Casterina

The current unlocked Phenom II X2 560 CPU is doing fine as I have a GT 1030 for hardware decoding. The Gigabyte 970A-DS3P FX has been sold now and was higher price than the other 970 motherboard so now it is only the Gigabyte 970A DS3P, Gigabyte 970A-UD3P and ASRock 970M Pro3 which are similar price but I read that the UD3P has better power phase, cooling for the chipset and VRMs.

I have a Phenom II X2 560 unlocked to quad core in my media PC but the motherboard has died so I'm looking at a used AM3+ motherboard on eBay as a replacement since AM3+ motherboard support FX series CPU as well for future upgrade, which motherboard from the list below would you go for as the prices are similar. Gigabyte 78LMT-USB3 R2 Gigabyte 970A-DS3P FX Gigabyte 970A DS3P Gigabyte 970A-UD3P Rev 2 Asus M5A78L-M Plus Asus M5A78L-M LX3 Asus M5A78L-M LE ASRock 970M Pro3

I have medium hands (18x9cm) with palm grip and have used the G400 but the mouse keeps disconnecting due to the cable and have now been using the Naos 7000 for 2 years but the middle mouse click has died so I have decided to replace it with something a little more FPS focused (CSGO). The G400 and Naos 7000 was a ergonomic shape mouse so I tried the Zowie EC1-B and EC2-B as it was advertised on their website as ergonomic design but the EC1-B felt big and I couldn't hold it properly with the height being 43mm and a hump in the middle whereas the Naos 700 height is 39mm with a low hump and the EC2-B is a bit small and both mouse made me grip it with fingertip palm. Also, I tried the G403 but the cable was stiff and the hump is quite high towards the back like holding an egg so that was a no as well. Would the Zowie FK or ZA series suit palm grip style?

The Silverstone Milo ML03 case has a GPU width restriction of 74mm so the GTX 750 Ti won't fit and the GPU will only be doing hardware decoding so it won't be very hot.

They are both DDR5.

Yes, I already have the HTPC and the rest of the hardware (AMD Phenom II X2 545 CPU, 4GB RAM, motherboard, power supply, hard drives and case).

I'm deciding between the Gigabyte or EVGA card for my HTPC, it will be inside the Silverstone Milo ML03 case with the only fans being the CPU cooler (Scythe Big Shuriken 2) and the PSU, which card between the two would you say will run cooler? Gigabyte EVGA

Sorry forgot to mention, the CPU is AMD Phenom II X2 545 so the iGPU isn't that great. I did consider the passive option but the only fans in the Silverstone Milo ML03 case is the CPU cooler (Scythe Big Shuriken 2) and the PSU but the CPU temp is around 25C and never see it above 30C.

I'm looking to get the Gigabyte or Palit GT 1030 for my HTPC but was wondering can the fans be controlled using MSI Afterburner so that I can set a fan curve of when the fan starts to spin?

I have checked on WD website and they have the Data Lifeguard Diagnostics tool, which test should I do?

What field should I be looking at in Crystal Disk Info other than health status? Also, which software should I use for burn-in test?

I have bought a 4TB Blue drive and was wondering what software should I use to test the drive (health and bad sectors etc) before using so it?

Toshiba drives are 7200RPM which can be quite noisy, do I need that fast for movies?

I'm looking for a reliable 6TB drive mainly for movies and files that will be used in a hard drive enclosure and the drive will be powered off when it is not in use but I'm not sure whether to get the WD Blue/Red, Seagate Barracuda/IronWolf or Toshiba, what do you guys recommend?

I have checked and it is ISO layout.