Yep get the fuck out with that shit, this isn’t the thread for petty shit.
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I finished my son's build over the weekend. Tried to go the aftermarket route for the first time on a Windows 10 code. Bought one off Kinguin. It was bogus, message came up "code has already been used". Pisses me off but it's my own fault.
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Did you try calling the Microsoft support number? You can call in and they will usually fix that for you. Might have to give them a line about how your old motherboard went bad or something but they don't really care all that much.
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Just FYI, Microsoft gives zero shits about Windows licensing. Technically, you don't even really need to license Windows to use it. You can install it and use it for a decade at 100% functionality without ever licensing it. It's kind of a dirty secret. If you want to quickly license it, you can always just use this: https://www.getkmspico.com/

It actually is legal. For testing purposes of course.
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Thanks Fish. On one of my son's last builds I got one of those stupid MS Windows keys where you scratch off the shiny stuff to reveal the code. My boy used a coin and scratched too hard, wiped off part of the code. That was like four years ago and he's been using Windows with no code ever since (even though I paid $100 for the code, trying to get M$ to give me that code proved impossible).

But, I like to be registered for things that require a license. I'm an ass for sending money to a shady site like Kinguin but I'd heard others here say they used it. My bad. I'm looking into the link you list here.
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Man, what a bummer. On my last PC build, I installed Windows Pro, only to find out that the version I purchased was Windows Home. I didn't want to spend 8 hours re-installing Windows Home and the other software I'd already loaded to that point so found a site in which I purchased a code for $9.99 dollars.

I wasn't sure if it was legit or not but since I used Paypal linked to by Business Amex, I figured it was worth a shot. Fortunately, it worked and I've never had an issue since.

I'd call the credit card company to reverse the charges because clearly, it was fraud.
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Thanks man. I knowingly took a chance and it didn't pay off. My dad would tell me the fault-finding on this one would end in the mirror.
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Ebay has been very good to me on Windows codes.
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Good tip, thanks.
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Ok, we finally received a new GPU back from NZXT. This one is a PNY XLR8 3070 instead of the Gigabyte 3070. Any difference there?
He's been playing it for a couple of hours now and all seems to be fixed. It's screaming. His old computer would only run 60 FPS on a certain map in CS:GO and this computer was running 399 FPS on that map.
I do have a question, though. A couple of weeks ago, when the tech asked us to install a fresh copy of Windows on the PC, thinking that may be the problem. It wouldn't allow us to install Windows without getting rid of an MBR partition, whatever that is. It had like 3 or 4 different partitions on the computer. We ended up having to youtube the issue and when we did what they asked, there was only 1 partition remaining. Do we need to do anything to correct this? Do we need an "MBR partition"?
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Strange that they choose to replace. When you order a build from then don't you pick from a list of components? Did they just switch and not let you know? I don't know PNY may be great I've only used their memory and was fine never had a GPU of theirs.
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Not really much difference between different 3070 models. Some have 2 fans, and some have 3. 3 would be preferred, but there's really not a huge amount of different in performance. Like small percentage difference in performance.

CS:GO running 399 FPS :-) Bad ass!

Regarding the tech asking to reinstall Windows.. Windows hard drives can been partitioned in either MBR(old) or GPT(new) format scheme. GPT is technically preferred. But if you have an older system that was upgraded from an older system, it's going to be in MBR partition format. The MBR format has some specific limitations though, specifically it can't handle a disk size of over 2TB. If you have a disk over 2TB, it's going to have to be GPT partition scheme. Otherwise, it really makes no difference. Unless you have a drive larger in size, there's really not any legit reason to convert it. I would absolutely not delete any partitions from your system though, as those may be needed by Windows. It's normal to have 2-4 different partitions on a Windows drive. It will normally create a recovery partition, that will allow you to fix any Windows issues you have if Windows should fail to boot. As well as a EFI System partition. Not sure why they would recommend deleting any partitions at all. It's hard to say if that messed anything up. If you're not noticing any issues after restarting, then it's probably OK. But hard to say.

There are apps available to convert a system from MBR to GPT, but they're kinda risky and I definitely wouldn't recommend it unless you had to for file size reasons.
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Thanks for the info guys.
Srvy, we bought their prebuilt Streamer PC.
The Gigabyte and the PNY are both 3 fan models. It's still doing very well. He's happy.
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FYI, the AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT was released today. 12GB. 2.2Ghz. But only half the cores of a 3070, and a smaller bus. Probably not anything near the performance of the 30X0 line cards, at about the same price. But Micro Center has some available today. And Newegg is doing a shuffle drawing for a bunch of them. I'm going to wait for an NVidia...
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Anyone remember when a mid/high end GPU was $280? Pepperidge Farm remembers. I'm so disgruntled with the GPU market.

Glad you got a gaming pc in this market!
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