|Looking for advice

sybaris

sybaris

sybaris

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Hi
I was wondering if anyone can advise me or offer me some opinions.

Around 9 months ago my Asus P5B mobo died, it lasted me about 2 years, infact I still have in the box the CPU it was running, an E6600. As I had over clocked it slightly I figured a 2 year life was ok.

At the time I had the money to buy another Asus board. this time a P5Q-E. I also treated myself to a Q9550.

However after nearly 10 months my PSU (xillence 700w) died or I thought it was that. After failing to boot or even get any power on, I unplugged the PSU from the wall socket, left it and plugged it back in. When I did so it went pop and a bright flash came from the PSU.

Thing the PSU was dead now, I ordered a new on. An OCZ StealthXstream 700w. However no that I have swapped out the PSU I still have no power.

I suspect I have fried the board.

First question. Is there anything else I can try before I buy more hardware?
I have disconnected all drives and memory just leaving CPU and Fans (4 fans)
conected. I don't even get the standby power LED on.

Secondly the only quad core 2.8 cpu with is an Intel I7 930, am I right in thinking this would be a good like for like comparison to my q9550? My Q9550 will prolly end up in the cupboard too. Not sure if that got fried with the mobo, but as silly as it seems, I cant bring myself to jst bin it after only 9 months use.

Thirdly, I can have my motherboard repaired, but I really don't want to have to replace it a few months down the line. I know repairs are often temporary and have a limited life. Changing the mobo is a pain and I would rather do it once.

Though very expensive to me I would if need be go "tripple channel" and buy hardware that will certainly last me 3 years and write the cost off over that time. However having been stung with 2 Asus boards, I think I may go back to Gigabyte.

Oh lastly can any one reccomend a good Mobo that has e-sata (lots seem not to have that) and a fair number of USB ports. (it seems very hard to find both)
 
best thign for you to do is find a friend with a 775 system and swap your parts with his and see what works and doesnt work, if it is just the mobo you could try an RMA maybe, depends how nice their RMA dept is and how elaborate you are with your description of what happened

You cant really just compare clock speeds with different generations of chips like that no. If you do decide to do a full rebuild then your choices are either the X58 i7 like you discussed above, Id just stick to a 920 though and OC it to 4GHz or you could look at P55 i5 750 system which will still be very good, depends on budget and uses really
 
Hmmm like the idea of clocking to 4GB

Does over clocking shorten the life span of a motherboard?
(going through 2 Asus boards leads me to think perhaps)

Also what about looking at this from another point of view.
Is it worth upgrading to DDR3 triple channel memory?
My current baord is/was DDR2
I see todays standard is DDR3, so I guess its worth looking to move up a notch on the memory front. But is there a significant difference between dual and triple chanels? Also one would buy 2x3Gb as opposed to 2x2Gb or 4xGb. 6Gb seems to be a pretty good amount of memory leaving room for future upgrades.
 
Do you have a lot of disposable income? Unless you do I feel in your case it might be better to just try this. I'm assuming the mobo is still in warranty.

1. Buy a (cheap) new compatable mobo.
2. Carefully! Unwrap the mobo, keep all documentation
3. Connect new mobo, minimm items to get pc to run
4. If everything works then send new mobo back using distance selling act (You don't need a reason)
5. RMA old broken mobo
 
This is exactly why you should never buy a cheap psu. Never skimp on the single most important component in a pc and always buy a quality branded one.
 
lol this very thing has just happened to me, over the weekend my computer died.

I was hoping to keep my q6600 rig for another couple of years since no games (my main thing) dont even use the 4 cores. But since my computer failed ive bought an i5 rig and finished putting it together a few hours ago. i didnt want x58 cause i dont want to SLI and thats the main reason of having x58.

Also i7 i really only see the ened for the enthusiasts who must have the top dollar, server, and people who do rendering and stuff like that.
 
pastymuncher said:
This is exactly why you should never buy a cheap psu. Never skimp on the single most important component in a pc and always buy a quality branded one.
Click to expand...

It was a quality CPU, has clocked up thousands of hours and startups and shut downs. I have no complaint with the life of the PSU. Cost me about £80 a few years ago. Had all the filtering and full way regulating.

Unfortunately when it went down it decided to take my mobo with it.

Kinda like a computer version of Romeo and Juliet
 
I do everything on my PC, its kinda multi role.
From games to web development video editing and running quite a few apps at once. Though not everything all the time.

Its a choice between budget and keeping future proofing as best as you can.
I hope after this build my rig will last me a good few years to come and by that time CPU and mobo architecture will have changed no doubt.

also the difference in price between building an I5 and an I7 rig is about £150.
I either spend £450 or £590, in reality not really ha huge difference, still I could update my Nvidia 8800gts to an ATI 5770 ..... hmmmm even more choices.
 
sybaris said:
Hmmm like the idea of clocking to 4GB

Does over clocking shorten the life span of a motherboard?
(going through 2 Asus boards leads me to think perhaps)

Also what about looking at this from another point of view.
Is it worth upgrading to DDR3 triple channel memory?
My current baord is/was DDR2
I see todays standard is DDR3, so I guess its worth looking to move up a notch on the memory front. But is there a significant difference between dual and triple chanels? Also one would buy 2x3Gb as opposed to 2x2Gb or 4xGb. 6Gb seems to be a pretty good amount of memory leaving room for future upgrades.
Click to expand...

Does over clocking shorten the life span of a motherboard?
Can do, depends how much you're also over-voltaging, but I would have expected yours to last longer

Is it worth upgrading to DDR3 triple channel memory?
For gaming it's overkill, in most games and a lot of other applications you can't see a big difference between 1066MHz DDR2 and 1600MHz DDR3

I'd suggest at the very least buy the cheapest motherboard you can find to test if your Q9550 still works, even if you do decide to do the full upgrade you can always resell the Q9550 for 120+
 
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