**The Agony and the Ecstasy: A Build's Journey to Perfection**

We've all been there - stuck with a PC that just won't cooperate, no matter how hard we try. The frustration is palpable, and the feeling of utter despair can be overwhelming. But what if I told you that even the most stubborn of systems can be tamed with patience, persistence, and a healthy dose of troubleshooting? In this article, we'll follow the journey of a build that's been on a rollercoaster ride of ups and downs, from the highs of impressive performance to the lows of a dead GPU.

**The Initial Struggles**

It all started when our build wouldn't boot. Yes, you read that right - it just wouldn't boot. The symptoms were clear: the screen was bright, but the PC refused to acknowledge its presence. We jumped the cables, thinking that might do the trick, but alas, nothing changed. The issue persisted, and we realized that something fundamental had gone wrong. Our initial suspicion? A problem with the graphics card.

**The GPU: A Life of Its Own**

As it turns out, our 7900 XT was not what it seemed. At first glance, it appeared to be a regular graphics card, but as we delved deeper, we discovered that it might be more than just a simple piece of hardware. It had developed its own personality - and a rather stubborn one at that. We tried everything from adjusting the vertical GPU mount to swapping out the power cables, but nothing seemed to work.

**The Turning Point**

It wasn't until we pulled the graphics card out of its tight spot that we realized our mistake. The power cable had become slightly loose due to the tight fit, and this had caused a connection issue that was preventing the PC from booting. We clipped in the cables and reconnected everything, and voila! The system sprang back to life.

**Performance: A Newfound Joy**

With our graphics card now stable, we were eager to see how it would perform. The results were nothing short of astonishing. At 4K High settings with FSR enabled and on the quality preset, our build managed an impressive 142 FPS. This was a performance that was well ahead of expectations, especially considering the relatively modest price point of our GPU.

**Games Galore**

We took our build for a spin in some popular games to see how it would stack up against other systems. The results were consistently strong across various titles. In Modern Warfare 2 at 4K, we saw a frame rate of 120 FPS, while Fortnite at 1080p competitive settings delivered an impressive 330 FPS. Even Apex Legends performed well, albeit slightly less impressively than some of the other games.

**Overwatch and Formula One: A High-Refresh-Rate Experience**

As we continued to test our build's performance, we discovered that it was capable of delivering smooth, high-refresh-rate experiences in a variety of games. Overwatch 2 at 1440p Ultra delivered 362 FPS on average, while Formula One 2022 at 4K set to ultra settings with FSR enabled and Ray tracing even activated clocked in at an impressive 144 FPS.

**Conclusion: A System Restored**

In the end, it was clear that our build had been on a journey of self-discovery. From its initial struggles with booting to its eventual triumphs in performance, our system had proven itself to be more resilient than we initially thought. With a healthy dose of troubleshooting and a bit of patience, even the most stubborn systems can be brought back from the brink.

**Final Thoughts**

We'll be keeping an eye on this build's future performance and exploring other components that could enhance its capabilities. If you're interested in learning more about the parts used in today's build, check out our links below for more information. Don't forget to subscribe to our channel for more content like this, and we'll see you in the next one!

