Even ign picked up that deal.

https://www.ign.com/articles/lenovo-has-dropped-the-price-of-its-loq-rtx-4060-gaming-pc-to-only-760

And OP, it does have that front panel usb C you were looking for and backup wifi 6 if needed.

He should absolutely do it I think. For $760 he's getting a very capable machine for what he and his kids want. They can get a better graphics card and other upgrades later if they choose to.

Green2Maroon said:

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He should absolutely do it I think. For $760 he's getting a very capable machine for what he and his kids want. They can get a better graphics card and other upgrades later if they choose to.

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my budget is $500, so this isn't happening.

Oh okay. I didn't know you were set on a $500 budget.

Would not have recommended a pre-built like that anyway because a lot of the manufacturers customize the power supply and the motherboard meaning it would be very difficult to actually upgrade anything later on.

It sounds like you want a cheap, fun project more than a fairly serious gaming setup. Lots of ways to reach that goal without spending a lot of money.

I think he got there with that build. It's enough for Minecraft for a few months before the GPU. The GPU will be an awesome addition.

There are some great resources online about GPU benchmarks. GPU marketing and generations are more complicated than the CPUs (honestly I think NVidia thrives off of confusing consumers) so definitely check out some of the Youtube channels and GPU benchmark sites for price/performance metrics before you buy.

They could get a 4060 or something like that when the time comes. Depending on how far they want to go.

Green2Maroon said:

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It sounds like you want a cheap, fun project more than a fairly serious gaming setup. Lots of ways to reach that goal without spending a lot of money.

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yeh building this with the boys is half of the gift here. They started talking about building a computer months ago and I showed them
Some videos of basic components. They learned enough to make a little list of wants.

62strat said:

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Green2Maroon said:

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It sounds like you want a cheap, fun project more than a fairly serious gaming setup. Lots of ways to reach that goal without spending a lot of money.

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yeh building this with the boys is half of the gift here. They started talking about building a computer months ago and I showed them
Some videos of basic components. They learned enough to make a little list of wants.

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Few tips for the build and install process.
1. Download the updated bios for the motherboard and put it on a usb 3.0 flash drive. On first boot, go into bios settings and plug in the drive and perform the update. Reboot
2. Once updated, go back into bios and enable your xmp profile to match your ram speeds.
3. Take your fastest flash drive and create a windows bootable usb drive using the instructions you should get from the software provider. Do this before you even start the build, it takes a bit to make the drive.
4. Create the Microsoft login/profile you will use with the pc before the install and have it ready. It takes a bunch of hoops to set it up and get it verified with a phone and backup email etc.
5. For the parts install, your mobo likely has both a 24pin power plug AND an 8pin power plug near the top. Both are required.
6. For your ram, if you look at the slots, you have 4. If you take the closest one to the cpu and consider it slot 1 and farthest away as 4, you want to install your 2 sticks in slots 2 and 4. Open the locks on the slots and give the sticks a good amount of pressure until they click into the slot and the lock closes.
7. Make sure you clear any static electricity before starting the build, touch some metal first and your good.
8. You can build the pc outside of the case first to test its first boots before unplugging the 24 and 8pin and then putting the mobo into the case. This is not required though and it can be tough to get to the 8pin plug with the cpu cooler installed and mobo in the case.
9. Make sure to put the mobo i/o shield into the case before you put the mobo in and check that it doesn't have any issues looking at it from the back before screwing in the mobo (its fun finding a little i/o shield spacer leg stuck inside a usb or ethernet port after finishing the full install).
10. Watch some videos on how to install thermal paste on the cpu before installing the cooler. I recommend Arctic brand, linked at bottom of post. I dont recommend using the free junk that comes with a cpu or cooler. A quality paste will definitely help keep the cpu cooler and its a cheap investment)
11. The manual will show you the pins to use for your front panel connections but i always just watch a YouTube video showing the pin setup as its quick and easy to follow a video.
12. Your power supply is semi modular, so you only need to plug in extra cables as you need them. PLAN THIS OUT before you put the power supply in. Trust me, trying to plug in more cables after is a pita. For your set up, likely only need the 24 and 8pin plugs unless you are putting in a left over 2.5 ssd or something. When you get a gfx card you will have to deal with the adding cables part at that point or you can plug in 2 spare 6+2(8) pin cables and just keep them tucked into the case until you need them. Most mid range/entry gfx cards only need 1-2 of these for power.
13. Cable management is an art to learn but not too hard on starting pcs. Your case likely has holes you can run cables through to the back near the power supply and back out near your 24 and 8pin locations, i would run these first before you put the mobo in to make it easy on yourself. Just plug them in after you finish screwing in the mobo.
14. I think the case you got has a fan controller pre installed, you should only need to run 1 4pin connection from your mobo back to this controller to have all your case fans controlled by the mobo.
15. Your cpu cooler fan should be facing towards the front when installed. You may need to preinstall some mounting hardware that comes with the cooler to be able to mount it on the board.


