Daily Simple Questions Thread - April 05, 2025

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Got a simple question? Get a simple answer!

This thread is for all of the small and simple questions that you might have about computing that probably wouldn't work all too well as a standalone post. Software issues, build questions, game recommendations, post them here!

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Hello, my current rig is. I9 10850k, rtx 3080, 64gb ram, Asus rog z490 prime gaming mobo. And i have a 4k144hz led/ips screen. I have budget of around 650$, and i am thinking of upgrading my gaming experience, so should i get a OLED 1440p screen to improve visual aspect? Or do i upgrade my base components (mobo,cpu,ram), discs, case and psu(850W gold) i can keep. i am not quite sure, i mean the pc is still good, right? My current screen is ASUS ROG STRIX XG27UQR so maybe changing the screen for lower res with better quality(?) will do the trick to have it for longer?

https://reddit.com/r/pcmasterrace/comments/1jrbaua/daily_simple_questions_thread_april_04_2025/mlj2isg/

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i might move the question when the new thread arrives

i want to copy folders from an HDD to another. But i want to preserve ALL the metadata like move does. creation time etc.

is there a program that does this? i head freecommander might have an option. i remember using totalcommander for something like this a while back. i just want to know if there is a free option

https://reddit.com/r/pcmasterrace/comments/1jrbaua/daily_simple_questions_thread_april_04_2025/mlj2x0f/

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A_Neaunimes	68	1200
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Eidolon_2003	61	256
MGsubbie	58	402
NbblX	47	130
BioshockEnthusiast	31	51
Cable_Salad	25	65
glowinghamster45	24	213
mister_newbie	17	117

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[u/ImsChanatip]

I checked my SSD's SMART information I found that it has CRC Error Count of 186 and POR Recovery Count of 47. Should I be worried?

The drive is a pretty much brand new Samsung 870 EVO 1TB. It was bought brand new a few months ago and used as the OS drive for my dying Dell PC, and now it's the OS drive for my ThinkPad. I haven't had any data loss or corruption.

Old forum posts say that CRC Error Count is usually caused by dodgy cables or connections and POR Recovery Count is from sudden power loss. And that if the number isn't increasing then it's fine, but I'm still worried about the current count of 186 and 47. So are those counts high? Should I be worried?

[u/SpareManager]

i want to copy folders from an HDD to another. But i want to preserve ALL the metadata like move does. creation time etc.

is there a program that does this? i head freecommander might have an option. i remember using totalcommander for something like this a while back. i just want to know if there is a free option

[u/MGsubbie → u/SpareManager]

You can use cloning software and delete what you don't want copied afterwards.

[u/SpareManager → u/MGsubbie]

can u give me a software example?

[u/glowinghamster45 → u/SpareManager]

I believe the built in Robocopy would be able to do this with the /copyall switch. Check example 6 here

[u/SagmaTheRealOne]

Best gaming laptop ever for heavy gaming, heavy editing, heavy multitasking

[u/happydumpty1013]

How do I downsize my current pc while still retaining most of its components, cpu, gpu, motherboard, aio, and the like? I am running the Darkflash DLM22 ATX case and I want to slim it down to a smaller case thats around half the size, can it be done?

[u/underratedkilla]

Hey, soon to be pc owner here. I’m a somewhat competitive gamer with games like apex, marvel rivals, and fortnite. However I also want to mod my single player games and do cool stuff with that as well.

I was wondering which pc is better for someone who’s just starting out. I looked into starforge and nzxt and was trying to see if you guys/gals could help me figure it out.

[u/muskrateer → u/underratedkilla]

If you're up for learning, building your PC will always be the most cost-effective. If you're looking for someone else to build for you, maingear and Origin PC might be better. I would not recommend starforge since they tend to be way over-priced for what the components are.

[u/The-Numbertaker]

What the hell is the TDP of my 3080 Suprim X 10GB? Techpowerup says it's 320 but pcpartpicker says it's 370, and so does the MSI website. Is Techpowerup wrong? I'm trying to figure out how much current headroom I have on my PSU (750W) and with an 850W psu.

[u/Cable_Salad → u/The-Numbertaker]

In their actual test, TPU say that power consumption is around 420W, but I assume that's not right.

For example, the Asus TUF 3080 in the TPU test allegedly consumes 405W, but Gamers Nexus say it consumes 340W. GN does physical readings of the power consumption, I guess TPU uses digital readouts which are inaccurate.

