Motherboard upgrade??

Derek Robbins

Derek Robbins

Derek Robbins

Associate
Joined
6 Aug 2017
Posts
9
Hi there,
I have an old ACER Aspire X1800 desk top computer bought in 2009! It has a E5200 Intel Premium Processor with 320 GB hard drive. It is always crashing and blue screen appearing. I am considering to upgrade completely the Motherboard to a modern one. I am looking to do this on a budget but need some advice as to what is compatible and economical and medium performance. I am not a gamer so just require a normally aspirated engine. Any advice would be very welcome as I feel lost in a see of information

P.S. Would this solve the crashing and appearance of the blue screen death or am I barking up the wrong tree? Sorry for my ignorance but my knowledge is very limited
 
Hi and welcome to the forums. :)

A bsod can be caused by many things. Do you have any of the bsod codes written down so that we can see what it causing them? If not download and run either Bluescreenview or Whocrashed and it will list the codes which can then be looked up online.

If it should turn out to be motherboard related are you just after a replacement motherboard for your current pc or wanting a new build?

If it's a replacement motherboard then you are going to have to look on Ebay for a identical second hand board to fit in your case, especially if Acer uses non standard connections like some other manufacturers do. Socket 775 was killed off years ago so second hand will be your best bet but don't overpay as it's just not worth spending a lot of money on such a outdated platform. You cannot fit a modern motherboard without changing the cpu and memory as well.

If you want a new build then state your budget and useage of the pc and I am sure someone will come along and spec you some parts.
 
Thanks for replying pasty muncher, are you Cornish?
I haven't noted the error code but will do so and get back to the forum.
Yeah, I don't want to invest too much in an old machine but it would be a shame to throw it away. I was thinking of spending about £80-£100 and bring it up to date rather than buying a new one for £300 +. Everything else seems to work just fine still.
I would rather that the motherboard be an upgrade to the original, is it such a difficult job to fit a new board into an old machine? I'm taking for granted that the new motherboard will come complete with CPU and RAM already attached. I'm hoping that a new motherboard plus a fresh Windows 10 installation will give the old machine a new lease of life for a few more years.
Do you think my budget can achieve my goals? Like I said, I am not a gamer but a home user for the family, just normal internet surfing, Microsoft office work and stuff, so you see that my needs aren't so demanding
I look forward to hearing what your thoughts are and once again thanks for taking the time to correspond
 
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I am Cornish actually. :D

I wouldn't spend that much because even if you did it will still be a long way behind even a budget new build. You may be lucky and find a Sandybridge bundle in your price range but being limited to the likes of Ebay your money won't stretch far and it will be a low end board and cpu. Prices on there are just ridiculous. This is also assuming that your case has a standard m-ATX or ATX and not their own layout. Then there is the question of if they have stuck to the standard power supply layout and not used their own format for that as well. Another potential problem is that if you are using a oem version of windows (especially if it is a Acer branded one) then you may have problems reactivating if you don't use a identical motherboard.
 
What part of Cornwall are you from, I'm near Wadebridge at the moment.
Yeah, the more I am looking into it the more I am looking at refurbished models. For between £100 -£120 I can get a decent tower with a modern intel processor, 4-8GB of Ram and 500GB hard drive. That can then be a straight swap without the bother of all the repair and upgrading, and not knowing if it will be successful or not. The refurbished ones also come with Windows 10 already downloaded. At the moment there is Windows 8 on it.
What do you reckon to that idea Mr Pastymuncher? What should I look out for when going down that route? Will I just be able to unplug the ACER tower and plug the new one in? The new one is looking like a DELL, any thoughts on that?

Can you do me a favour and have a look at the following link on EBAY:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Custom-Sp...hash=item212a4214f9:m:m-SdZeuxlDvQducPZ3IY94w

I am looking at a DELL model with 8GB RAM, 500GB Hard Drive, Intel Quad Core CPU, no Office 2016, and it's coming in at £109.99. The seller is called "Intelliscope). They/he has a 100% positive feedback but I can't see any reviews or any way of contacting them. Have you any experience in this area, does it look safe? At ether any pitfalls I should look out for?
Please let me know what you think.
 
