Question I'm looking for a temporary new board after mine died ?

[chucky9]

I've had my ASUS Strix Z370-E Gaming for nearly 8 years and it died on me the other day, I don't want to spend loads on a new board as my intention has always been to just build a new PC, but my situation has changed and I now I can't do that for at least a year.

I know barely anything about motherboards anymore, so I did the internet doctor approach and asked ChatGPT.....

It came up with the MSI z390-A pro, ASRock z370 Extreme4 and Asus prime z370-a. I have an i7-8700k, 64gb of ddr4, a 4080 and it can't be bigger than ATX because my case isn't big enough .

I'm struggling to find any of these boards beyond china/Ali express and the US.

I'm in the UK and my limit is about £150. I only need it to last 1-2 years as again my intention is to make a new PC by mid 2026 at the latest, I will only be carrying over my 4080 GPU to the new build.

Thanks in advance.

 

[Lutfij]

What processor and ram are you working with? Just for the sake of relevance, did you narrow down the cause of the board dying(probably a bad quality PSU)? You sure that a BIOS recovery won't revive the board?

I found this;
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/316035059589
which is the same board as yours. Pass on an offer the seller can't refuse or buy it now and wrap up the build.

 

[bill001g]

This seems to be a common issue. After technology gets even a few years old it is almost impossible to buy "new", recently manufactured, version of the parts. The guys with the tin foil hats think it is a evil plan to steal every ones money by forcing you to buy the latest and most expensive technology. I suspect it is because the large manufactures make about the same profit making the very latest boards as the old ones and would rather use the machines to make the fastest selling boards. You are then left with the smaller and many times kinda shady manufactures that sell on aliexpress or temu.

Not sure which is more risky buying a used board or buying these newly manufactured boards directly from china.

 

[chucky9]

What processor and ram are you working with? Just for the sake of relevance, did you narrow down the cause of the board dying(probably a bad quality PSU)? You sure that a BIOS recovery won't revive the board?

I found this;
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/316035059589
which is the same board as yours. Pass on an offer the seller can't refuse or buy it now and wrap up the build.

I have an I7-8700k, i think my ram is hyperx but I cant remember specifically.

My tech person said they couldn't even get the PC to boot. i initially went to them because none of my USB slots, front or back were working anymore, they were getting power but no data my Bluetooth had stopped working as well.

They replaced the cmos battery which they said was dead but it made no difference. He was recommended by a friend of mine, he's been working in IT since 2004.

He told me not to buy the same board again, in case of recurring issues.

 

[bill001g]

Does the tech guy you worked with know for sure it is the motherboard. Did they do any testing. Unfortunately issue with the CPU chip or memory can cause exactly the same symptom as a bad motherboard. You can even get crazy stuff like a cpu cooler that is incorrectly mounted putting uneven pressure on the chip to cause a system to not boot.

This issue tends to be why many people just give up and buy a different machine. You take the risk of buying a motherboard and it nt actually fix the issue.

Not sure what to recommend. On real expensive stuff you pay a shop for example to test your cpu and memory in one of their test machine. When you have limited budget you maybe better off just spending the money you would have paid to have the parts tested and gamble that you get it correct.

 

[logainofhades]

Your best option will be Ebay, or local used market, to get a replacement board. If the budget was higher, I would just say get a 12th gen i5 and a ddr4 motherboard to hold you over, or an AM4 cpu and board.


PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 5600 3.5 GHz 6-Core Processor (£89.83 @ Amazon UK)
Motherboard: Gigabyte B550 AORUS ELITE AX V2 ATX AM4 Motherboard (£119.99 @ Amazon UK)
Total: £209.82
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2024-12-11 15:51 GMT+0000

 

[punkncat]

^In the suggestion above, the A520 motherboard from MSI has done very well for me in two builds so far and should readily be able to be found for ~$60 (IDK the conversion). You could pair that with a used 3600 or a new/used 5600 and be in a good spot, cost wise.