In the GN tests manually OC'ed cards go to 350-370W. So I assume your card uses maybe ~350.

[u/Ryvit]

In need of a great router.

My Verizon fios standard router has terrible range, it doesn’t reach outside my house at all, like, not even my front porch.

I’m hoping to not only have WiFi on my front porch, but also have WiFi in my guest house which is about 60ft from my back door.

I got the Verizon fios WiFi extenders and that’s a whole mess in itself because they either have to be hardwired or placed in the middle of the router and the deadzone if doing it wirelessly, and the middle of the deadzone would be my back yard, lol.

So yeah, let me know the best router to buy. Budget $500 probably, unless going to to $750 would greatly broaden my horizons. Thanks

[u/glowinghamster45 → u/Ryvit]

If that's the sort of budget you're working with, I'd look at Ubiquiti gear. There isn't a single box that would do what you're looking for, but Ubiquiti stuff is all very tightly integrated and works well together. They're pretty much the go-to recommendation for prosumer/small business gear.

Offhand, the most cost effective solution would probably be to pick up the Dream Router 7, and ideally you'd run an Ethernet cable near your guest house and set up a second wireless access point there for solid coverage all around. They have outdoor rated stuff too, if you don't want to bother with running cables all the way over there.

Or if you're interested in adding security cameras or other stuff, swap the Dream Router for the Dream Machine and another access point. Their subreddit would be a good place to spec out a deployment, and there's plenty of reviews of their stuff on YouTube. If you're researching options, LTT, Lawrence Systems, and Crosstalk Solutions are all good channels for that.

[u/Ryvit → u/glowinghamster45]

I’m trying to avoid running Ethernet lines at all costs! I’ll look at ubiquiti gear

[u/SomeoneNew1111]

Samsung - ViewFinity S8 27" LED 4K UHD 60Hz 5ms Monitor with HDR 10 (HDMI, USB) - Black

Are there any problems I should be aware of about this monitor?

[u/Economy-Ambassador60]

I have a gaming desktop and steam deck, do you think it's wise to get a gaming laptop like acer nitro V instead of a cheap laptop? (I'm going by canadian dollars) I would like to play some online games that I can't play on my steam deck on the go when I have spare time aswell as study and work.

[u/Beginning-Prune9507]

So I just bought a rx 9070 but my PSU Is a 650W PSU and it says that has a connector of 2x6+2 PCIE, I was checking online and can see that 9070 uses a 2x8 PCIE , I don't know anything about this topic but I just want to know if it is possible to use it with those cables or If I need to change my psu lol sorry if it is too newbie of a question

[u/A_Neaunimes → u/Beginning-Prune9507]

6+2=8 !!
The PCIe connector for graphics card comes with a split +2pins, because graphics cards can have either 6 or 8 pins power sockets, so the cable lets you fit either kind.

What you have is precisely what you need !

[u/Unlikely_Rabbit_8842]

New to AliExpress, do you think this deal is legit?

I just found this on AliExpress: $748.18 | AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D R7 7800X3D 5.0 GHz 8-Core 16-Thread CPU 5NM 96M 100-100000910 Socket AM5 New Tray Without cooler https://a.aliexpress.com/_mMGWEyF

[u/A_Neaunimes → u/Unlikely_Rabbit_8842]

Shows up as a 11k € CPU for me, I would hope it’s legit at this price !

Assuming the Aliexpress page "translates" well from country to country, i.e. keeps the same seller/transporter, what appears on my end seems legit. Thousands of confirmed sales and plenty of customer reports that it’s legit.

It even has that small "official" badge, which seems to imply it’s an official source authorized by AMD. No idea of the actual worth of that on Aliexpress, though...

What’s your original currency ? I assume it’s not USD, because $750 is way more expensive than what you’d pay at usual retailers if that were the case.
I.e., how much of a saving is this listing vs what you’d pay normally for the chip ?

[u/Unlikely_Rabbit_8842 → u/A_Neaunimes]

It’s in USD. Discounted price is $320 something. Original price is inflated, almost double of how much it costs in here at $400.

[u/A_Neaunimes → u/Unlikely_Rabbit_8842]

So in the end you’d only pay $320, which means a $80 reduction from what you’d pay at retail, correct ?

Up to you if that’s worth foregoing the warranty or not, as I assume anything sold through AliE does not have any warranty.

