Question Graphics Card?

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Bleedin fingers

Apr 30, 2024
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GRAPHICS CARD
I’m looking for some advice to upgrade my pc to be the best gaming pc it can. I have an asrock A320M-HDV r4.0 board with 16GB DDR4 ram My processor is Athlon 3000G. And my graphics slot is PCIe3x16
I’m looking at upgrading to at least a Ryzen 7 and want to know which graphics card is best for my system. Can I run a NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 Ti 11GB GDDR5X card on the upgraded processor with my current other components (also I have a 4TB ssd)
 
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ohio_buckeye

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Jan 5, 2015
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Ouch. Yeah the board is toast then unless you have someone reprogram with a new chip. But on an a320 board, don't bother imo.

What board did you pick up? If it's not a 500 series board, then you want one with bios flashback. Although I guess you could still use the old athlon to update the bios if needed as long as the power doesn't cut out. May be worth adding accidental protection...or even hooking up a UPS unit if you have one.
 
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Bleedin fingers

Apr 30, 2024
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Too late to cancel the order, I’m just going to have to go with the a550m. I’m out of cash for anything else now in any case, (I’ve already gone over budget)
Given this is what I’ve got to work with, is it just a case of installing the processor etc, turning it on and letting the driver disk do its thing?
 
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ohio_buckeye

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It should be fine with the a520 then I would think. Not ideal, but you aren't going to overclocking etc, just make sure you install some fans and keep air moving in there to keep things going. With a 500 series board I would think it will work out of the box. Worst case, you may have to use your old cpu in the new board to update the bios on it.

Good luck, let us know how it comes out!
 
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ohio_buckeye

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If you can, you're better off with a clean install. Sometimes a system will work, but sometimes they will freak out if you change everything like that and not run right or you will get errors that seem impossible to track down.

Easy way to do it though, take the new board out of the package, set the anti static bag on top of the motherboard box, then assemble with the new cpu, cooler, ram etc already installed, then just check your standoff locations and place it into the case assembled like that.

If you really want to do it the way a lot of folks here do though, hook it all up outside the case, then use a screwdriver to jump the power pins on the board while it's outside the case. That gives a good indication that everything is working before you assemble it.
 
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ohio_buckeye

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Good call. I'm a tech myself. I may at times forget that not everyone does this all the time:)

The only other thing as well, though it might be a bit late now, but trying to activate Windows. You should have a serial number that came with your copy of Windows from before. If so, you may have to call Microsoft and talk really nicely and explain that you had a bricked board and that you are only using that copy of Windows on 1 computer only.
 
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Bleedin fingers

Apr 30, 2024
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Excellent, I’ve just scanned that but I’ll be sure to read it through properly before I start. I have a purchased copy of windows 10, and believe the key is saved on my Microsoft account. I think I can do a clean install of windows through that, but I’ll use your guide to be sure I’m getting it right first time.
 
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ohio_buckeye

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https://www.microsoft.com/software-download/windows11

There's the link for creating the media like he shows above. Just be sure to have a blank usb drive, and from another PC, follow the instructions on creating a bootable usb. It should create it on it's own. With any luck, you can activate Windows 11 with the Windows 10 key. If it's an OEM license you may have to call Microsoft to activate it and just explain that your board died and you are fixing your PC.
 
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Bleedin fingers

Apr 30, 2024
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Well, I’ve managed to get back up with the new board and Athlon 3000g processor, windows is running fine and dandy. Now looking to flash the bios to accept the Ryzen 7.cant seem to find the right bios file on the new board website. Can you point me to the right one?
 
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Bleedin fingers

Apr 30, 2024
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This is my board,​

MSI A520M-A PRO Motherboard mATX - Supports AMD Ryzen 3rd Gen Processors, AM4, DDR4 Boost (4600MHz/OC), 1 x PCIe 3.0 x1, 1 x M.2 Gen3 x4, Gigabit LAN​

E7C96AMS.1G0, this is the current bios,
 
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Bleedin fingers

Apr 30, 2024
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I started off building up with the Ryzen installed but it wouldn’t boot up, I put the Athlon in and it booted up and after a bit of driver upgrades etc everything is working fine. Can I just swap over the processor now?
 
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ohio_buckeye

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If you’ve got the latest bios and if their site says it’s a supported cpu you should be able to swap it over.

Keep in mind that the 5700x doesn’t have any integrated graphics. So you have to use the 6600xt that you bought or you will not get a display. So in other words, install the new psu and gpu, and plug into the gpu instead of the motherboard.

I apologize should have mentioned that.
 
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