal strike, so I've been trying to boot with my old HD7950. But I think it's faulty - the fans go on and off if I jiggle it. I probably damaged it at the same time that I killed my old SSD and motherboard. I also killed my old power supply. I've replaced the power supply with the same model (Corsair CX750). So when the 2060 arrives I reckon I will have replaced everything that might be faulty. It was a bit ambitious to try problem determination without waiting for the 2060, but you've ruled out some things for me.
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My 2060 is installed, but the display still doesn't wake up when I power on the PC. The 'no boot device' LED on the motherboard is lit. The lead between the 2060 and the display is HDMI at both ends. The display works just fine when I connect it to the HDMI output of a laptop.
 
Turns out the help I was getting on the MSI forum was all wrong. UnderAnOpenSky you were right. I bought a Ryzen 3200G for £45 and the display woke up. Then I updated the motherboard BIOS and everything worked. What a saga. I suppose I should celebrate by getting a 4k display and turning everything up to 11 and jumping into No Man's Sky. Haven't played it all year...there should be various new monsters etc to discover. I might even treat myself to a new game. I don't think I've ever played CoD.
 
David Clapson said:
Turns out the help I was getting on the MSI forum was all wrong. UnderAnOpenSky you were right. I bought a Ryzen 3200G for £45 and the display woke up. Then I updated the motherboard BIOS and everything worked. What a saga. I suppose I should celebrate by getting a 4k display and turning everything up to 11 and jumping into No Man's Sky. Haven't played it all year...there should be various new monsters etc to discover. I might even treat myself to a new game. I don't think I've ever played CoD.
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Oh thank goodness, that must have been really stressful. I bowed out when you were getting advice from the MSI forum, but I'm pleased it's sorted.

If you do have the budget for a new screen, I can't recommend ultrawide 3440x1440 highly enough. The extra width is really nice and it's not as demanding as a 4K screen. I now need to find a GPU to drive it it for gaming, but even just using Windows it's a huge leap.
 
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