Fix or upgrade?

[shadowbreaker513]

My desktop (the computer in my sig) broke about 2 months ago, and I have yet to be able to figure out what broke or fix it. At this point, I'm looking at 2 options that I have. There is a computer shop near me that will diagnose the problem for $40, afterwards I would still need to shell out additional money either for replacement of the broken part, or an RMA (most likely the processor from talking to the people). On the other hand, my birthday is in about 6 weeks, and, like previous years, I'll wind up with a decent bit of cash from my relatives. My parents said they would be willing to put in around $300 for my computer as well (they were originally going to get me a new tv for my dorm). That combined with the money I would save on shipping and diagnosing the problem, and that I'm likely to start my summer job between now and then, I would most likely end up with at least $600 or so to toy with for upgrades. Would anyone recommend still trying to go and fix what's wrong with the computer or just cutting my losses and just buying new things, getting moderate upgrade in the process (in increments, processor first, then motherboard if it's still not working)?

Also, depending on how much cash I have when I upgrade, what would everyone recommend?
I was thinking of grabbing a second video card and doing SLI (I think mine can be had for around $190 now), a fast, large hard drive so I'm not cramming everything on a raptor, and a 64 bit copy of vista (Love vista on my laptop, and it would let me use all 4 gigs of my ram)

 

[engiNURD]

If you can survive without your desktop, then do so. It would still be helpful to get the problem diagnosed, so you could sell all the other parts, RMA the broken one, and sell it as well... that will add to your budget for a new system.

You could try diagnosing the issue yourself with this forum's help. What are the symptoms?

As far as SLI goes, its not very worthwhile for a 19" LCD. So, unless you plan on getting a 24" LCD, don't bother with SLI.

Parts recommendations will depend on your budget when you're ready to build.

 

[shadowbreaker513]

If you can survive without your desktop, then do so. It would still be helpful to get the problem diagnosed, so you could sell all the other parts, RMA the broken one, and sell it as well... that will add to your budget for a new system.

You could try diagnosing the issue yourself with this forum's help. What are the symptoms?

As far as SLI goes, its not very worthwhile for a 19" LCD. So, unless you plan on getting a 24" LCD, don't bother with SLI.

Parts recommendations will depend on your budget when you're ready to build.

I can survive without my desktop. I got a laptop at the start of the semester, and it can run WoW, C&C3, and CoD4 fairly well, so waiting longer isn't a huge deal. I wouldn't sell the other parts, I'd use whatever still worked, as I would buy starting with the most likely cause (the processor). So if the stuff worked after I bought a new processor, I would just continue to use my current motherboard/ram and then spend the rest of the money on other parts. If it didn't work still, I would then buy the second most likely culprit, the motherboard (chances of this seem much less likely than the processor, as the motherboard is the replacement sent to me after an RMA). I spent about a month trying to diagnose the problem, including by inquiring around here, and everyone was stumped for the most part. I wasn't able to eliminate the motherboard, ram, or CPU however as I didn't have compatible parts to try subbing in.

 

[Shmuckety]

If you don't need the desktop, why spend money to fix it?

 

[shadowbreaker513]

If you don't need the desktop, why spend money to fix it?

I want a machine with some power. My laptop, while it can run games decently, still has nowhere near the power of a decent desktop. CoD4 I have to run on medium, and it can barely run UT3 in addition to it looking like shit. Storage space on my laptop is also fairly limited, I was looking at getting at least a TB on my desktop.