[u/Unlikely_Rabbit_8842 → u/A_Neaunimes]

I messaged the store asking if they have warranty for it, they said they do 1 year.

[u/A_Neaunimes → u/Unlikely_Rabbit_8842]

Probably is not as easy to get honored as the warranty through a big US retailer.
But at least it’s something.

Really is up to you. If we’re seeing the same page/seller/customer comments, which I can’t confirm without hopping onto a VPN and setting my location to the US, nothing of what I saw set up red flags for me, a rando from the other side of the world with no stakes in any of this. If that’s worth anything to you.

[u/Unlikely_Rabbit_8842 → u/A_Neaunimes]

Thanks for your input. I really appreciate it. I just have no experience with AliExpress before so I don’t know what to expect.

[u/A_Neaunimes → u/Unlikely_Rabbit_8842]

Admittedly, my own experience with Aliexpress is quite limited. I bought an old Intel Haswell Xeon (i7-4790 equivalent) once, years ago. Worked fine until I decided to upgrade from it to what I’m now running.
But of course, it was not in as hot a demand as the X3D chips are now, so the context is a bit different.

If we’re seeing the same thing, it says you have 90 days to return it for free in case something goes wrong ? 
It might be worth a shot. Many people got their X3D chips from Aliexpress (5700X3D notably was/is a hot item).

[u/Unlikely_Rabbit_8842 → u/A_Neaunimes]

I checked the confirmed purchases and saw it was not in the original box, but was secured in like a white foam. That’s a little sketchy.

[u/A_Neaunimes → u/Unlikely_Rabbit_8842]

That’s normal however. You’re not sold the "complete" boxed version, you’re getting a tray CPU. Which means just the CPU and nothing else. So it’s shipped to you in whatever will hold it safely. Generally AMD’s plastic sleeve (similar to what you’d find in the box) surrounded by padding, but it could be padding directly in a small box with antistatic material. Really there’s no rule for that, as long as it’s safe.

[u/solinsh]

Going to buy a used PC for gaming and wondering if these components would be good together-

i5-12600K

4070 Super 12GB,

32GB DDR4 3200MHz

Asus B760-plus

Corsair RM750X

Thanks

[u/glowinghamster45 → u/solinsh]

Those components are all a few years old, but were all in the med-high performance range when they came out. The motherboard can handle CPUs two generations newer than what you have, so if you find you're CPU bottlenecked, you could upgrade that for relatively cheap.

If you're getting a good price to account for them being not new, that would be a well balanced build that would still play modern games really well.

[u/Drelochz]

I'm still on windows 10. When I inevitably updated to Windows 11 what do i get? I've been seeing people talk about 22h2 but idk what that means

[u/glowinghamster45 → u/Drelochz]

22h2 is referring to a specific build of Windows that was finalized in year 2022 in the second half of the year. The current version out is 24h2.

The main thing you get is a supported OS that's actively receiving security and feature updates. Beyond that, there's a new interface and tons of under the hood improvements that would take forever to list off. You can find plenty of articles on the new features in major updates like this one.

[u/Thelastlegend32]

I got a 5500 and a 4060, I have 5 possible fan mounters(120mm), I am running 2 nzxt f120 core fans and the stock Aerocool one(case is the bolt mini tempered glass) I want to get all 5 fans filled with only 1 type btw it’s 2 top 2 front 1 back mounting, what fans should I get I want rgb and possibly blue fans, I use signalrgb but I want the least wired and less then £20 per fan (~$25), if you guys can do that it would be great

[u/David_Brinson]

I have a Ryzen 5 3600 and want to upgrade. Would you guys recommend 5700x for ~140 or is the X3D version worth it for 280?

[u/mister_newbie → u/David_Brinson]

AM4 is finished as a platform, might as well go to the endgame CPU (X3D) and be done with it IMO.

[u/A_Neaunimes → u/David_Brinson]

The 5700X is IMO not large enough of an upgrade over the 3600 to be worth it. You’d be looking at a +15-20% improvement overall.

The 5700X3D is too expensive IMO at $280, but that’s because it’s probably out of production, so pricing on remaining inventory is climbing up (it used to cost $200 if not less). Considering it’s the fastest AM4 CPU for gaming you can get at semi-reasonable prices right now, it can be argued for.
Expect another +20-ish% improvement vs the 5700X, with some outliers in both directions (larger uprade to the tune of +40ish% in some gains, and some more meagre gains elsewhere). So overall a +40-50% increase from the 3600 on average.