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Originally I am from Penzance but we moved over to Newlyn just as I turned a teenager. Left school and worked for a local trawler company and then joined the RAF as a mechanical engineer at 23. Eventually ended up here in NE Scotland.

The thing is that pc is still only a socket 775 so will be only a little better than what you have already so I don't think it's worth the money.

Let's try to sort your current pc out and then if we can get to the bottom of things you could always pick up a quad core and drop it in the machine you have if the motherboard will take one. Can you download and run either of the programs I linked to in my first post? When done please post up the bsod codes or even better, a screenshot so that we can see what is causing the bsod's. It may not be the motherboard and could be memory, hdd or anything really. We won't find out until we see the codes.
 
Excuse my ignorance but what do you mean by "Only a socket 775"??
Am I correct in assuming that I can just unplug the current knackered ACER Aspire X1800 and connect the new one up to the power and monitor? Surely the higher spec will be a vast improvement on what she already has? I'm a bit confused!!!! Do you mean that the tower isn't complete and I would have to add other parts to make it complete?

This gets even more complicated because my wife is currently in the Philippines, that is where the computer is! My plan was to get it repaired but it has been looked at and repaired there a few times and the problem always returned. Originally it had Vista! Then a local guy installed Windows 8. I don't really want to waste any more money or nerves with the ACERl, the PC is 8 years old already. At the moment she says it makes a noise and then shuts down, often with a BSOD and often before she can activate anything. I will try to get her to screen shot it, might be difficult because not able to work on it, or at least take a photo. This is the reason why I wanted to just get a refurbished replacement to replace the existing tower.
Help, now I am really confused!
 
Swapping the base unit out should be no problem (it's basically unplugging one pc and plugging another one in) and if your current pc has problems and you don't want to spend money on a new budget build then I guess that is your best option. The problem I have with it is that it is the same generation as the pc that you currently have and any performance gain will be minimal. That's six generations old now (more if you count refreshes) and will soon be seven generations old when Coffeelake launches this month. I just don't like advising people to throw good money at such a outdated platform that is easily hammered by even a modern low end build. The thing is that modern low end build will set you back £350+ which is quite a bit of money although it will be much more powerful.
 
Hey Pastymuncher ,
I really appreciate you taking the time out to offer me some advice.
As an analogy, I feel like somebody who just wants a bike to ride to the shops and needs a puncture fixing and I have landed in a forum that specialises in bikes capable of competing in the Tour de France!
If I am honest, my requirements or rather the requirements of my wife and her family are a reliable computer that will function without missing a beat for the next few years. I'm guessing a newer more modern processor together with a double the amount of RAM should see an increase in performance, even if slight? I will be satisfied with that and it should handle easily day to day tasks such as working with Microsoft Office, surfing the internet and storing photos/ videos/ music. It won't be used for gaming so do you think a computer similar to the link in my last message would be sufficient?
  1. My first thoughts were to work out what parts needed replacing and commissioning somebody to do that work, but that would have cost at least £100 and a lot of my nerves. I would also have needed to get Windows 10 so would have cost even more. Repairing or diagnosing the problem wouldn't be easy considering where the computer is located, plus the winding road is often filled with a heck of a lot of frustration! I'm not too confident that myself or my wife would have success and I don't trust the local repairman, I've suffered with that issue a few times!
  2. My second thought was to buy a new desk top but I really don't want to spend £300+. The price of new and second hand is also a lot more expensive in the Philippines as well
  3. I then started to look at refurbished but am unsure as to how trustworthy they are? There are some good budget deals on EBAY/ Amazon around the £90 to £130, mainly DELL. My idea is to buy it here and take it with me in a couple of weeks when I am due there for holiday. I am hoping that £110 will buy me a few more years of normal home family use of desk top computing, that isn't going to hurt me. I couldn't justify £350 on a low end build, especially when the usage only requires a normal performance type computer. One day I will build a good one for myself and I will be knocking on your forum door looking for tips!
If I could just ask for one more set of tips from you, what do you think of the refurbished market? Is EBAY a reliable source or am I better to source one more local where I can go and speak to the man himself? I know there is limited warranty, and to be honest, that won't help me when I am in the Philippines! I am presuming that it is really plug and play, unplug the old one and the same cable interface will pass onto any brand tower and between the monitor? My aim is for an easy & fast solution so that I can then enjoy my holiday without spending so many hours fighting with my computer. If the supplier is stating there is already Windows installed would there normally be any further installation required?
Ok Pastymuncher, I look forward for the last time to hear from your knowledge and experience and am very grateful that you have found some time for me.
Cheers......... Derek
 