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enwhat is up guys welcome back to another geeko art video and in this one I'm going to be showing you how to build an awesome 1440p gaming PC build using this amd's still fairly new 7900 XT is this card worth it over its more expensive XTX bigger brother and if so which are the best components to match it up with to avoid bottlenecking and get the performance a card like this can deliver in this video I'll be walking you through all the parts the build process and performance a little bit later on so buckle in and less than this video will be split into three core sections first the parts second the build process and third the benchmarks a bit later and let's start the part shall we by looking at the motherboard and of course the CPU at the heart of the build is the Intel Core i5 13400f a more entry level I5 that still retains all of the bonuses of the 13th gen architecture High Core count PNE cores great boost clock speeds and solid multi-threaded Performance Plus they're pretty cool running chips at least compared to amd's ryzen 7000 which by Design whatever that means run very hot something we'd like to avoid in this system it also pairs up nicely with the Asus Rog strix b760a a more affordable option for those looking at 13th gen compatible motherboards asus's b760 lineup is very solid and with a nice two-tone white and black color scheme it's going to match the build aesthetic perfectly my friends good work Aces very nice and it's cheaper obviously 2 than its z790 counterparts by quite a lot really which definitely helps as always I'll be linking both the motherboard CPU and all the other components down below over on Amazon for latest pricing and availability I'm sure you guys know how to install a 13th gem processor by now if not lift up the arm and the socket cover take a look at it from the side and then drop the CPU into place pop the cover back down bit of pressure and the CPU installs nice and easy memory wise I'm also going to pop in a 32 gig kit of corsair's Vengeance RGB they do these more affordable RS and RT models with this nice two-tone color scheme and aesthetic you want the second and fourth dims here to get the best possible performance I'm going to round things off on the motherboard with the nvme drive this is the Corsair mp600 GS now of course they're very kindly sent the two terabyte drive over for some of our other projects but I'd recommend dropping to one terabyte for this build you'll save money arguably won't need the extra storage and even if you do a cheaper hard drive or gen 3 3 SSD to provide a bit of an extra storage boost is going to be a much cheaper way of doing things nice drive though and looks great under the top m.2 heatsink that you get with this motherboard as much as I said that was the final thing to do on the motherboard I did tell a bit of a cheeky lie it does happen from time to time what I'm actually going to do before moving on is just prep some of the call out and this is where it gets exciting because Corsair sent over the h100i elite capelix XT the reason I've only gone for like a smaller 240 mil is obviously we can't over cut the CPU so arguably an air cooler would also be fine but you know let's keep things interested take it out the box I mean it looks very similar to some of their other coolers the radiator is this nice I want to say like powder coated but kind of glossy white paint that's pretty cool it's also got this really cool water block design with the triangles that we've seen on a few of their other cases what we're actually looking for here though is a bag of Hardware that's this one here it says Intel HW as inside of here is a few bits and Bobs that we need to prep the cooler install so we've got this brush bracket here which actually is going to pop through the rear of the motherboard so if you take a look it literally just slides into any of these holes here nice and easily that'll do us lovely stuff Slide the motherboard back round so that gravity is going to hold the bracket in and then find the appropriate bag of screws so we've got 1700 yes that is socket type that we're going to be using just four posts which you can add onto Each corner and install the CPU block down to later on but for now just add these four posts in and go from there once that's all done the case is the next item on the agenda now this is the engine XT H5 Elite now I like this case it's got some really cool features you've got a blower style fan that points directly at the GPU for extra cooling support for like vertical mounts you've got 240mm RADS at the front 240mm rad at the top you've got two 140 mil rgbs at the front of standard for a small compact case it really does pack a punch and although it's not cheap it's definitely Stacks up well against other options for the price point you can see our full review analysis airflow testing benchmarking you name it over on geekwater.com link in the cards now hashtag Shameless plug sorry for all the Shameless plugs but please go and read our website we put a lot of work in recently yeah boys nice nice do you think I got the point across yes yeah I agree what have they got to do well I personally got to subscribe but you do have to subscribe but what else do they have to do gotta go to geekwot.com guys what have they got to do go to see if that hasn't sold you in what will good work everybody our next door neighbors are just like well they're probably on geekwater.com having a look at the reviews and all that sort of stuff you guys have seen me put a motherboard into a case before and if you haven't and you're new