 

[chucky9]

Does the tech guy you worked with know for sure it is the motherboard. Did they do any testing. Unfortunately issue with the CPU chip or memory can cause exactly the same symptom as a bad motherboard. You can even get crazy stuff like a cpu cooler that is incorrectly mounted putting uneven pressure on the chip to cause a system to not boot.

This issue tends to be why many people just give up and buy a different machine. You take the risk of buying a motherboard and it nt actually fix the issue.

Not sure what to recommend. On real expensive stuff you pay a shop for example to test your cpu and memory in one of their test machine. When you have limited budget you maybe better off just spending the money you would have paid to have the parts tested and gamble that you get it correct.

I honestly don't know, he said he could send it off for analysis but that it likely wasn't worth the price due to its age.

I think I'm going to have to go Ebay at this point, I really don't like buy tech from ebay but I don't really have a choice. Not even sure what board I'm going to go with still but I'll have a look

 

[stonecarver]

I'm in the UK and my limit is about £150.

Maybe you can get lucky at CEX on a used board or even better a cheap whole system with the board you need.

CeX

 

[chucky9]

ive found a Gigabyte Z370 HD3 ATX Gaming Motherboard LGA 1151 Intel 8/9 Gen DDR4 for £80, im going to give it a try

 

[chucky9]

Fun, board powers up and shows a cpu error... i literally cant win at this point lol. i have some older pc's laying around so i will look and see what boards and cpu's they have and try to do a makeshift rig till i can afford a new one...

 

[chucky9]

Maybe you can get lucky at CEX on a used board or even better a cheap whole system with the board you need.

CeX

Right, i think new plan... either buy a new cheap pc, if im going to buy a cpu motherboard and cpu and put into my system lol... not going well haha

 

[Misgar]

Fun, board powers up and shows a cpu error...

Which implies your CPU or RAM might be faulty. When I'm not sure if it's the CPU or mobo that's dead, I swap out the CPU before sourcing a new mobo. No need to buy another i7-8700k. Check the mobo CPU compatibility list for the slowest compatible CPU for your BIOS, then look for that CPU on eBay.co.uk.

You can often pick up a low-spec CPU for under ten quid including postage. Look for sellers with near 100% rating and low negative feedback. Don't expect the CPU to come in an ESD box or bag. Many eBay sellers are oblivious to the dangers of ESD damage to CPU/RAM. Some sellers make it obvious they provide proper ESD packaging, but you tend to pay a bit more.

If the cheap CPU works in the old (and new) mobo, your i7-8700K is probably dead. If so, only you can decide if it's worth replacing with a similar (second-hand) CPU. Top of the range old CPUs tend to command a premium and can cost more than a new modern chip. A slower i7 or a fast i5 might be considerably cheaper.

 

[chucky9]

Which implies your CPU or RAM might be faulty. When I'm not sure if it's the CPU or mobo that's dead, I swap out the CPU before sourcing a new mobo. No need to buy another i7-8700k. Check the mobo CPU compatibility list for the slowest compatible CPU for your BIOS, then look for that CPU on eBay.co.uk.

You can often pick up a low-spec CPU for under ten quid including postage. Look for sellers with near 100% rating and low negative feedback. Don't expect the CPU to come in an ESD box or bag. Many eBay sellers are oblivious to the dangers of ESD damage to CPU/RAM. Some sellers make it obvious they provide proper ESD packaging, but you tend to pay a bit more.

If the cheap CPU works in the old (and new) mobo, your i7-8700K is probably dead. If so, only you can decide if it's worth replacing with a similar (second-hand) CPU. Top of the range old CPUs tend to command a premium and can cost more than a new modern chip. A slower i7 or a fast i5 might be considerably cheaper.

Thanks for the advise. My pc guy reckons that when the motherboard popped, it killed the CPU as well. I've borrowed a PC from a friend atm while I work out what to get for a new system. So currently working through that. https://forums.tomshardware.com/thr...-me-issues-£2-500-budget-without-gpu.3865495/