The problem with Ebay is the prices. Old gen components go for ridiculous prices on there. The problem you have is that you are miles away from being able to access our members market (1000 posts) which puts Ebay to shame. Just yesterday a up to date G4560 Pentium cpu with HT, motherboard and 8Gb of ram was on here for just £100. That as the guts of a build would crucify anything from the generation you are looking at. Old Core2Duos go for around £6, Core2Quads up to £20 depending on which one it is. Sandybridge i5 bundles commonly go for around £100 so can you understand where I am coming from? I don't like to see people overpay for things.

I can understand where you are at and as long as you stick with a reputable seller you should be ok. Check their feedback, especially if there is any recent neutral or negatives and see why they have got them. If they were getting good feedback then all of a sudden have been getting a lot of neutral/negatives then something has changed and things are going downhill and you should look elsewhere. Never, ever pay by bank transfer on ebay as you will lose all of your buyer protection. Use Paypal and you will be covered and should anything go wrong and the seller doesn't meet his obligations you can open a case against them. The seller that you linked to seems to be fine though. He has been around for almost 18 months and only has 3 neutrals against him and two of those seem to be from people who can't read the descriptions. May I make a suggestion though? Go for this system instead. Yes I know it's a little more expensive but you are getting a lot more performance for your money. It uses a Sandybridge i3 2120 cpu and has a 1Tb hdd. The onboard graphics will be much more powerful than the older system as well. Ignore him saying it's a quad core because it isn't. It's a dual core with hyperthreading so 2 core/4 threads. Don't let that put you off as it will still murder the older core2quad system. At a later date it should be easy enough to drop a i5/i7 in if needed.

The power lead will probably come with it but even if it doesn't nothing has changed and it's still just a standard "kettle lead" so just unplug from your old tower and plug into the new one. Same with your mouse, keyboard and speakers. As for contacting the seller, if you scroll down to the bottom of the listing you will see "ask a question". Click on that and that is how you contact the seller.
 
There is some good advice from you there mate!
It certainly is a minefield out there, been reading feedbacks on similar products from Amazon with stories of only having 3Gb Ram instead of advertised 4, 1TB HDD made up of 2 x 500GB from 2008-2009 and sounding like a tractor! Problems with licensing keys to add as well! It kind of makes a buyer a bit scared!
I looked at your proposal regarding the model with the Quad Core i3 processor, and yeah, it makes sense. Since you mentioned about the generations of processors I have been curious as to the whole evolution. Now I can understand the difference in prices between the various models. I will sleep on the refurbished option for a couple of days more, I understand where you're coming from regarding the expensive prices of outdated equipment. Thanks for your patience regarding this matter!

