Replacing An Old Build.

AndrewC

AndrewC

AndrewC

Associate
Joined
27 Dec 2013
Posts
26
Location
Scotland, UK.
I built this pc five years ago (after getting advice on a build), and the tower worked great up until a few days ago.

Compucase 6XR8 Black Full ATX Tower Case - No PSU
Corsair 620W HX Modular PSU - ATX12V v2.2 APFC
Intel Core 2 Duo E8500 (3.16GHz) Socket 775 Wolfdale 1333FSB 6MB L2 Cache Retail Boxed Processor
Asus P5Q PRO P45 Socket 775 8 Channel Audio ATX Motherboard
Corsair 4GB (2x2GB) DDR2 1066MHz/PC2-8500 Dominator Memory Kit CL5(5-5-5-15)
XFX 9800GTX+ 765MHz Edition 512MB DDR3 Dual DVI HDTV Out PCI-E Graphics Card
Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium -SP1- Licence and media - 1 PC - OEM - DVD - 32-bit - English
Seagate 250GB Hard Drive SATAII 7200RPM 16MB Cache - OEM
Netgear WG311 Wireless-G 54Mbps PCI Card
Two DVD ReWriters

A few days ago, the screen went white while using the pc, i turned off the tower at the plug and tried to reboot it, but it wouldn't reboot and i wasn't getting anything on the monitor, no bios, nothing.
So i took the tower to a Currys store for a check and was told it was probably the motherboard, but that they couldn't fix it.

I managed to find a second hand mother board and fitted it on Friday but it hasn't helped and i am still not getting anything on the monitor.

I have now ordered a second hand cpu.
I will hopefully get the cpu tomorrow and if the cpu dosn't get the computer going again, i think it only leaves replacing the graphics card.
But i know this isn't guaranteed and am starting to think a long the lines of a new build, but using my: old tower, psu & sata dvd writers.
What would be a build around the £500 price range for: a motherboard, processor, graphics card and ram ?
Also, i have been using Vista as a operating system, what is the better windows operating system, 7 or 8 ?
 
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Hi and welcome to the forums :D

This will do the job nicely

YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i5-4670K 3.40GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail £173.99
1 x Powercolor Radeon R9 270X "PowerBank" 3072MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £155.99
1 x MSI Z87-G43 Intel Z87 (Socket 1150) DDR3 ATX Motherboard - FREE Alpenfohn Civetta Cooler!! £86.99
1 x TeamGroup Elite Black 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C11 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (TED38GM1600HC11DC01) £53.99
Total : £480.55 (includes shipping : £8.00).



As to the choice of which version of Windows? Probably best to do some research yourself. I prefer to use 7, some prefer 8. 7 is much more like Vista in looks and operation, but 8 can be made to look the same. Also with 8 you get the latest direct X features which you won't get with 7.
 
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+1 for ExRayTed's basket,

Slightly more expensive AMD offering, you could swap the GPU to lower the price however

YOUR BASKET
1 x MSI Radeon R9 280X Gaming Edition OC 3072MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £259.99
1 x AMD Piledriver FX-8 Eight Core 8320 Black Edition 3.50GHz (Socket AM3+) Processor - Retail £119.99
1 x Gigabyte 990XA-UD3 AMD 990X (Socket AM3+) DDR3 Motherboard £89.99
1 x TeamGroup Elite Black 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C11 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (TED38GM1600HC11DC01) £53.99
Total : £533.56 (includes shipping : £8.00).

 
Welcome to the forum.

1st thing, I'd remove those links as they could be considered as competitor links, even though you have linked to 2nd hand parts.

There are others here that would put together a package from OCUK for that kind of money quickly, but please let us know your primary usage for a PC (ie office/internet, gaming, photo/video editing etc.)

& as a vista user, I would say windows 7, Windows 8 (though Microsoft is working on it) would take a little getting used to.
 
Thanks for the replys.

