Quick question

Soldato
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is the :-AMD Athlon II X2 Dual Core 250 3.00GHz (Socket AM3)

the same socket as my AMD 64 X2 6400.

My CPU is fried i think, the cooling paste leaked into the socket
 
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Hi there,

May I ask what model number motherboard you are using? IIrc the 6400 chips are AM2 socket CPUs, but they also work in AM2+ boards. Similarly the Athlon II X2 250 is an AM3 socket CPU that also works in many AM2+ boards. Therefore if you have a good am2+ board which offers newer bios updates then you may be in business.

That said, if your issue with the cpu was that thermal paste poured into the CPU socket then the board may also be damaged.
 
Soldato
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Sorry i'm not sure, it's a red MSI, i had a smaller CPU in it once before, this was years ago....it looks like a K9A2

the hard drive/ DVD still works, keyboard, fans and the graphics card/ ram, but i've no idea if the mobo is damaged as well.

the pc simply switched off.... no blue screen etc, when i turn it on now it gives one large bleep and then 8 or 9 quick ones !...... after this nothing.

the paste leaked into the socket on the right hand side only, in a long vertical line, i flushed it out with air compressor and vinegar solution.

i dont want to spend too much because i'm saving for my new rig..... i'm surprised the silver paste leaked in, it went runny like thinnned down paint, trouble is, i've used the same stuff on my new rig !....... except it's gold Koenig, i'm very uncertain about how much to apply, because last time i only applied a very small amount !
 
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Soldato
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Hi there,

May I ask what model number motherboard you are using? IIrc the 6400 chips are AM2 socket CPUs, but they also work in AM2+ boards. Similarly the Athlon II X2 250 is an AM3 socket CPU that also works in many AM2+ boards. Therefore if you have a good am2+ board which offers newer bios updates then you may be in business.

That said, if your issue with the cpu was that thermal paste poured into the CPU socket then the board may also be damaged.

hi
if you're still around :) my MOBO is the MSI K9N NEO socket AM2 7260

to be honest i'm not sure if the paste leaked into the socket, but it was definitely on the surface and across the CPU pins, i cleaned the mobo after disconnecting it.

if this pc is screwed, i might fix it after i've built the new one !!!
 
Soldato
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Unfortunately, it looks like that board is pretty old and only AM2 (not AM2+) - as a result the best CPUs you can install in it are Athlon X2 AM2 chips - so an Athlon II X2 would not work.

http://www.msi.com/product/mb/K9N-Neo--PCB-1-0-.html#/?div=CPUSupport

If you are certain the CPU is dead and the motherboard is OK then you may want to look for a good deal on a compatible second-hand Athlon X2.

However, you may be better off cutting your losses and instead go for a newer/faster CPU/motherboard (perhaps a H61 board and Sandy Bridge Celeron/Pentium)
 
Soldato
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hi

if i fix both mobo and cpu, it'll cost about 150 quid, because the AMD 64 x2 6400 is still quite expensive...

UNFORTUNATELY, this is the money i'm saving right now for the GTX 680 or similar; to finish my new rig, this means i cant game again till August !!!!!!!

the trouble is i dont know what's dead without getting a pc shop to look at it and they'll charge me for this..... i'd rather they took a look at my new rig instead, to make sure that's ok............GULP !!!!
 
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Yea, spending £150 on fixing this board/mobo is not worth it. For the same money you could buy a brand new i3 2100 CPU, H61 board and 4GB of DDR3 RAM and this would be much faster and newer tech.

Here is a performance comparison to give you an idea how your Athlon X2 6400 CPU compares to a modern i3 CPU:

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/27?vs=289

Alternatively, go for a low cost current-gen celeron CPU, H61 board and 4GB DDR3 (total cost £97 inc. delivery). This will still offer a performance jump over the Athlon X2:

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/27?vs=406 (this is the 2.6GHz pentium version of this chip)
 
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Soldato
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yea i just dont know what to do, the thought of not being able to game for months drives me nuts............:mad:

because it would be crazy spending the money on that old heap, when i've a brand new rig almost finished..... especially if i'm after the 7990 or similar.

i just dont like the idea of having only one PC, plus finally all my Steam stuff is on that bust rig, unless i rip the rig apart and give the drives to the shop and ask them to transfer it all over via USB or similar........... because they can test my new rig with one of their own graphics cards, the rig doesn't need to be finished to have Win 7, steam, AVG installed and the cpu checked for faults etc

then to get the new rig working in August, all i do is to shove a new card in and it's ready to go
 
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You don't need your hard drive for steam just download steam to your new pc login and will have saved and registered your purchases which you can download again.
 
Soldato
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Also, you could just take the old hard drive out of the old computer and connect it to the new one as a secondary (non-booting) drive -assuming the old HDD is SATA. From there you can just copy over the steam game files into the "steamapps" folder onto the hard drive for your new PC.
 
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Soldato
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yea thanks, i'll get the pc shop to do it all, they're charging me 40 quid

this is a new rig that i've built myself so i expect it wont work :D so i'd rather them get it working right, rather than me posting in here every 5 mins when i get the dreaded blue screen all the time :D

plus they're putting Win 7 onto it, and that alone costs much more than 40 quid
 
Soldato
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So long as you have read through a few build guides (like this one) then you should be able to get a PC build done without too much dramas. Then if you do have any issues a few quick posts on OCUK will usually get your issue sorted. As for the windows install, so long as the hardware is setup correctly then the toughest part is setting the DVD drive to be the primary boot device - past that the install is very intuitive.

Just something worth considering, as getting a PC shop to do it all can get expensive (plus you loose out on a valuable learning experience getting it all working :)).
 
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