around here welcome so as such I'm not going to insult your intelligence as to how it's done I'm just gonna go ahead and whack this thing in here all the standoffs are in the right places already and this is gonna look mighty fine once it's all installed motherboard matches the case perfectly while I'm here I'm also just going to add the radiator in to the very top you will of course need to take off the dust filter and install the fans before you install the radiator fans at the bottom right on the top and the block goes onto the CPU like so nice and simple if you read the instructions and you take your time now then the motherboard is in and it's probably the bit of the video some of you will be most excited for the installation of the graphics card and let me tell you this Radeon 7900 XT from Asus the tough version it's a bit of a behemoth if I could actually get the bleeding thing out of here come on I really don't want to rip this box and damage it here we are so very heavy obviously the last little bit has been not an uncontroversial period for GPU launches and it's no secret that the 7900 oh XTX has had a slightly warmer reception than the XT non-x that was bad I don't know which bit hit the floor it looks okay now with this graphics card and this case we've got a few options obviously it's not the perfect fit in terms of color scheme but it also isn't black with a lighter gray that I'm hoping might match with the accents on the fans and on the motherboard now either we could pop it in a standard sort of horizontal orientation it will fit but I mean just about there we are or you could also pick up a vertical GPU Mount and have this thing perfectly vertically and I'm not really sure which I prefer oh God stop dropping oh no this is bad it's too big that's the problem what do you think Dan is that a bit stupid I think the vertical would be better because you'll be able to hide the power cables more right edited and unspoken it's going vertically so in order to do that I'm just going to take off this cover first there's Squad somewhere and the second one will try not to send this one flying across the studio this time around and then these rear Lanes also need removing so we've got one two three four and finally the last one pcie cover numero five so it's all fine it's been a long morning there we are then actually add in the whole device a couple of screws to fasten this into place one at the top and then second one at the bottom and a couple of moments later we can move the case over push back the clip on our retention slot then kind of try and get this thing in not really sure how oh dear it'll go in I have measured it it does fit now it's stuck right this will work I'm sure this is gonna work I'm not sure this is gonna work aha yes we're in ish oh nearly it's so close I can't even tell you oh right so it's in and both of the front fans spin it could not be any title of a squeeze to pop the GPU screws in and once that's in it'll lift the card up a little bit prevent any clearance issues or at least that's the plan let me know in the comments below does this look sick or does it look a bit stupid I'm going for the the first option to wrap things up there is just one or two more bits to do namely add in the power supply 750 watt Rog strix is the order of the day with a 10 year warranty and an 80 plus gold certification is super efficient and with a great job of calling not cooling of powering I'm losing the plot powering the whole build and I'll rejoin you once that's all in to see how this thing Stacks up in real world gaming titles but first how good it looks in an epic geekowa Montage get subscribed and I'll see you in just a minute yay come and have a look at this Jay what do you think how did you get that in there I don't know but it's not coming back out eyes in airflow good are you sure how do you know Jay have you tested it on don't kill me yeah Montage baby I'm not sure when you're going to be seeing this but I've decided that this vertical mount with this graphics card is actually quite a bad idea we're currently having no boot but the whole thing to be honest with you is just way too tight it's much much better in a standard horizontal configuration with the changes made will it finally finally boot there's only one way to find out let's jump the PC we've got a VGA light oh that's promising no let's just try again from the start oh please oh this is ridiculous it's still not working you know what I think it is Gardens when you drop the GPU I didn't drop the GPU I did drop the GPU so I'm just so at a lot as to what on Earth is going on I'm done oh I got a feeling that this graphics card might be a bit dead I think the graphics card is excuse my French all right what's this 30 something 60 TI right don't film this bit because it's a bit tight oh my God the GPU is actually dead the 7900 XT is actually dead or it might not be dead I have got one other Theory maybe there are some power issues because the 36 DTI only needs one power cable so let me actually test out the other GPU power cable because this only had two and the other one had four connectors oh my God unless the cable's not plugged in properly to the power supply which is typically the most fundamental part of troubleshooting I think it's the power yeah I wouldn't be surprised if when trying to pull the graphics card out of that tight Gap the power cable out editor down makes a very good point we had to pull the graphics card out of quite a tight Gap that might have led to some moving of the cables in a way that well is not conducive with a working PC so let's see what the crack is