Hi everyone, Im new to custom pc scene and was hoping somebody could help with some suggestions? I was given an asus m5a78l-m mobo and bought an asus gtx 560 direct cu II oc graphics card off a friend and decided to build my own pc. Today i have bought an amd phenom II x6 1100t BE cpu and antec 300 gaming case to house it all,and was wondering what peoples views were with regards to psu's,hdd's,ssd's and coolers?? I have been looking at a be quiet dark rock advanced cpu cooler,after reading good reviews from custom pc mag and online and a corsair 120 GB force 3 ssd. I would like to try and keep costs down if possible as no overtime at work means less money,but upgrading at a later date would be a possibility. My pc will mainly be used for downloading music and movies,photo editing and maybe gaming in the future! All help or suggestions will be greatly received!
I've heard that the BeQuiet cooler is good so I can recommend that. Overclocking the 1100T with that motherboard might not be a fantastic idea, though. There are a few variants of the m5a78l-m, some of them have a 4+1 power phase and some of them have a 3+1 power phase and none of them have VRM cooling which isn't really suited for the 1100T since it uses so much power - I'm in a similar situation, I have an 1100T but a low-end MSI motherboard that has a 4+1 power phase with a record for going up in flames :/ I'm looking to replace this. Having said that, the Asus boards have better protection against this kind of thing as they'll throttle the CPU if the VRMs are overheating, so you might be able to overclock a little. I'm not really clued up with SSDs but I've heard great things about the Crucial M4 series. I think they might be a little more expensive than the Corsair Force 3, though. HDD: ~£100 for a 2TB drive is a good idea if it fits in your budget since this seems to be the sweet spot atm. At this price it won't be particularly fast I think, but since you're getting an SSD, a slow storage drive doesn't matter too much right? PSUs: Get a reputable one, say from Corsair, Cooler Master or Antec. For this setup I'd say to aim for a good 500W PSU but if you can spend a little more on a 600W or above you might be future-proofing yourself a little.
Thanks for your quick reply,sorry about my late reply. As its payday tomorrow,im going to get a hdd (spotted a 2TB for £98) and an ssd (will look into the M4 which you suggested),hopefully a psu also. Not liking the sound of the mobo catching flames! If that maybe the direction my mobo is heading,then i think the overclock can wait until i can get a better board! This might seem like a stupid question,but whats the difference between 3+1 and 4+1 power phase and what does it mean?? Thanks again
I have a Crucial M4 SSD as my boot drive and it's fantastic. I believe a newer variant of these has come out recently, so you may wish to consider that. You may also want to research SSD Controllers and find out a bit more about them. The M4 and the Corsair both use different controllers. The SandForce controllers found in the Corsair drives can be better in some situations than the Marvell ones in the M4 and vice versa - you should research them to find out which type would suit you best for the kind of things you do and the data that you work with. Although old, this is still relevant and helpful. Also when you're looking at reviews, remember to look at real world figures like boot times and not just stated specs. Hope this helps!
a VRM is a "voltage regulator module", they're the parts on your motherboard that deliver the power to the CPU (as well as the other components). 3+1 or 4+1 means the CPU power is split across 3 or 4 phases (with the +1 being for other stuff). The more phases you split the power across, the higher the current your motherboard can handle since they won't get as hot. The mid- and high-range motherboards will typically have 6 or 8 phases for CPU power. I think you'd be unlikely to suffer any catastrophic failures with the Asus board since they have good protection against VRM failure. It's mostly an issue with low and mid range MSI boards. If you google "amd motherboard vrm information list" and choose the top link, someone's arranged excellent tables that will tell you loads of information on your mobo VRMs. The same thread links to another thread with loads of info on what VRMs are and also a list of known VRM failures, if you're into that kind thing For my upgrade, I've been looking at the Asus M5A97 (6+2 power phase, £79 from amazon) and the Asus 990FX Sabertooth (8+2 power phase, £116 on amazon). EDIT: Tom's Hardware have a more up to date SSD buyers guide, google it =)
Thanks for the info you provided splits,plenty of reading material for me tonight whilst the mrs watches "strictly come boring" . I've also been looking at the asus 990FX sabertooth and the gigabyte GA-990XA-UD3 as a potential mobo upgrade! After reading reviews on both,the asus sabertooth is looking like the one for me! I'm going to read up on the ssd buyers guide today and see what they got instore for me .
