Five years ago I rebuilt my computer using an Asus P6T motherboard, the lowest-end of the brand-new i7 CPUs (the 920, was it?), and 6GB of RAM. I spent hours meticulously picking out my components.
To be clear, I'm not a gamer. I'm a designer, so my needs are generally Adobe Creative Suite, large Photoshop files, or dozens of browser tabs open.
I'm not sure what's going on, but I think my SATA controller is failing (can that happen?). All four of my HDDs stopped working within a few days, and eventually booting led to a "no boot device" message. The P6T had a secondary SATA controller, specialized for automatic backup or something, but at least my computer would boot when I used it. Unfortunately, now my HDD shows 100% use 100% of the time, and my PC locks up for periods at a time. Generally, performance is in the crapper.
Long story short: I need a new mobo/cpu/ram combo. I want the sweet spot, the most for the money. I want an upgrade from my 5yo setup. I don't have the time to research my components as I have in the past, so I'm hoping that some kind, knowledgeable souls will point me in the right direction!
I think I'd like more RAM this time around, I'm not adverse to AMD (unless you tell me I am), and I think I'd like a micro-ATX mobo (I move frequently, and plan on shrinking the system down because my Antec P180 is killing me).
I'm so sorry if this is an inappropriate place to post this - perhaps you can point me elsewhere? Thanks!
To be clear, I'm not a gamer. I'm a designer, so my needs are generally Adobe Creative Suite, large Photoshop files, or dozens of browser tabs open.
I'm not sure what's going on, but I think my SATA controller is failing (can that happen?). All four of my HDDs stopped working within a few days, and eventually booting led to a "no boot device" message. The P6T had a secondary SATA controller, specialized for automatic backup or something, but at least my computer would boot when I used it. Unfortunately, now my HDD shows 100% use 100% of the time, and my PC locks up for periods at a time. Generally, performance is in the crapper.
Long story short: I need a new mobo/cpu/ram combo. I want the sweet spot, the most for the money. I want an upgrade from my 5yo setup. I don't have the time to research my components as I have in the past, so I'm hoping that some kind, knowledgeable souls will point me in the right direction!
I think I'd like more RAM this time around, I'm not adverse to AMD (unless you tell me I am), and I think I'd like a micro-ATX mobo (I move frequently, and plan on shrinking the system down because my Antec P180 is killing me).
I'm so sorry if this is an inappropriate place to post this - perhaps you can point me elsewhere? Thanks!