I use my pc for backing up dvds and use dvd rebuilder a lot, which is why i try to have as powerful a pc as i can afford, but also a stable pc.
 
If the replacement cpu works with the replacement motherboard, will my windows operatering system install alright on the new replacement motherboard.
Or could it be rejected as the windows software is registered with my old motherboard ?

ie, would i need to buy a new version of windows for a new motherboard on the same tower ?
 
AndrewC said:
If the replacement cpu works with the replacement motherboard, will my windows operatering system install alright on the new replacement motherboard.
Or could it be rejected as the windows software is registered with my old motherboard ?

ie, would i need to buy a new version of windows for a new motherboard on the same tower ?
Click to expand...

yes the os will be fine its not registered to the motherboard lol you wont need a new one
 
You may well waste time and money chasing what may be at fault in your system. I would put some time and thought into what work you do on your PC and rethink an appropriate budget before chasing higher end gamer orientated performance for what may be decimal point improvements with what you have in mind.

I do recommend upgrading regardless.

CPU
Motherboard
Memory
SSD

These are the important areas if your main concern is DVD backup.

Think about your Graphics card requirements though, do you game? Watch movies? What else apart from rip DVD's do you do? Some would get on pretty well with on board graphics from AMD or Intel these days.

My preferred OS is Windows 7 64bit. For ripping and working with DVD you will probably find an AMD FX-6300 does the job. 8GB of memory is fine for many 16GB is more than they will ever need, but you can go for a higher frequency, 1600Mhz is old news and 1866Mhz + is usually not much more expensive. The biggest noticeable difference to any system is usually the move from an HDD mechanical drive to an SSD.

I guess you back up DVD to an external? Changing your main drive from an HDD to an SSD would make a big difference too.

Your case could also be improved upon. Cooler and quieter.

As an alternative to an expensive Intel set up this sort of kit listed below is good value and performance, with a reasonable graphics card if you want to game. If your not gaming I would drop the graphics card, and go for an AMD AMD A10-6800K with something like the Gigabyte F2A88X-D3H Motherboard.

It's not meant as a system, just to give you ideas of how you could bring a new system to life.
I usually recommend Intel, it's what I use, but to be honest the amount of performance people buy these days is usually overkill and their PC's potential rarely reached. Most people could be sat with an Intel 4770K set up, you could replace it with an AMD chip, and they would probably never notice the difference.
It's only when you chase and use your PC's maximum performance and potential those decimal point differences and benchmarks start to become accountable.

YOUR BASKET
1 x MSI GeForce GTX 760 OC Gaming Edition 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £199.99
1 x Samsung 250GB SSD 840 EVO SATA 6Gb/s Basic - (MZ-7TE250BW) £137.99
1 x AMD Piledriver FX-6 Six Core 6300 Black Edition 3.50GHz (Socket AM3+) Processor - Retail £89.99
1 x Asus M5A97 EVO R2.0 AMD 970 (Socket AM3+) DDR3 Motherboard £79.99
1 x Patriot Viper "Sapphire Blue" 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-17000C11 2133MHz Dual Channel Kit (PV38G213C1KBL) £69.95
1 x Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 64-Bit - OEM (GFC-02733) £67.99
1 x Corsair Graphite Series 230T Compact Mid Tower Case Windowed - Orange (CC-9011038-WW) £66.95
Total : £722.45 (includes shipping : £8.00).



Maybe add a cooler too!

YOUR BASKET
1 x Samsung 250GB SSD 840 EVO SATA 6Gb/s Basic - (MZ-7TE250BW) £137.99
1 x AMD A10-6800K Black Edition 4.10GHz (Socket FM2) APU Richland Quad Core Processor (AD680KWOHLBOX) £109.99
1 x Patriot Viper "Sapphire Blue" 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-17000C11 2133MHz Dual Channel Kit (PV38G213C1KBL) £69.95
1 x Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 64-Bit - OEM (GFC-02733) £67.99
1 x Corsair Graphite Series 230T Compact Mid Tower Case Windowed - Orange (CC-9011038-WW) £66.95
1 x Gigabyte F2A88X-D3H AMD A88X (Socket FM2+) DDR3 Motherboard £64.99
1 x Phanteks PH-TC12DX CPU Cooler - Black £44.98
Total : £572.44 (includes shipping : £8.00).



I am considering something along the lines of the above to replace my sons PC, he has one of my old 775 systems which has a Q9550/8GB PC8500/HD-4870/Sammy F3/Windows 7 64bit, which was used to back up and store uncompressed movies on TS folders for media streaming in house.

OvEr_KiLL said:
yes the os will be fine its not registered to the motherboard lol you wont need a new one
Click to expand...

He has an OEM Windows Vista Install disc. What makes you think he can just reload it onto a new system willy nilly like?
 
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Still nothing on the monitor with the new second hand cpu, maybe it is the graphics card or my hard disc.

Can anybody recommend a cheap graphics card that i could on my sytem to replace the old one, even second hand i can only find the odd one in USA ?
Also, can anybody recommend a new hard drive to replace the current one i have ?

How do you usually find system failures, have spare parts of each part in the tower, and swap each part with a working part to see what gets the system going again ?

sastusbulbas
I have 2TB western digital external hard drives that i back up to and i use a Western Digital TV Media Player to watch the movies/tv series with.
My media player is probably an older one than they are selling now.

I do not game or watch movies on my pc, i mainly rip dvds and run them with dvd rebuilder and listen to music with windows media player, so maybe onboard graphics is the way for me to go.

Could you recommend a system like the second system you quoted in your post ?

I am stuck between trying to fix my old system and getting a new one, as a reason i built the last one was that if it acted up, as it has been doing, i could replace the part and get it going again, but i never thought it would be hard to identify the part that has acted up.
 
As you have tried another second hand motherboard and another second hand CPU that would seem to rule those out as faulty if the exact same fault appeared. Even with a faulty CPU, HDD or faulty memory your BIOS would show up. Can you plug your PC into the television? To be honest it sounds like a graphics card or monitor or PSU fault if you are experiencing the same fault with a different CPU and motherboard. That leaves the PSU, Graphics card, monitor and cables as primaries to rule out.

Are all the fans, HDD's, Optic bays and such running when you power up?

Is your graphics card power cable OK? Monitor cable? Any issues with the PSU?

If it is just the graphics card I would get an AMD 5450 or Nvidia GT210, both of which are low profile PCI express GPU's with HDMI, and available for £20.

YOUR BASKET
1 x Asus GeForce GT 210 SILENT Low Profile 1024MB GDDR3 PCI-Express Graphics Card £19.99
1 x MSI HD 5450 1024MB GDDR5 Low Profile PCI-Express Graphics Card £19.99
Total : £49.58 (includes shipping : £8.00).



For what your doing there may be no need to buy a new system unless the motherboard fails. My own 775 systems still do a lot of work, and would still benefit from upgrades. I have an E8500/Asus Maximus II Gene/Dominator GT/ Passive HD5750 system for an HTPC and a Q9550/Gigabyte EP45/PC-8500/HD 4870 system my son uses. Both would be better with SSD's and newer graphics cards, but they don't get enough use by me to justify that.

You could try cleaning out your PC and rebuilding it, checking all the wiring etc. Start with no fans apart from the CPU cooler connected, no HDD or Optic bay fitted, see if it boots to bios with the bare minimum connected to get it running.

If you do decide to go for a new CPU/Motherboard/Memory set up to use with your current kit, if what you had was capable enough and got the job done sufficiently, and you have no need for graphics grunt, both Intel and AMD have options that don't cost much with similar specifications to your old CPU and memory.

YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Pentium G3220 3.0GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail £47.99
1 x Kingston HyperX Genesis Grey 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (KHX1600C9D3X2K2/4GX) £37.99
1 x Asus H81M-K Intel H81 (Socket 1150) DDR3 Micro ATX Motherboard £37.99
Total : £133.57 (includes shipping : £8.00).