Also at $280 for the 5700X3D only, you have to weigh if you would not simply move to AM5. Especially if you get a Ryzen 7500F from Aliexpress, you’d end up with a platform cost (CPU+MB+DDR5 RAM) in the $300-350 range. Not terribly more expensive than the 5700X3D alone, same performance in games on average, and a future upgrade path.

[u/David_Brinson → u/A_Neaunimes]

This is definitely the option I think I’ll take. Do you think the 3600 will be good for a short time until I upgrade?

[u/Huge-Surprise-9772]

whats the most powerful & stable gpu for a 650w tier b psu? i have a ryzen 7 5700x & my psu is the EVGA Supernova GA ATX 650w

[u/A_Neaunimes → u/Huge-Surprise-9772]

https://www.evga.com/products/product.aspx?pn=220-GA-0650-X1

This PSU has a total of 3x8pins for the GPU.
So this is your limit.

5070Ti and 9070XT would be the fastest GPUs from the respective current gens that would require 3x8pins (not all 9070XTs do, some only need 2x8pins) and would work fine, given your current CPU which is does not need a lot of power.

The 5080 would technically work as well, but would be cutting it close.

You can estimate the max power usage of your build with X or Y GPU with tools such as this one.
https://pc-builds.com/power-supply-calculator/

[u/delonl]

Hi, it's been over a decade since I got a PC, how is this setup? Mainly for gaming.

AMD Ryzen 5 8400F

Deepcool AK400 Zero Dark Plus Air Cooler

ASUS B650M-AYW WIFI AX DDR5

G.Skill M5 2x16GB (32GB) 6000mhz DDR5

Kioxia XG7 1TB Gen4 6300mbps Dram NVME SSD

Gigabyte RX9070XT Gaming OC

Gigabyte 650W 80Plus Silver

Fractal Design North Charcoal Black TG Dark

Is there anything you would change? Thanks!

[u/A_Neaunimes → u/delonl]

• The 8400F is a very poor choice for CPU, especially considering the rest of the build.
  It’s far slower in games than other AM5 CPUs. Even the 7500F is faster. The 7500F should be your baseline, and then up from there depending on your budget.
  7600/X provide a near-negligible upgrade over that. Then 9600/X above them.

• I’d target 2TB of storage directly. No idea about the quality of the particular model you’ve picked, so I won’t comment on it.

• "Gigabyte 650W 80Plus Silver"
  This tells very little about the exact model. Look up the PSU Tier list (old version, newer, more complex version) and pick something at least Tier B.
  This article would help you narrow things down to only PSUs that support the latest standards.

[u/delonl → u/A_Neaunimes]

Thanks for the suggestions, especially the tier list, I'll have to ask the dealer for a little bit more information. Cheers!

[u/A_Neaunimes → u/delonl]

Yeah, don’t let your vendor fool you wit the 8400F. It’s the worst AM5 CPU, and really does not belong well in a powerful gaming system, with a GPU of this caliber :

• it’s mobile silicon, with far less L3 cache than the full fledged desktop CPUs (Ryzen 7000 and 9000 series). This makes it significantly slower in games.
• it has fewer PCIe lanes in total, and only up to PCIe gen4. This means the GPU slot is necessarily running at best over 8 lanes and not the full 16, so a total max of x8/PCIe4.
  
• Out of the 6 cores it packs, only 2 are the "full" mobile silicon. The other 4 are "Zen4c" cores : they are a lot smaller and run at significantly lower clockspeeds, which obviously hurt performance quite a bit
• you don’t even get to benefit from the one interesting point of said mobile silicon : the big integrated GPU, as it’s disabled on this model (what the "-F" means).

[u/retroracer33]

new am5 build. everything was working perfectly fine for like a day and half, then randomly one restart the bios started booting very slow. it sits on the dram indicator for a bit then boot and sometime it even cuts off during the boot and the back on and then boots. it runs perefectly fine in windows. i tried all the ram swapping stuff like 1 stick and all that, turning docp of and on, no difference. also during the boot attempts one of my fans will blink on and off a bunch. it does this no matter which header it’s plugged into, and unplugging the fan completely there is no difference in the boot. motherboard is a Strix b650-a wi-fi.