Reading Hardware

My computer at home has been on the fritz for a while and i borrowed a couple of friends spare graphics cards to diagnose a problem with my motherboard which is that it basically doesnt work.

Full story here:http://ukwarfare.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f=66&t=5321&p=52899#p52899

So now im in the market for a mobo, but I dont know whether to just get a 939 (old, scarce) or a newer AM2 with an ASrock adapter for a 939 since as a student i cant really justify blowing three weeks food money on a hundred quid motherboard/processor package.

Any suggestions?

Sir Deimos, Beater of Ass.

I've got a socket 939 mobo/Duron-2400+/1GB RAM combination lying around here that I could donate. Problem is, either the board or the processor is probably broken and I don't know which.

As for buying a new board, I wouldn't invest too much money into a new socket 939 board now, because once the processor dies the board is worthless too.

Of course, an AM2 board will probably require new RAM, too (I assume you've got DDR RAM now and would need DDR2).

OTOH, I can't help but be a bit sceptical about the ASRock adapter. I've heard not-so-good things about ASRock boards, though this is hearsay and not first-hand experience. If it works flawlessly at all, I'd expect at least some decrease in performance compared to a 'real' 939 board.

Does the adapter cost much more than an AM2 processor anyway?

Everything else appears to have been discussed on the Warfare board.

One last thing, is there evidence that it's the mobo and not the power supply? 99 out of 100 power supplies aren't paid enough attention. I'm thinking of, say, a PSU that has to handle more load than it's been built for, and once it gets hot it produces tiny power spikes or brownouts that the mobo can handle/filter out, but the graphics card can't for some reason.

Consider yourself hugged.

This post was edited by null on Mar 05, 2008.

Well, this is the thing. Im not keen on getting a new 939 mobo when just by searching around its pretty plain that the technology is at the very ass end of its life since I can only find a couple of online stores in the UK, and the cheapest board i can get apparently doesnt get delivered to any of them for a fortnight.

Not the sort of thing you want to read when you have predominately PC-based coursework in for the end of the week.

Since, like you say, id be shelling out £40 or more for a board, with a potentially fried processor, im looking at getting a new AM2 mobo/processor for around £100. Im not sure about the ram, i cant recall off the top of my head and obviously I cant boot the PC to check, nor had time to take the sticks out and look at them with mine two eyes.

My brother and i did a bit of differential diagnosis on the comp (im and engineering student, he did computer science and currently works for lastfm) and we both didnt really consider the power source out of hand, but concentrated on the unlikelihood of a graphics card by itself failing and decided it was more likely a mobo failure. Having thought about it, id say that the power supply could be a factor (since I have a habit of leaving the comp on for days at a time to run stuff i need for coursework like flow analysis), but its given me no problems up until the beginning of february and I only got it in october 2006.

The adapter, having found it, looks like a shitty option and i dont plan on pursuing it.

Heat could well be an issue, at least with the 8400 board im borrowing (in conjunction with the PC as a whole and with a new board etc) has a massive passive heatsink on it (and as a result since i borrowed it ive been running the pc with the case off), which normally keeps my room toasty warm. I really noticed it last night where my room was quite chilly. AS well as this, theres a few spare mount points on the frame for some fans, and ill be looking into getting some for the new setup.

Sir Deimos, Beater of Ass.