ARCTIC MX-6 (2 g) - Ultimate Performance Thermal Paste for CPU, consoles, graphics cards, laptops, very high thermal conductivity, long durability, non-conductive https://a.co/d/hU6OQHj

62strat said:

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Green2Maroon said:

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He should absolutely do it I think. For $760 he's getting a very capable machine for what he and his kids want. They can get a better graphics card and other upgrades later if they choose to.

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my budget is $500, so this isn't happening.

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Great deal here if you haven't bought yet or even if you have, are still in the return period without penalty.

https://slickdeals.net/f/17781480-intel-core-i7-12700k-cpu-gigabyte-b760m-mb-16gb-t-force-vulcan-z-ram-260-free-shipping

dang that is a good deal, I've spent $266 on my mobo,cpu,ram for I5.

any reason at all to not do this?
I've only purchased the cpu at microcenter just last week, so can return.

clicking the link to newegg it says out of stock, does that mean I'm SOL?

62strat said:

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clicking the link to newegg it says out of stock, does that mean I'm SOL?

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Sadly SOL right now. Doubt it will come back in stock again while deal is alive.

62strat said:

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clicking the link to newegg it says out of stock, does that mean I'm SOL?

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Forget to mention, LTT recently did a whole video series with these guys sponsoring it for used parts. You likely can find some good deals in there before your return period is up. And definitely when it comes time for the gfx card buy.

https://www.jawa.gg/


Example deal, used 3070 for $230
https://www.jawa.gg/product/40389/rtx-3070-8gb-zotac-oem-blower-used

They have a 48hr review window once you receive it to test them out.
https://support.jawa.gg/hc/en-us/articles/8835657123099-Buyer-and-Seller-Protections

Pro Sandy said:

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When i was their age, had a Commodore 64 for my gaming computer

64 kB RAM
20 kB ROM
1MHz processor
BASIC OS

At $600, in your price range.

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the floppy drive cost more than the actual computer

gotta question here.
Teh kid and I got this pc built today. Everything seemed straight forward, and all the different power cables and header cables and such I'm confident I have in the right spot and what haveyou.

When I plug it in and turn it on, I get some fading led lights coming from back of mobo, but nothing else is happening; cpu fan or the preinstalled case fans don't come on.
I plugged in a monitor to onboard graphics, and nothing happens on the monitor either.

I was hoping to at least get some fans on with lights, is something not hooked up right, or do I need to go the next step and install something from a thumb drive?

intel i5 12th gen
asrock b660m
cooler master hyper 212 fan
kingston 1 tb ssd
MSI MAG A650be psu
gskill ripjaws 2x8 DDR4

ram are in slot 2 and 4 per mobo directions for 2

here is a pic of mobo power, cooler power and rgb, the case usb header, and the wire coming out of the case fan hub that plugs into a rgb header. I've also plugged in the case fan hub to the PSU






Then i have front panel audio header and usb header

My case panel header I've double checked; power switch is the top 2 right next to the blank, hd led is bottom left two, and system power led is top left, polarity is correct on PLED and HDLED.

3 things to check/try.

Is the second power cable, the 8pin plugged into the motherboard? The 24 pin powers most things but the second one is for the cpu and a few other parts.

Try a bios flash update which doesn't need a cpu installed i believe to make sure the board is up to date to support the cpu.


Take out the ram and reinsert them and also can try with a single stick in slot 4 to see if it boots (swap sticks if first time fails). If it boots with 1 stick but not 2, it could be bad ram.

Yes I have the 8pin in as well.

How do I do a bios flash update, do I need to take the cpu out to do that?

Just to confirm though, fans should automatically just power on without any sort of bios or other software stuff? If they have power, they turn on?

this is the fan hub




is it normal for the wire coming off the bottom left there, it is not 4pin to go into mobo fan header. It is 3 pin, so it goes into an rbg header?

Also, on the right is a sata connection, I assume that is plugged directly into PSU with a sata cable?

even the psu fan isn't turning on.. something seems really wrong here.

I'm pretty sure my power button on case isn't doing anything. It has no lights up there.

62strat said:

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even the psu fan isn't turning on.. something seems really wrong here.

I'm pretty sure my power button on case isn't doing anything. It has no lights up there.

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A quick video

https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/r1m0ikb1bj84v6k7s3v0u/2024-10-20-09.36.45.mov?rlkey=9z4tr84mfynk8awb7y64f1odj&st=fjvypmxl&dl=0

Yea those lights just mean board is powered. Your power switch is not functioning right now from that video. 100% start with the front panel i/o wiring and pull them and redo them. You can also jumpstart the pc by bridging the positive and negative power pins with a screwdriver or key or knife etc. That should atleast get the pc running into post screen hopefully for first boot. First boot can take a little longer than other boots due to first time setup. It will usually force you into that menu to set things like cpu overclock or ram speeds.