down here shall we oh my God no way I feel like such a this is gonna work now I've just got feeling yep boots it literally boots oh but I think editor Dan's spot on I think what's happened is when we put the vertical GPU mount in and I say we I mean I I'm glad to pull the cables too tight one of them has not been clipped in super tight and maybe the connection is just a little bit loose on the power supply now it's come out very easily done but the moral of the story always check you your power supply connections you have not I've not had that happen in so long where that's been the root cause and I have a feeling now that if I go ahead and put the vertical GPU mount back in it should all work here goes nothing it's back in we'll jump the PC using the two pins on the front panel will we get an output come on please no not again yes it works we're all good and I'll see you in a minute for the performance what an ordeal the last I was gonna look at my watch I haven't got one the last hour was well in water and two to start off with at 4K High settings with FSR enabled and popped on the quality preset this build pulled in an impressive 142 f PS on average considering this performance was at 4K you've got to be impressed by how this card Stacks up at least in our initial testing move over to Modern Warfare 2 at 4K and here we got 120 FPS so slightly lower 13 FPS Less in Modern Warfare 2 a very similar game in its design to Call of Duty's Warzone 2 but obviously you get the story mode and the added Elements which do add a higher drain on GPU performance games like fortnite also stack up well 1080p competitive settings delivered 330 FPS that's right 330 AMD cards typically always stack up well in games like fortnite and even our next title Apex Legends I'm not so sure why Apex works so well on AMD cards but it certainly performed here 288 FPS on average when testing at 1440p high is enough to saturate even the highest 280 Hertz High refresh rate 1440p monitors in fact I'd ascertain and say that the frame rate is delivered on this card are well I'll be on the refresh rate of most people's monitors who'd be looking to build a system like this same applies in OverWatch 2 1440b ultra 362 FPS on average here strong 90 and 99 percentiles for good measure while games like Formula One 2022 at 4K set to ultra settings with FSR set to Performance and Ray tracing even enabled on ultra high settings Bear In Mind Ray tracing normally a better performer on Nvidia cards than AMD and 144 FPS was the frame rate of the day so incredibly strong results stem from our 7900 XT combined with this wider build combo you can learn more about all the parts selected today at the first links below get subscribed to see more from me thanks for tuning in as always we'll see you in the next one what starts with geek and ends with.com your momwhat is up guys welcome back to another geeko art video and in this one I'm going to be showing you how to build an awesome 1440p gaming PC build using this amd's still fairly new 7900 XT is this card worth it over its more expensive XTX bigger brother and if so which are the best components to match it up with to avoid bottlenecking and get the performance a card like this can deliver in this video I'll be walking you through all the parts the build process and performance a little bit later on so buckle in and less than this video will be split into three core sections first the parts second the build process and third the benchmarks a bit later and let's start the part shall we by looking at the motherboard and of course the CPU at the heart of the build is the Intel Core i5 13400f a more entry level I5 that still retains all of the bonuses of the 13th gen architecture High Core count PNE cores great boost clock speeds and solid multi-threaded Performance Plus they're pretty cool running chips at least compared to amd's ryzen 7000 which by Design whatever that means run very hot something we'd like to avoid in this system it also pairs up nicely with the Asus Rog strix b760a a more affordable option for those looking at 13th gen compatible motherboards asus's b760 lineup is very solid and with a nice two-tone white and black color scheme it's going to match the build aesthetic perfectly my friends good work Aces very nice and it's cheaper obviously 2 than its z790 counterparts by quite a lot really which definitely helps as always I'll be linking both the motherboard CPU and all the other components down below over on Amazon for latest pricing and availability I'm sure you guys know how to install a 13th gem processor by now if not lift up the arm and the socket cover take a look at it from the side and then drop the CPU into place pop the cover back down bit of pressure and the CPU installs nice and easy memory wise I'm also going to pop in a 32 gig kit of corsair's Vengeance RGB they do these more affordable RS and RT models with this nice two-tone color scheme and aesthetic you want the second and fourth dims here to get the best possible performance I'm going to round things off on the motherboard with the nvme drive this is the Corsair mp600 GS now of course they're very kindly sent the two terabyte drive over for some of our other projects but I'd recommend dropping to one terabyte for this build you'll save money arguably won't need the extra storage and even if you do a cheaper hard drive or gen 3 3 SSD to provide a bit of an extra storage boost is going to be a much cheaper way of doing things nice drive though and looks great under the top m.2 heatsink that you get with this motherboard as much as I said that was the final thing to do on the