Newbie Disaster!

[Mjcurry3]

Well lemme start out by saying this, I built a new computer about 3 months ago and now i have a fried mobo and processor. When the system was built, it was running great, but i was getting random restarts everyone once in a while. Well one night i shut my comp down, and i go to crank it up in the morning, and it tries to get running for about 3 seconds, then just powers down. It would then continue to do this over and over until i unplugged the machine. So i took it to a few shops when finally someone said it was fried mobo and processor. Being that Newegg is the Sh*t, they warrantied everything, but they do not have the mobo in stock and they actually refunded my money for the processor. So here is my situation.... I do not know much about computer building, just know how to work them. Well Now that im stuck with an out of stock mobo i have to pick a new one.... Im going to list what my computer had consisted of prior to my malfuntion.


Ok here she is or WAS....

Case: NZXT LEXA-NP Black/ Silver Aluminum Construction Plastic Front Panel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case

PSU: Corsiar hx520W Modular Power Supply

Mobo: GIGABYTE GA-965P-DS3 LGA 775 Intel P965 Express ATX Intel Motherboard

Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo E6300 Conroe 1.86GHz LGA 775 Processor Model BX80557E6300

Hard Drive: Western Digital Caviar SE WD1600AAJS 160GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM

Ram: G.SKILL 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model F2-6400CL5D-2GBNQ

Video Card: SAPPHIRE 100199L Radeon X1950GT 256MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express x16 HDCP Ready CrossFire Supported Video Card

OS is windows XP (think with the latest SP)


Alright, well as i listed above, the mobo and processors i no longer have and am in search of replacements. FYI, the computer guy told me the reason the comp was restarting and what cause my comp to fry was the intel fan, had a little nick in the wire that was hooked to the mother board, and this was causing the processor fan to stop once in a while and constant on and off of the fan fried both the mobo and processor. Weather he is correct or not, who knows. So i already have a Arctic Cooling Freezer pro 7 for the new processor when i decide what im buying.

What do you guys think i should get to replace the mobo and processor.

I am willing to spend a little more then what i have into this..... but really dont want to exceed 400$. I use the computer to play a couple games. Mainly Counter Strike: Source, which is a FPS game.

Also is this computer a good build in the first place? Is there something holding my computer back? If there is something else i should consider upgrading that will make a major improvement please let me know. Thanks alot in advance!

Matt

 

[roadrunner197069]

I would get a PK5 SE mobo and e2180 cpu and OC it to 3.0+. Everything else looks fine to me. Im not to sure the repair shop didnt lie to you though. If you have any trouble at all when you get going again it was probably a bad psu.

 

[mjwebb007]

Hey Matt,

There are lots of good motherboards out there now for Socket 775 processors. If you are using single video card or are only interested in Crossfire, the new P35 boards from Intel are good, and they have just come out with X38 Enthusiast boards which are better but not really worth the money IMO. I use an nVidia 680i board (Striker Extreme) without issue but others have had lots of issues (fairly hit or miss with the 680i chipset). That CPU cooler is a good one...


I personally would recommend getting a Q6600 Stepping G0 processor (Stepping is important if you plan on overclocking in the future, not so important if you don't - I have one that is not a G0 and I use only a slight memory speed overclock on it without issues). Newegg has them for $278 right now... If you are only interested in dual-core then stick with the E6750 ($195 right now at Newegg). As far as motherboards there are quite a few but to minimize required upgrades (one that uses DDR2 that you have instead of DDR3 which is expensive and you don't have), I will list my recommendations from Gigabyte (since that is what you had before).

Just search for GA-P35 on newegg and it will show you all the ones they carry...I like the DS4 model. It has lots of ports, features and slots for any setup you could have. Just make sure you look for DDR2. Some of the newer P35 have DDR3 so be careful. I personally like Gigabyte, MSI and Asus but that is just my opinion. Hope this helps.

 

[bentley306]

If you're looking to get a decent mobo for not much money, I'd look into the GA-P35-DS3L. It doesn't have all the features of the more expensive P35s, but it has everything that most of us want and is supposedly very good for ocing as well, if that's your thing. The main thing that it lacks is RAID support, so don't get it if you want a RAID. You can find it for under $100.

 

[bentley306]

Should also mention that it doesn't support SLI or firewire.