62strat said:

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this is the fan hub




is it normal for the wire coming off the bottom left there, it is not 4pin to go into mobo fan header. It is 3 pin, so it goes into an rbg header?

Also, on the right is a sata connection, I assume that is plugged directly into PSU with a sata cable?

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Yea, plug that into any 3 or 4 pin header on motherboard. Its likely just taking power to supplant all the boards connections while only needing 1 4pin to get speed data through to the entire board.

62strat said:

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Yes I have the 8pin in as well.

How do I do a bios flash update, do I need to take the cpu out to do that?

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Confirm this is your board. B660M Pro RS
https://www.asrock.com/mb/Intel/B660M%20Pro%20RS/index.us.asp#BIOS

Go down to bios section and download the newest bios, 15.01 "instant flash".

Follow these directions to update it. https://www.asrock.com/support/BIOSIG.asp?cat=BIOS9

CPU shouldn't need to be removed.

Make sure your power switch is connected properly to the motherboard. If need be, touch a wire across the + and - of the PWR_SW tines. If it doesn't power on then at least you've ruled out all the case wiring.

so I figured this out, it was a loose wire on the power switch behind the front panel.

Got it all working and trying to install windows, and realize I may have overlooked wifi.

DO I just need to buy an M.2 wifi card and put it in the mobo? Does that work ok?

You're welcome?

Doctor Rosenrosen said:

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You're welcome?

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well it wasn't the mobo header connection! I stared back and forth from mobo diagram to the mobo and made sure all that was correct.

I had to pull off front panel of the case and investigate the wires from the top/front panel which is all factory installed.. the one to the on/off switch on top cover came loose I guess. I put it back on and it all came together.
Oddly enough, before I did that, I tried using a screw driver to connect the switch pins, and it never worked. But after I fixed the front panel switch, then I was able to use a screw driver with success.

But thanks to all who had input on this thread.

Now I just need to figure out wifi.

62strat said:

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Doctor Rosenrosen said:

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You're welcome?

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well it wasn't the mobo header connection! I stared back and forth from mobo diagram to the mobo and made sure all that was correct.

I had to pull off front panel of the case and investigate the wires from the top/front panel which is all factory installed.. the one to the on/off switch on top cover came loose I guess. I put it back on and it all came together.
Oddly enough, before I did that, I tried using a screw driver to connect the switch pins, and it never worked. But after I fixed the front panel switch, then I was able to use a screw driver with success.

But thanks to all who had input on this thread.

Now I just need to figure out wifi.

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Powerline ethernet is better than wifi for gaming if no direct ethernet available. I would recommend that first unless you don't have the spare ethernet port on your router. The best option if available is to run a long ethernet cable from router to the computer room through an attic or crawlspace and feed it through the wall and add a wall plate for perma dedicated ethernet. CAT5e is dirt cheap and runs gigabit speeds no problems. You have to drill into your studs with a spade bit or similar to feed your cables, drill in the center of the board if you do. Its how i dropped ethernet to all my rooms that were missing them drom original home builder.


You need 2 ethernet cables for this setup, 1 from router to first unit at a wall socket and 1 from computer room wall socket to computer. CAT5e should do it. Check your distances before ordering and leave yourself some spare cable.

NexusLink G.hn Powerline Ethernet Adapter | 1200 Mbps | Gigabit Port, Power Saving, Home Network Expander with Stable Ethernet Connection for Online Gaming, Video Streaming | 2-Unit Kit (GPL-1200-KIT) https://a.co/d/7bpFAns

What is that device you linked?

I'm going over in my head tonight, think I can move our modem to the room where the pc is. I checked the coax cables in the basement network box and pretty sure I can just swap two of them to have the feed go from great room to the pc room.

Then I can plug pc directly into modem with a short cat5 cable.

62strat said:

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What is that device you linked?

I'm going over in my head tonight, think I can move our modem to the room where the pc is. I checked the coax cables in the basement network box and pretty sure I can just swap two of them to have the feed go from great room to the pc room.

Then I can plug pc directly into modem with a short cat5 cable.

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Powerline ethernet turns your electrical outlets into ethernet connections. Since its a wired connection the speed and low latency are much better for gaming than wifi if you do not have a direct wired connection to your router.

The nice thing is you can always add more units in any other room and sync them up. The single unit from the router side can feed them all. Its a very easy setup and the protocols for sync/security are shared mostly between device manufacturers but keep the same brand if you can.

Wireless built in is nice to have but if you have the ability to hardwire that would be ideal. It isn't a gamebreaker either way especially for games your kids would be playing. If you get a good deal on a motherboard you can get a cheap wireless adapter.

I loved the modem into the room with their desks, so pc is hardwired into back of modem. Worked out great and room for the other one which come in the future.