motherboard I did tell a bit of a cheeky lie it does happen from time to time what I'm actually going to do before moving on is just prep some of the call out and this is where it gets exciting because Corsair sent over the h100i elite capelix XT the reason I've only gone for like a smaller 240 mil is obviously we can't over cut the CPU so arguably an air cooler would also be fine but you know let's keep things interested take it out the box I mean it looks very similar to some of their other coolers the radiator is this nice I want to say like powder coated but kind of glossy white paint that's pretty cool it's also got this really cool water block design with the triangles that we've seen on a few of their other cases what we're actually looking for here though is a bag of Hardware that's this one here it says Intel HW as inside of here is a few bits and Bobs that we need to prep the cooler install so we've got this brush bracket here which actually is going to pop through the rear of the motherboard so if you take a look it literally just slides into any of these holes here nice and easily that'll do us lovely stuff Slide the motherboard back round so that gravity is going to hold the bracket in and then find the appropriate bag of screws so we've got 1700 yes that is socket type that we're going to be using just four posts which you can add onto Each corner and install the CPU block down to later on but for now just add these four posts in and go from there once that's all done the case is the next item on the agenda now this is the engine XT H5 Elite now I like this case it's got some really cool features you've got a blower style fan that points directly at the GPU for extra cooling support for like vertical mounts you've got 240mm RADS at the front 240mm rad at the top you've got two 140 mil rgbs at the front of standard for a small compact case it really does pack a punch and although it's not cheap it's definitely Stacks up well against other options for the price point you can see our full review analysis airflow testing benchmarking you name it over on geekwater.com link in the cards now hashtag Shameless plug sorry for all the Shameless plugs but please go and read our website we put a lot of work in recently yeah boys nice nice do you think I got the point across yes yeah I agree what have they got to do well I personally got to subscribe but you do have to subscribe but what else do they have to do gotta go to geekwot.com guys what have they got to do go to see if that hasn't sold you in what will good work everybody our next door neighbors are just like well they're probably on geekwater.com having a look at the reviews and all that sort of stuff you guys have seen me put a motherboard into a case before and if you haven't and you're new around here welcome so as such I'm not going to insult your intelligence as to how it's done I'm just gonna go ahead and whack this thing in here all the standoffs are in the right places already and this is gonna look mighty fine once it's all installed motherboard matches the case perfectly while I'm here I'm also just going to add the radiator in to the very top you will of course need to take off the dust filter and install the fans before you install the radiator fans at the bottom right on the top and the block goes onto the CPU like so nice and simple if you read the instructions and you take your time now then the motherboard is in and it's probably the bit of the video some of you will be most excited for the installation of the graphics card and let me tell you this Radeon 7900 XT from Asus the tough version it's a bit of a behemoth if I could actually get the bleeding thing out of here come on I really don't want to rip this box and damage it here we are so very heavy obviously the last little bit has been not an uncontroversial period for GPU launches and it's no secret that the 7900 oh XTX has had a slightly warmer reception than the XT non-x that was bad I don't know which bit hit the floor it looks okay now with this graphics card and this case we've got a few options obviously it's not the perfect fit in terms of color scheme but it also isn't black with a lighter gray that I'm hoping might match with the accents on the fans and on the motherboard now either we could pop it in a standard sort of horizontal orientation it will fit but I mean just about there we are or you could also pick up a vertical GPU Mount and have this thing perfectly vertically and I'm not really sure which I prefer oh God stop dropping oh no this is bad it's too big that's the problem what do you think Dan is that a bit stupid I think the vertical would be better because you'll be able to hide the power cables more right edited and unspoken it's going vertically so in order to do that I'm just going to take off this cover first there's Squad somewhere and the second one will try not to send this one flying across the studio this time around and then these rear Lanes also need removing so we've got one two three four and finally the last one pcie cover numero five so it's all fine it's been a long morning there we are then actually add in the whole device a couple of screws to fasten this into place one at the top and then second one at the bottom and a couple of moments later we can move the case over push back the clip on our retention slot then kind of try and get this thing in not really sure how oh dear it'll go in I have measured it it does fit now it's stuck right this will work I'm sure this is gonna work I'm not sure this is gonna work aha yes we're in ish oh nearly it's so close I can't even tell you oh right