Current system just fried and died - replacement?

TheMadScot · 31 Jan 2007 at 20:41

So last night, my current rig seems to have fried on me - first the system wouldn't POST and my motherboards diagnostic LED's said 'processor failed to initialise' - so I reckoned my Athlon 64 4000+ had fried.

Later, the system refused to power up at all for testing... the PSU was just dead. I hastily built a spare rig from older components and tried the PSU in that: nothing. An older, spare PSU powered up the backup rig no problem.

So: I have one fried CPU and a dead PSU. I don't want to go to the hassle of RMA'ing components and waiting for new/refurb kit to be returned since I need a PC for daily business.

I've got just under £1200 to play with for a system overhaul and am looking at the following:

1. Intel Core 2 Duo E6700 Socket 775 2.67GHz
2. MSI P6N S775 nForce 680i Core2 Ready ATX Audio Lan
3. Corsair Memory 2X 1GB XMS2-5400 UNBUFFERED C4 PRO SERIES
4. MSI GeForce 8800GTS 640MB DDR3 PCIE Dual DVI TVO
5. Antec TRUEPOWER TRIO 650W Active PSU
6. Microsoft Windows Vista Business 64-bit OEM DVD

I already have two WD 200GB S-ATA drives, one Seagate 750GB drive, and a pair of LG DVD±RW drives, so I'm sorted for storage.

The primary use for this PC will be for running Adobe Photoshop CS2 (CS3 when it's released) and Adobe Lightroom; gaming is a secondary concern but I do like to kick back and relax by playing HL2 and other Source engine games... though I must say there's a few titles due this year and next that I like the look of such as Quake Wars, Crysis, C&C 3 and a few others I can't recall at the moment.

So - before I place the order for this kit, does anyone have any suggestions on this kit... bearing in mind the budget cap of £1170?

Thanks in advance for all your input

Joe42 · 31 Jan 2007 at 20:50

Have you tried a known good psu with the 'fried' system?
What make was the psu that died?

TheMadScot · 31 Jan 2007 at 23:15

PSU was an Antec TrueBlue 480W... my backup rig is running on an older version of this PSU which has one dead fan (rear) but otherwise is AOK.

I'll probably RMA the dead TrueBlue and Athlon after I get my new kit, and then test the suspect board with known new components. If it passes, then great... I'll have two backup systems

Joe42 · 1 Feb 2007 at 00:44

Sounds like a good plan.
Being antec, the chance of damage to components is very slim. I've heard the rma process is fairly painless too, good thing because they seem to have a high failure rate.
That's no reason to stop buying them though, they're excellent psus.

melbourne720 · 1 Feb 2007 at 10:38

You could drop that CPU down to a 6600, as it will clock past a 6700 easily, or upgrade it to a quad core, for working on many apps. Depends if you want to spend more or less. You could probably drop the motherboard down to a P5N (650SLi chipset) save some cash and not drop any features you're likely to use.

With all that expensive kit, I'd go for a Corsair or Seasonic PSU, no point on skimping on that!

Get PC6400 memory, and maybe get 4GB - it might help with Photoshop, although 2GB is probably fine.

TheMadScot · 1 Feb 2007 at 12:41

Some small changes

I've decided to drop the processor to the E6600 since, according to reviews, there's not much difference in performance between it and the E6700 - but there's a helluva difference in price.

The money saved here allows me to bump the RAM from 2GB to 4GB... much better for Photoshop, especially when CS3 is released. From what I've heard Adobe Lightroom will really utilise the extra memory too; I'm also sure that Vista won't be a slouch with more legroom either

As to the PSU changes: I'm limited to using one particular vendor since my wife's company has a 30 day credit account with them. The best PSU that they have in stock at the moment is the Antec one I mentioned - and it looks to have a fairly decent specification.. look here for yourselves to judge.

Also, since her company is VAT registered, I only need to pay the ex-VAT price for the goods - keeping the whole spend under £1000.