Upgrade help please

Ucof said:
The fans can be connected with one of these if you run out of motherboard connectors.


Also, the PWR_FAN and CHIP_FAN connectors are both for connecting fans to. I assume that CHIP_FAN is for a north/south brige chip cooler, and that the motherboard designers got their English a little skewed and wrote "PWR_FAN" instead of "FAN_PWR" ;)
Speaking of which, where is the CHIP_FAn connector? I only see "PWR_FAN" and "CHA_FAN1".
Click to expand...

Ah right, so I plug that into a connector from the PSU then connect fans to it? Nice, thanks Ucof.

The CHIP_FAN connector is on my current board, the A8N-SLi, which has the NVIDIA nForce4 SLi plugged into it. Current board also has 2x CHA_FAN for the case fans.

I'm guessing the PWR_FAN and CHA_FAN labelled on the M3A78 are for the case fans maybe, as it doesn't seem to have any chip fans on the board itself like the A8N-SLi?

Owwww soo confused at this point :(

I'll be sticking with XP, so I'm just wondering now whether to go for the 4GB memory or stay with 2GB. I understand the may as well get 4GB cos of the price, but I just want to make sure, will XP will only use 3GB or whatever its max memory is and ignore the rest or could the extra memory cause any problems?

Sorry all for sooo many questions, but I messed up with the Blu-ray player and not having a good enough rig, but theres a big difference from £78 to £500+ i can't afford to get it wrong :D
 
PWR-FAN and CHA_FAN are for fans. Power and Chassis (case) to be exact. Ignore it not having any CHIP_FAN pins. Its a standard 3 pin connector anyway. And yes, for that item I linked, you do just plug it into the PSU and then to the fans.

Good idea with sticking with XP. Im not shifting from my 64bit professional version for a LONG time (I have 3.5gb of RAM). Will probably go full time linux before I stop using XP.
Get the 4gb. At least then you won't need to buy anything extra if/when you decide to upgrade. XP 32it only uses 3.5gb of memory at the max. Having extra memory will not cause any problems, it will just not get used.

Don't be sorry for questions. Ever.

:)
 
Thanks for all the help guys n gals :)

I was going to go with the following

AMD Phenom II X3 Tri Core 720 Black Edition 2.8GHz (Socket AM3) - Retail £123.99 (£107.82)

Asus M3A78 Pro AMD 780G (Socket AM2+) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard £80.49 (£69.99)

Kingston HyperX 4GB (2 X 2GB) DDR2 8500C5 1066MHz Dual Channel Kit

XFX ATI Radeon HD 4870 1024MB GDDR5 TV-Out/Dual DVI/HDMI (PCI-Express) - Retail £164.99

Sunbeam Core Contact Freezer CPU Cooler (Socket 754/939/940/AM2/AM3/LGA775) £22.99 (£19.99)

But theres a problem :(

After reading this thread, it seems the CPU wont work with the motherboard out of the box, you need to flash the motherboards BIOS. I have no idea how to do this .. If I understand correctly you need to build the rig with a different CPU, flash the motherboard then put in the Phenom II?

So, is there another motherboard people would recommend that can be used straight out of the box with the Phenom II, or can someone recommend a motherboard to go with a

AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 7750+ Black Edition 2.70GHz (Socket AM2+) - Retail
 
Ok, after all the help, thanks again guys n gals, I've come up with the following upgrades

AMD Phenom II X3 Tri Core 720 Black Edition 2.8GHz (Socket AM3) - Retail £124.19

Gigabyte GA-MA770-UD3 AMD 770 (Socket AM2+) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard - £65.99

Kingston HyperX 4GB (2 X 2GB) DDR2 8500C5 1066MHz Dual Channel Kit - £42.54

XFX ATI Radeon HD 4870 1024MB GDDR5 TV-Out/Dual DVI/HDMI (PCI-Express) - Retail £164.99

Sunbeam Core Contact Freezer CPU Cooler (Socket 754/939/940/AM2/AM3/LGA775) £28.74

To go with parts from my current rig

WD Raptor 74GB
WD Caviar 250GB
LG GGC-H20L Blu-Ray Reader & HD-DVD ROM Serial ATA Drive
2x NEC DVD RW
Seasonic S12 600W Silent ATX2.0
Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme Music
XP Pro
SM 2493HM
Old CM ATCS case, think its the 201b

All ok, compatible?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom