Gaming setup damaged by power surge - repair or upgrade to a new system?

[Daley1992]

I'm looking for some advice on my current PC/parts related dilemma.

My current PC was damaged by a power surge resulting from a power outage across my suburb not long ago. Returning from work, I powered it up and found that nothing was displaying on my monitor (it recognised that the HDMI cord was plugged though - it just said no signal). I thought the GPU may have been damaged, swapped an older GPU in and found the exact same thing.

A local PC technician had a look and said the motherboard is almost certainly dead, but that the CPU and PSU might be damaged as well, but it'd be hard to tell without a functioning board.
He recommended replacing all three parts.

The issue is is that a lot of the components are close to three years old, and were starting to become dated (except an aftermarket GPU). The board, CPU, and card are all AMD - whose overall performance I find frustrating (driver updates etc). It wasn't a horrible or slow setup, but I'd turned my mind to upgrading or updating entirely and going Intel/Nvidia.

It seems I have two options:
1. Replace the damaged components with Intel CPU and board - and new PSU. This will require new RAM and a new CPU cooler - the cost seems to just keep adding up. I also don't know if there might be other components that have been damaged?

2. Buy a new system - I've been looking at Pccasegear and Mwave. Any Aussies, do you have opinions on either? Also, I'm torn on whether it's worth getting a system with a GTX980 or a 980 Ti. I only play on a 1080p monitor, and I don't mind if I can't hit ultra and 60fps - but, if I'm buying a new system I want longevity before needing to upgrade parts etc. Any advice there would be appreciated too.

That's the situation - any advice or experiences would be much appreciated.
Cheers!

 

[PotatoHead32]

I'm looking for some advice on my current PC/parts related dilemma.

My current PC was damaged by a power surge resulting from a power outage across my suburb not long ago. Returning from work, I powered it up and found that nothing was displaying on my monitor (it recognised that the HDMI cord was plugged though - it just said no signal). I thought the GPU may have been damaged, swapped an older GPU in and found the exact same thing.

A local PC technician had a look and said the motherboard is almost certainly dead, but that the CPU and PSU might be damaged as well, but it'd be hard to tell without a functioning board.
He recommended replacing all three parts.

The issue is is that a lot of the components are close to three years old, and were starting to become dated (except an aftermarket GPU). The board, CPU, and card are all AMD - whose overall performance I find frustrating (driver updates etc). It wasn't a horrible or slow setup, but I'd turned my mind to upgrading or updating entirely and going Intel/Nvidia.

It seems I have two options:
1. Replace the damaged components with Intel CPU and board - and new PSU. This will require new RAM and a new CPU cooler - the cost seems to just keep adding up. I also don't know if there might be other components that have been damaged?

2. Buy a new system - I've been looking at Pccasegear and Mwave. Any Aussies, do you have opinions on either? Also, I'm torn on whether it's worth getting a system with a GTX980 or a 980 Ti. I only play on a 1080p monitor, and I don't mind if I can't hit ultra and 60fps - but, if I'm buying a new system I want longevity before needing to upgrade parts etc. Any advice there would be appreciated too.

That's the situation - any advice or experiences would be much appreciated.
Cheers!

a 980 is a bit overkill for 1080p xD so no worries about 1080p gaming. i suggest salvaging the functioning parts of ur PC (Case, HDD, Fans) and building your own computer! It isn't hard, there are many youtube tutorials about it and it really saves you a lot of $$$.

 

[dork_police]

I'm looking for some advice on my current PC/parts related dilemma.

My current PC was damaged by a power surge resulting from a power outage across my suburb not long ago. Returning from work, I powered it up and found that nothing was displaying on my monitor (it recognised that the HDMI cord was plugged though - it just said no signal). I thought the GPU may have been damaged, swapped an older GPU in and found the exact same thing.

A local PC technician had a look and said the motherboard is almost certainly dead, but that the CPU and PSU might be damaged as well, but it'd be hard to tell without a functioning board.
He recommended replacing all three parts.

The issue is is that a lot of the components are close to three years old, and were starting to become dated (except an aftermarket GPU). The board, CPU, and card are all AMD - whose overall performance I find frustrating (driver updates etc). It wasn't a horrible or slow setup, but I'd turned my mind to upgrading or updating entirely and going Intel/Nvidia.

