Motherboard? PSU?

Adalard

Adalard

Adalard

Associate
Joined
30 May 2009
Posts
36
Location
Leicestershire
This is the rig I bought from Overclockers around 2 1/2 years ago:

AMD Phenom II X4 Quad Core 955 Black Edition "125W Edition" 3.20GHz (Socket AM3) - Retail

Asus ATI Radeon HD 4890 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card

Gigabyte GA-MA790XT-UD4P (Socket AM3) PCI-Express DDR3 Motherboard

Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium SP1 64-Bit - OEM

OCZ ModXStream Pro 600w Silent SLI Certified Modular Power Supply

Western Digital Caviar Black 500GB SATA-II 32MB Cache - OEM

OCZ Platinum AM3 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-10666C7 1333MHz Dual Channel

Antec 300 Three Hundred Ultimate Gaming Case - Black

Pioneer DVR-216DBK 20x DVD±RW SATA Dual Layer ReWriter (Black) - OEM


Since I got the rig the fan bearing on the GPU had always made a ticking noise. I put up with this until a few months ago when the system just stopped booting. Power is supplied to everything but the fans just go on overtime and nothing boots. I assumed the problem was the GPU and as it had a 3 year warranty I sent it in. The other day I got sent back a replacement GPU and put the card in - same thing. So obviously the problem isn't that. So I took it a local independent PC specialist who contacted me earlier today with what's happened. Apparently he used another processor and the motherboard fried it. This is the fate of my current processor. Now am I to assume that the problem is the motherboard - is unfixable/worth getting another instead? Obviously need another processor now. He has tested all other components and they are fine - however he hasn't been able to fully test the PSU as you need to leave it on for ages to see if there's a problem? Any advice from anyone would be helpful. If you recommend getting another motherboard and processor I would appreciate some recommendations. I don't need anything super-powerful - the same performance would be suitable for me.
Thanks for reading.:)
 
Product Name Qty Price Line Total
Intel Core i5-2500K 3.30GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - OEM Intel Core i5-2500K 3.30GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - OEM £161.99
(£134.99) £161.99
(£134.99)
Gigabyte Z68AP-D3 Intel Z68 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard Gigabyte Z68AP-D3 Intel Z68 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £79.98
(£66.65) £79.98
(£66.65)
Gelid Tranquillo CPU Cooler (Socket 754/939/940/AM2/AM2+/AM3/LGA775/LGA1155/LGA1156/LGA1366) Gelid Tranquillo CPU Cooler (Socket 754/939/940/AM2/AM2+/AM3/LGA775/LGA1155/LGA1156/LGA1366) £25.99
(£21.66) £25.99
(£21.66)
Sub Total : £223.30
Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
DPD Next Day Parcel
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £9.50
VAT is being charged at 20.00% VAT : £46.56
Total : £279.36

little over budget but if you have 3rd party multi platform cpu cooler which is compatible with skt1156(1155&1156 have the same mounting) then you can save £26 and take the gellid off
 
No I don't have one. Is a cooler needed? I used the one that came with the Phenom II and that seemed to work OK (motherboard fried it I'm sure, not the CPU's fault).
 
Independent specialist? Hmmmm :/

It's possible your cpu could be dead, but I had the same symptoms from a dead PSU. Everything powered on, fans going full blast, etc. It was caused by the PSU not sending a PWR_OK signal to tell the mobo to POST. It's easy to check with a multimeter if you can borrow one from somewhere (we had one in our warehouse at work). The grey pin on the 24-pin ATX plug on your mobo should be 5V, anything over 10% less than that is bad juju.

Besides this specialist's word, how do you know the cpu is dead? Did he test it in a different pc?
 
I'm taking his word for it because he has looked at it for me and I've said I'll be getting any parts needed off OC and he's told me I owe him nothing so I didn't really see why he'd be dishonest. That PSU problem you mentioned does sound plausible - and that would lead to too much power being sent to the CPU and then frying it? Not really sure where I can borrow a multimeter from. I'm unsure if he tested the CPU in another rig. I'm getting it back off him tonight so I'll ask him.
 
Fair enough. A cheap psu could fry your CPU on its way out, yeah. Usually in that case it would go bang and be more dramatic. The situation I described is just a failure to self test properly, with maybe some slightly wonky voltages being supplied, but I'd be surprised if that killed two cpus. They're pretty tough components and unless the board is fried they are quite well protected.

In fact, ask your specialist guy to test the voltages on your psu. He ought to have a multimeter.
 
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Right, I'm about to order what Fowler suggested. Looked at some bundles and as I don't need RAM and as they only come with a stock cooler it looks like his suggestion is best. Any other recommendations by anyone?
 
It looks good, its a fantastic chip. You could save some dough on a p67 board, but you would lose the functionality of the igpu on the chip. Not a massive issue if you have a dedicated gfx card
 
Adalard said:
Right, I'm about to order what Fowler suggested. Looked at some bundles and as I don't need RAM and as they only come with a stock cooler it looks like his suggestion is best. Any other recommendations by anyone?
Click to expand...

There are loads of other combinations, but that's about the best combination of cheapest price/most performance.
 
Thank you to Fowler002, Devrij, Mickyflinn and Davefran for your input into this. Have just ordered components. Will bump the thread when they've arrived to give you guys an update.

Additional: I neglected to mention that as OC don't do the 4890 anymore the replacement they sent me was a 6770. Big heatpipes! I am intrigued to see how it will perform (if I ever get the bloody thing going again).
 
So they've given me an inferior card as a replacement? I thought replacements had to be of equal or greater quality than the original.
 
It's not far off, the 4890 fits in-between the 6770 and 6790.
The 6770 and 4890 are the same price point the 6790 is slightly higher.

 
Hmm I see. Thanks for showing me that. Anyway time for an update. So me and my mate got the new components and put everything in. I HATE screwing motherboards in. They are the the most annoying and fiddly things ever and it takes so much concentration and patience. And fitting that damn heatsink was a ballache. The instructions also had loads of spelling and grammar errors in them which didn't inspire me with confidence. So after all that I plug the thing in and no fans or lights or anything like that.....but smoke instantly starts to rise from my PSU and it starts making this really high pitched squeaking noise. Very distressed I turned the thing off and cried.
Think I'll be getting a new PSU. My friend advised me to get a lower wattage PSU to minimise the liklihood of this happening again. Should I? I mean, the rig I've got isn't super-power-intensive is it? So I can get more like 500W and it'll supply everything OK?
As always, thoughts/recommendations are all welcome. Hope everyone had a nice Christmas.
 
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