Onto another subject, I seem to sound like an ACER fan but my old and cheap ACER Aspire lap top isn't doing it for me any more. I want to treat myself once with a good quality one. You seem to have stoked my interest regarding processors and such. Looking at my requirements, and I'm not a Gamer of any type, I am thinking of the following:
  1. I found this online where you can custom build your own version, have a look and see what you think please. I am interested in not having a HDD but a Solid State Hard Drive, to increase speed and battery time and produce less heat. I only need 250GB but thought that I may as well go for 500GB to cover me for future. 15.6" is a good size for me. It has a Quad Core Pentium N4200(4 x 1.1GHz, 2.2Ghz turbo) for processor. I've been trying to find out which generation processor it is, have you any idea on that PastyMuncher? Is that a good processor?
  2. That was only an example, you will probably have a much better idea and suggest a better route to navigate. Would a brand name be the best way to go or a typical custom build like the above example. I would like to get a lap top that will last me for the next 4+years so would like to get the performance that won't get outdated so fast. Preferably I would like the current generation of processor, not sure whether Intel or AMD, but have read a tech review that AMD generate more heat than Intel? For a budget I am thinking £800-£900, maybe 1K. Do you think I could get something decent for that budget? A metal casing would be nice but not my ultimate wish.
  3. I guess my first question would be whether to go the route of buying a ready made brand name or custom build. Which route do you suggest? Any advice you can give me would be more than welcome. Cheers ............. Derek
P.S. I also want to run AutoCad
 
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Chassis & Display
Genesis Series: 15.6" Matte HD LED 16:9 Widescreen (1366x768)
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Pentium® Quad Core Processor N4200 (4 x 1.10GHz, 2.2GHz Turbo)
Memory (RAM)
8GB Kingston SODIMM DDR3 1600MHz (1 x 8GB)
Graphics Card
Integrated Intel® HD Graphics
1st Hard Disk
500GB SEAGATE FIRECUDA 2.5" SSHD - UP TO 5X FASTER THAN HDD!
DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
Ultra Slim 8x SATA DVD±R/RW/Dual Layer (+ 24x CD-RW)
Memory Card Reader
Internal 9 in 1 Card Reader (MMC/RSMMC/SD: Mini, XC & HC/MS: Pro & Duo)
AC Adaptor
2 x 40W AC Adaptor
Power Cable
2 x 1 Metre Cloverleaf European Power Cable
Sound Card
Intel 2 Channel High Definition Audio + MIC/Headphone Jack
Bluetooth & Wireless
GIGABIT LAN & WIRELESS INTEL® AC-3165 M.2 (433Mbps, 802.11AC) + BT
USB Options
3 x USB 2.0 PORTS + 1 x USB 3.0 PORT AS STANDARD
Battery
UltraNote III Series 32WH Battery (Up to 9.5 Hour Battery Life)
Keyboard Language
GENESIS III SERIES INTEGRATED UK KEYBOARD
Operating System
Genuine Windows 10 Professional 64 Bit - inc DVD & Single Licence
Operating System Language
United Kingdom - English Language
Office Software
NO OFFICE SOFTWARE
Anti-Virus
NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE
Browser
Microsoft® Edge (Windows 10 Only)
Notebook Mouse
INTEGRATED 2 BUTTON TOUCHPAD MOUSE
Webcam
INTEGRATED 1MP HD WEBCAM
Warranty
3 Year Standard Warranty (1 Month Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour)
Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 9 to 11 working days
QTY
1
£424.17
ex VAT
£509.00
inc VAT and Delivery
Current estimated lead times: 6 to 8 working days
 
I pressed on the link that I supplied to you in the previous message and it only went to the start page of choosing a custom build.
Anyway I have copied and pasted the spec that I selected , maybe you can look over it and give me your expert opinion?
Like I said, this was only a quick find and search so I am more than happy to listen and follow a better route so that I can get a good model.
 
Best to remove the link in post #11 as they are classed as a competitor and links to competitors are not allowed on this forum. The forums are paid for by Overclockers UK so it's quite understandable that they won't allow links to anywhere else.

The N4200 is a low power budget cpu and you can read some info on it here. That seems like a lot of money for a low end laptop to me. You can get a brand new Dell Inspiron with a i3 for less than that. It's difficult to suggest other laptops on here due to the no mentioning or linking to competitors. Dell's offerings are pretty solid though and I have a D630 which is ancient now but still going strong.
 
Link already removed! Sorry, I didn't know the rules.
Ok I have noted your remarks regarding the N4200. I have looked at Dell and they offer quite a good package and I have heard that they continue to work on a longer term basis whilst staying strong. That's exactly my requirements.
I guess like anything, I should get the best what I can afford but try and get the latest generation processor, is that fair to say?
 
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