Or

YOUR BASKET
1 x Asus A55BM-E AMD A55 Chipset (Socket FM2+) DDR3 Micro ATX Motherboard £37.99
1 x Kingston HyperX Genesis Grey 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (KHX1600C9D3X2K2/4GX) £37.99
1 x AMD A4-4000 3.00GHz (Socket FM2) APU Richland Dual Core Processor (AD4000OKHLBOX) £31.99
Total : £117.58 (includes shipping : £8.00).



I would try and fix what you have 1st, or at least work out what is wrong or if it is worth trying to fix. If it is only your graphics card it's a cheap fix, if it's your PSU or monitor there is no point worrying about newer CPU's and motherboards yet.

Then work out if a dual core cpu with 4GB is good enough with on board graphics, or if you would like more cores and more memory, with a budget in mind.
 
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I got a cheap graphics card tonight Asus HD 5450 SILENT 1024MB GDDR3 PCI-Express Low Profile Graphics Card and my pc is back up and running again.
My system is currently getting stresses tested with some dvds and it seems back to normal :)

I thought Currys didn't take long to look at my pc (5 minutes), hearing the pc is five years old, they must have just assumed it was the motherboard when nothing was showing when they tried to boot the pc, and my tower parts were different from what they carried on their shelfs.
I didn't get charged anything, but would have been happy to pay if they checked my tower parts for faults.
You learn something new each day, try and keep some cheap parts for fault finding when things act up !

sastusbulbas, thanks for your help.
The two set ups you recommonded are ideal, just now i am just happy to have got my old system going again, which gives me a bit of thinking time about what i want to do.

Thanks again.
 
sastusbulbas said:
If you do decide to go for a new CPU/Motherboard/Memory set up to use with your current kit, if what you had was capable enough and got the job done sufficiently, and you have no need for graphics grunt, both Intel and AMD have options that don't cost much with similar specifications to your old CPU and memory.

YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Pentium G3220 3.0GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail £47.99
1 x Kingston HyperX Genesis Grey 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (KHX1600C9D3X2K2/4GX) £37.99
1 x Asus H81M-K Intel H81 (Socket 1150) DDR3 Micro ATX Motherboard £37.99
Total : £133.57 (includes shipping : £8.00).



Or

YOUR BASKET
1 x Asus A55BM-E AMD A55 Chipset (Socket FM2+) DDR3 Micro ATX Motherboard £37.99
1 x Kingston HyperX Genesis Grey 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (KHX1600C9D3X2K2/4GX) £37.99
1 x AMD A4-4000 3.00GHz (Socket FM2) APU Richland Dual Core Processor (AD4000OKHLBOX) £31.99
Total : £117.58 (includes shipping : £8.00).



I would try and fix what you have 1st, or at least work out what is wrong or if it is worth trying to fix. If it is only your graphics card it's a cheap fix, if it's your PSU or monitor there is no point worrying about newer CPU's and motherboards yet.

Then work out if a dual core cpu with 4GB is good enough with on board graphics, or if you would like more cores and more memory, with a budget in mind.
Click to expand...

I have decided to go for a new system but using the onboard graphics option.
My system is working again but with what has happened recently with it, i think it is time to upgrade.

I prefer the intel option.
Does the cpu come with a cooler in the box, or would i need to add a cooler to it ?
Will the SSD drive be better than a sata HD drive, with what i do would there be much a difference ?
Samsung 250GB SSD 840 EVO SATA 6Gb/s Basic - (MZ-7TE250BW) - £149.99
Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 64-Bit - OEM (GFC-02733) - £67.99
Corsair Graphite Series 230T Compact Mid Tower Case Windowed - Grey (CC-9011040-WW) - £66.95 inc VAT
What PSU would i need for this system ?
Will i need a network card ?
What DVD burner would you recommend, Lite On ?
 
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