so it's in and both of the front fans spin it could not be any title of a squeeze to pop the GPU screws in and once that's in it'll lift the card up a little bit prevent any clearance issues or at least that's the plan let me know in the comments below does this look sick or does it look a bit stupid I'm going for the the first option to wrap things up there is just one or two more bits to do namely add in the power supply 750 watt Rog strix is the order of the day with a 10 year warranty and an 80 plus gold certification is super efficient and with a great job of calling not cooling of powering I'm losing the plot powering the whole build and I'll rejoin you once that's all in to see how this thing Stacks up in real world gaming titles but first how good it looks in an epic geekowa Montage get subscribed and I'll see you in just a minute yay come and have a look at this Jay what do you think how did you get that in there I don't know but it's not coming back out eyes in airflow good are you sure how do you know Jay have you tested it on don't kill me yeah Montage baby I'm not sure when you're going to be seeing this but I've decided that this vertical mount with this graphics card is actually quite a bad idea we're currently having no boot but the whole thing to be honest with you is just way too tight it's much much better in a standard horizontal configuration with the changes made will it finally finally boot there's only one way to find out let's jump the PC we've got a VGA light oh that's promising no let's just try again from the start oh please oh this is ridiculous it's still not working you know what I think it is Gardens when you drop the GPU I didn't drop the GPU I did drop the GPU so I'm just so at a lot as to what on Earth is going on I'm done oh I got a feeling that this graphics card might be a bit dead I think the graphics card is excuse my French all right what's this 30 something 60 TI right don't film this bit because it's a bit tight oh my God the GPU is actually dead the 7900 XT is actually dead or it might not be dead I have got one other Theory maybe there are some power issues because the 36 DTI only needs one power cable so let me actually test out the other GPU power cable because this only had two and the other one had four connectors oh my God unless the cable's not plugged in properly to the power supply which is typically the most fundamental part of troubleshooting I think it's the power yeah I wouldn't be surprised if when trying to pull the graphics card out of that tight Gap the power cable out editor down makes a very good point we had to pull the graphics card out of quite a tight Gap that might have led to some moving of the cables in a way that well is not conducive with a working PC so let's see what the crack is down here shall we oh my God no way I feel like such a this is gonna work now I've just got feeling yep boots it literally boots oh but I think editor Dan's spot on I think what's happened is when we put the vertical GPU mount in and I say we I mean I I'm glad to pull the cables too tight one of them has not been clipped in super tight and maybe the connection is just a little bit loose on the power supply now it's come out very easily done but the moral of the story always check you your power supply connections you have not I've not had that happen in so long where that's been the root cause and I have a feeling now that if I go ahead and put the vertical GPU mount back in it should all work here goes nothing it's back in we'll jump the PC using the two pins on the front panel will we get an output come on please no not again yes it works we're all good and I'll see you in a minute for the performance what an ordeal the last I was gonna look at my watch I haven't got one the last hour was well in water and two to start off with at 4K High settings with FSR enabled and popped on the quality preset this build pulled in an impressive 142 f PS on average considering this performance was at 4K you've got to be impressed by how this card Stacks up at least in our initial testing move over to Modern Warfare 2 at 4K and here we got 120 FPS so slightly lower 13 FPS Less in Modern Warfare 2 a very similar game in its design to Call of Duty's Warzone 2 but obviously you get the story mode and the added Elements which do add a higher drain on GPU performance games like fortnite also stack up well 1080p competitive settings delivered 330 FPS that's right 330 AMD cards typically always stack up well in games like fortnite and even our next title Apex Legends I'm not so sure why Apex works so well on AMD cards but it certainly performed here 288 FPS on average when testing at 1440p high is enough to saturate even the highest 280 Hertz High refresh rate 1440p monitors in fact I'd ascertain and say that the frame rate is delivered on this card are well I'll be on the refresh rate of most people's monitors who'd be looking to build a system like this same applies in OverWatch 2 1440b ultra 362 FPS on average here strong 90 and 99 percentiles for good measure while games like Formula One 2022 at 4K set to ultra settings with FSR set to Performance and Ray tracing even enabled on ultra high settings Bear In Mind Ray tracing normally a better performer on Nvidia cards than AMD and 144 FPS was the frame rate of the day so incredibly strong results stem from our 7900 XT combined with this wider build combo you can learn more about all the parts selected today at the first links below get subscribed to see more from me thanks for tuning in as always we'll see you in the next one what starts with geek and ends with.com your mom\n"