CLOSER LOOK AT MY FIRST COMPUTER BUILD!

Thank you for taking the time to visit this page! I am delighted that you did! I will try my best to make sure that you did not visit in vain. Following is a table that summarizes the components of my PC. After the table, I describe some of the VITAL components in detail. Have fun, and enjoy your visit!

BACK TO MY HOME PAGE    IMAGE GALLERY    BUILD PROCESS DESCRIPTION

Asus M4A78T-E ATX AMD Motherboard

Asus M4A78T-E is a great ATX motherboard. It is especially good for first time system builders as it is not too complicated, and it is compatible with a lot CPUs in the market today. It is an AM3 socket CPU and thus can support both AM2+ & AM3 CPUs. FSB is 2600MHz Hyper Transport (5200 MT/s). Southbridge is AMD 790 GX and has the ATI Radeon HD 3300 IGP, which is the BEST IGP in the market today. It can play HD videos and minor games without a hitch, but is not good enough for Crysis, or even Transformers Revenge of the Fallen!. It has an HDMI port, and it can be set up to output Audio via HDMI to a HD television. You can allocate the amount of memory from the main RAM that the IGP can use, but it comes with 128 MB DDR3 Sideport memory. This is my first time building a system, and the process was very easy and I finished it with no problems at all! My computer was up and running right away, and I am very satisfied with the quality. I built it on December 25, 2009, and I am writing this on April 7, 2010. The following table summarizes the features of my Motherboard:

CPU Socket Type                         AM3
CPU Type                                     Phenom II X4 / Phenom II X3
FSB                                               2600MHz Hyper Transport (5200 MT/s)
North Bridge                                 AMD 790GX
South Bridge                                 AMD SB750
Number of Memory Slots              4×240pin
Memory Standard                         DDR3 1600(O.C)/1333
Maximum Memory Supported       16GB
Channel Supported                        Dual Channel
PCI Express 2.0 x16                     2 x PCI Express 2.0 x16 slots (single x16 or dual x8)
PCI Express x1                             2
PCI Slots                                      2
Storage Devices                            PATA 1 x ATA100 2 Dev. Max
SATA 3Gb/s                                 5
SATA RAID                                 0/1/5/10/JBOD
Onboard Video Chipset                 ATI Radeon HD 3300 built-in 128MB DDR3 1333 SidePort Memory
Audio Chipset                                VIA VT1708S Audio Channels 8 Channels with DTS features
LAN Chipset                                 Atheros L1E Max LAN Speed 10/100/1000Mbps
PS/2                                             1
Video Ports                                   D-Sub + DVI HDMI 1 x HDMI
USB 1.1/2.0                                 6 x USB 2.0
IEEE 1394                                    1 x IEEE 1394a
eSATA                                         1 x eSATA 3Gb/s
S/PDIF Out                                  1 x Optical
Audio Ports                                  6 Ports
Onboard USB                              3 x USB 2.0, each supporting 2 USB ports
Onboard 1394                             1x 1394a, supporting 1 device (port)

Click here for info about the motherboard in Asus website You can find all the drivers and necessary software here

Click here to see review about the motherboard

Click here for AMD drivers for the ATI Radeon HD 3300 IGP

AMD Phenom II X4 945 3.0 GHz Quad Core Processor (Deneb)

Amazing CPU! Worth every penny! And what's even better is that the processor came with THREE games! Dirt, Grid, & Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising! Scores a Windows Experience Index of 7.2!The Processor is a beast! It can render two HD videos at the same time! I once rendered a 1080p HD video in Adobe After Effects simultaneously with another 1080p HD video in Sony Movie studio HD! That's incredible! The included AMD overdrive did not report a temperature above 60 degree Celsius throughout the entire process. The following are the features of the processor:

Here's the link to the AMD web page that describes the process: AMD Phenom II X4 945

Here's the link to a review of this processor: Phenom II X4 945 Review

Corsair DDR3-1333 Memory CT2KIT25664BA1339

Very good quality & highly reliable! Scores a windows experience index of 7.3- the highest score that my PC has! Had to mess with the ECC setting in the Mobo bios though! Worked right out of the box, and was very easy to handle and set up. What else is there to say.. it's just a pair of memory modules. Here are the details:

Here is the link to the Corsair Web Page that describes the product: Corsair DDR3-1333 CT2KIT25664BA1339

Western Digital Caviar Blue 640 GB 3.5" Internal Hard Disc Drive

I got this for US $10 off and just ordered it. This is the highest rated HDD in newegg.com, and this was the only HDD that I wanted to buy. Though later I realized how insufficient 640 GB is. So I recently ordered a Samsung 2 TB 5400 rpm HDD to add to the computer. This one is kind of noisy though! I wish I had a grand to spare so that I can spend on a Solid State Drive! This HDD scores a 5.9 in Windows 7 WEI- the lowest of my PC! Here are the specs:

Here's the link to the WD web page that describes the product: Western Digital Caviar Blue 640 GB HDD

XFX ATI Radeon HD 4770 Graphics Card

Where do I begin! My new computer build was LONGING for this thing! This graphics card was like the kiss of life for the PC! The onboard ATI Radeon HD 3300 is decent but not good. None of the games were playable. Once I installed this baby.. bam! Everything can be played at medium to high settings! The 40 nm manufacturing technology makes a big difference by keeping it cool and ferocious! I have not overclocked it yet, as I don't see the need. I only have Crysis demo, and I am not at home because of college, so the main games that are usually played are Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, Dirt, & Grid! This card is more than enough for that. Scores a Windows 7 Experience Index of 7.2. Here are the details:

Here's a link to the Manufacturer's product page: XFX Radeon HD 4770

Here's a link to the GPU description in AMD web site: ATI Radeon HD 4770

Latest Drivers can be found here: Radeon HD 4770 Latest Drivers for 64-bit OS

Product Review can be found here: XFX Radeon HD 4770 Review

Corsair CMPSU-620HX 620 watt Modular Power Supply Unit

This PSU is the reason I decided to build the system! I found this at newegg.com for $120 off on Black Friday, and decided to build a computer using it, and ordered it right away! $70 was instant off, and $50 was Mail-In Rebate. It is very robust, and looks sturdy, with high quality construction. The PSU came with a sticker, and has three +12 Volt rails. The Mail-In Rebate process was seamless, and the PSU is more than enough for my system. It is silent, and always run cool. Being 80 Plus certified, it saves energy too! Here are the details:

Here's the link to Corsair's description web page: Corsair 620 HX

Here's the link to a PDF about the 80 Plus: CMPSU-620 HX 80 Plus

Product Review can be found here: 620 HX Review