Posts by Tyler Wood5

Paid $100 for it (including the RAM). What’s this motherboard actually worth, anyway? Honestly, I wouldn't be surprised if there isn't even a processor in there—that's usually how it goes when things go south. I'm not going to mess around with it myself, though. I'll just ask a buddy to take a look whenever he has some free time. I don't really buy stuff blindly like this. Besides, he didn't even swear up and down that the board matched what was on the box (not that I know much about these specific models). He just caught me off guard by talking a big game about quality because he "knows his stuff."

Right now, I can only go by what I can actually see with my own eyes. Hooking up this motherboard to a PC just to check the processor isn't really an option for me at the moment. What I did manage to make out was "A25B-MAC" and "AV-Z7UH40Q001-1313" (that's printed on the fan). Honestly, I have zero clue what any of that means to you guys. 😬sry, I'm pretty clueless about this stuff, so bear with me while I try to figure things out :P

Anyway, if this doesn't help, I'll try to track down that info in a day or two once I can pester one of my friends who actually knows their way around hardware. 😁

crimsonstag84 said:What's the CPU? 😛

To be honest, I have no clue what the processor is. It’s all still sitting in the box I picked up, and I just haven't had the time—or really the know-how—to get everything hooked up and check. If it turns out to be necessary, I'll probably ask a buddy of mine who actually knows his way around hardware to take a look. Is there any way to physically "read" what kind of processor it is without plugging it in?

crimsonstag84 said:EDIT: That's an M720-US3 in the photo, by the way.?

That photo is actually what I have at home (my own picture). To be honest, I'm not even sure which motherboard it is. I just went by what was written on the box, which said 970a-ud3. Since I don't really know my way around this stuff, it's pretty easy for a seller to pull a fast one on me. I'm guessing the one you're talking about might be the lower-end option.😢

Let's say the budget for a new GPU is $1,000-$$500. Now, regarding how much I should drop on a power supply—I know I have to buy one, but the dream is obviously to find something high-quality without breaking the bank (ha, because we all know that won't happen, right? 😁).

So, I'm putting together a new PC build. Since I’m pretty much a total novice when it comes to hardware, I figured I’d come here to pick your brains. I couldn't find a single thread that quite fit my specific situation, so I decided to just start a new one. If this should have gone somewhere else, please forgive me, mods—feel free to move it.

Anyway, let's get into it... I recently snagged a really good deal on a motherboard that people seem to rave about. It's an ASUS Z97. It came bundled with 8GB of RAM and some processor, though honestly, I don't even know which one it is. So, first question: how do I actually figure out what CPU I've got in here? (Here’s a photo of the setup): http://i57.tinypic.com/mjsqo0.jpg

Moving on... I want to grab a decent graphics card and a power supply that can actually handle everything, so I can play the latest games (if that's even possible with this setup). That leads to my second and third questions: which GPU and which PSU should I pick up to make sure everything runs smoothly?

One last thing—is it actually worth ordering parts through eBay? Are the prices significantly better there?

Thanks in advance for the help! 🙂