It seems I have two options:
1. Replace the damaged components with Intel CPU and board - and new PSU. This will require new RAM and a new CPU cooler - the cost seems to just keep adding up. I also don't know if there might be other components that have been damaged?

2. Buy a new system - I've been looking at Pccasegear and Mwave. Any Aussies, do you have opinions on either? Also, I'm torn on whether it's worth getting a system with a GTX980 or a 980 Ti. I only play on a 1080p monitor, and I don't mind if I can't hit ultra and 60fps - but, if I'm buying a new system I want longevity before needing to upgrade parts etc. Any advice there would be appreciated too.

That's the situation - any advice or experiences would be much appreciated.
Cheers!

a 980 is a bit overkill for 1080p xD so no worries about 1080p gaming. i suggest salvaging the functioning parts of ur PC (Case, HDD, Fans) and building your own computer! It isn't hard, there are many youtube tutorials about it and it really saves you a lot of $$$.

Hi,

As Mr. PotatoHead mentioned, try salvaging what you can from the old system.

Especially if there is nothing wrong with them. I would tend to agree with the Local PC Technician. I had a Power surge once and my Motherboard blew, this made my CPU useless - because I couldn't get a Mobo for it.

If I could have found a Mobo for my CPU I would have, because I had to now buy, Mobo, RAM and a CPU.

PSU (if it is a good one), it should still be working, there are tools to testing a PSU - and your local PC support shop should have a PSU Tester, or a "Bench" system, with which they can test certain parts.


If the PSU/Mobo/CPU are dead - then I would recommend only buying the necessary, new Mobo/CPU/PSU/RAM.

If you dont mind running at the highest resolution, then don't buy one yet. Wait for the next gen GPU's, which will bring down the price of the Geforce 9xx and AMD R9 3xx.

Hope it helps.,

 

[Daley1992]

I see what you're saying. I wouldn't be confident building or replacing things myself - I'm also a bit time poor at the moment.
The reason I'm leaning towards a completely new setup over replacing things is that:
a) the system was becoming a bit dated overall
b) I don't know if my GPU was also damaged as well
c) my GPU was AMD
d) by the time I add up the cost of a new CPU, PSU, Mobo, RAM, a better CPU cooler to go along with it, and potentially a new GPU if the 280x is fried, I wind up nearing the cost of a new setup minus HDD/SSD and case.

Could the GPU have been damaged by the surge along with the Mobo?

 

[anonman]

I see what you're saying. I wouldn't be confident building or replacing things myself - I'm also a bit time poor at the moment.
The reason I'm leaning towards a completely new setup over replacing things is that:
a) the system was becoming a bit dated overall
b) I don't know if my GPU was also damaged as well
c) my GPU was AMD
d) by the time I add up the cost of a new CPU, PSU, Mobo, RAM, a better CPU cooler to go along with it, and potentially a new GPU if the 280x is fried, I wind up nearing the cost of a new setup minus HDD/SSD and case.

Could the GPU have been damaged by the surge along with the Mobo?

Stop being stubborn and learn. It takes a while, and all you need is patience and being careful. It's almost idiot proof if you do it slowly and take the time to learn each step. It's also cheaper in the end because if anything fails in the future, you know how to replace it.

 

[Daley1992]

I see what you're saying. I wouldn't be confident building or replacing things myself - I'm also a bit time poor at the moment.
The reason I'm leaning towards a completely new setup over replacing things is that:
a) the system was becoming a bit dated overall
b) I don't know if my GPU was also damaged as well
c) my GPU was AMD
d) by the time I add up the cost of a new CPU, PSU, Mobo, RAM, a better CPU cooler to go along with it, and potentially a new GPU if the 280x is fried, I wind up nearing the cost of a new setup minus HDD/SSD and case.

Could the GPU have been damaged by the surge along with the Mobo?

Stop being stubborn and learn. It takes a while, and all you need is patience and being careful. It's almost idiot proof if you do it slowly and take the time to learn each step. It's also cheaper in the end because if anything fails in the future, you know how to replace it.

It's got nothing to do with being stubborn. I'd like to learn if I was in a position to spare the time. Unfortunately, I'm not; I'm up to my eyeballs in actual study which takes priority over learning to assemble a computer myself, especially when I need that computer ASAP.
Thanks for the response though.