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Motherboard fried, need help picking replacement

F

Fingorn

n00b
Joined
Jul 23, 2007
Messages
33
After a too close lightning strike, my machine can no longer get past POST, and from what little testing I can do it seems the problem is the motherboard. This is a fairly old machine, so just getting a new motherboard should be fairly cheap. However, I was wondering if there was a more modern mb/cpu combo I could get that wouldn't be bottlenecked by other components in the system.

To answer the questions in the sticky:
1.Gaming and video playback (specifically guild wars 2 and planetside 2)

2.Budget of around 400-500 usd

3.New Jersey, usa

4.Motherboard, cpu. I have a pair of ddr2-1000 memory sticks, but if those are no good with newer motherboards then i'll need memory as well. Also a cpu cooler if ocing would be at all helpful.

5.coolermaster rc690 case
corsair hx620w power supply
asus eah6870 vid card
WD caviar blue wd6400aaks hdd
Samsung 20x dvd burner
2x2gb ocz ddr2-1000

6.considering the age of the other components, ocing seems pointless, but if it would provide performance benefits then I'd do it.

7.23" 1920x1080 asus monitor

8.I'd be getting the parts immediately.

9.Only need a network port and onboard sound

10.windows 7 ultimate 64bit
 
Could you reach one of the three Micro Center locations in NY/NJ? If so, grab the Intel Core i5-3570K and the Asus P8Z77-V LK from there. Micro Center sells the Intel Sandy/Ivy Bridge processors as loss leaders and offers a $50 instant discount on any Z77 board that is purchased alongside the i5-3570K.

As for the CPU cooler, grab the Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus. For RAM, grab a 2x4GB DDR3 1600 dual-channel kit from a name brand like Corsair (XMS3 or Vengeance LP) or G.Skill. Make sure that the RAM runs at 1.5V, has a CAS Latency (or CL) of 9, and either uses low-profile heatspreaders or no heatspreaders at all.
 
what do you have currently as far as mobo/cpu setup?

its basically going to come down to what you really want to spend... if you want to go the cheap route and are satisfied with what your current system offers just replace the mobo... if you want to use up your budget you could get a nice i5 3570k/mobo/ram for right around $400
 
I can drive to two of the microcenter locations, so my parts list is currently as follows:

http://www.microcenter.com/product/388577/Core_i5_3570K_34GHz_LGA_1155_Processor

http://www.microcenter.com/product/393422/P8Z77-V_LK_LGA_1155_Z77_ATX_Intel_Motherboard

http://www.microcenter.com/product/315397/Hyper_212_Plus_Universal_CPU_Cooler

http://www.microcenter.com/product/...el_Desktop_Memory_Kit_(Two_4GB_Memory_Modules

Does this look right? Is that rebate automatic or do i have to fill out a form/coupon for it?

Should I be trying to oc, or is the video card too much of a bottleneck to bother?

The current motherboard is a gigabyte ga-p35-ds3r, with a intel q9450 that was oc'd to 3.44ghz. 4 year old parts, so i'm gonna go ahead and get those upgrades.

Thank you for all the help.
 
They will probably give you a mail-in rebate with the purchases. Also keep in mind that if they drop the price with in 30 days you can bring in the receipt to get money back. The corsair vengeance ram is what i picked up for my rig, it usually sells in the 44 dollar range for 8 gigs but its not on sale at mc right now.
The only instant savings microcenter gives is on a processor and mobo combo, usually 50 bucks when you buy them together.
 
Fingorn said:
Does this look right?
Click to expand...
No. The RAM is rated at 1.65V, well above the recommended voltage of 1.5V for current Intel CPUs. You risk CPU damage with that RAM. Go with this RAM instead:
http://www.microcenter.com/product/...l_Desktop_Memory_Kit_(Two_4GB_Memory_Modules)
Fingorn said:
Is that rebate automatic or do i have to fill out a form/coupon for it?
Click to expand...
It's an instant discount so no you don't have to fill out a form. As long as you get the Core i5 3570K and that Z77 mobo, you'll get that $50 off discount.

Fingorn said:
Should I be trying to oc, or is the video card too much of a bottleneck to bother?
Click to expand...
A little from column A and a little from column B. OC would help with but the GPU would still be the major limitation
 
Just finished building the machine, running through updates right now.

Only hitch I've encountered so far is that there are two nodes with uninstalled drivers in my device manager - labeled "pci simple connections controller" and "universal serial bus controller". Note that I've installed all the drivers from the disc included with the motherboard. System seems stable so this is probably ignorable.

Thanks again for everyone's help in this thread.
 
I had the same issue with my recent build.. I could not for the life of me figure out what i needed to install for that "pci simple communication controller" so I disabled it.
 
The "pci simple communication controller" is probably the Intel Management Engine Interface, not necessary for most users.
I missed that on the last 1155 motherboard I set up for a friend.

"universal serial bus controller" is probably the Asmedia USB 3.0 controller, get the newest driver from the Asus product webpage.
 
It very well could be the IMEI. Thanks runs2far, when I get back to my rig I'll install that to see if it does the job.
 
Skillz, i went with the ram that Danny Bui linked.

And thanks runs2far, got both devices installed and my device manager is now error free.
 
Hello again. I recently read up on overclocking i5's and figured I'd see what this rebuilt system could do, but ran into a problem quickly: even if i change the cpu multiplier in bios options, it doesn't actually stick. In the AI Tweaker bios page, target cpu speed correctly shows as 4200 when i set the multiplier to 42, but when i save and exit, the actual speed is always ~3400. Settings seem to be saving correctly since i can go into the ai tweaker page and there are no changes.

Has anyone ever ran into a problem like this?
 
Could be Intel Speedstep, it throttles down when idling. If you were to run something in the background, does it clock up to 4.2Ghz?

Mine actually idles around 1.4 - 1.5Ghz and goes up to 4.2Ghz
 
It's showing the 3.4 speed in bios, though. Would it still throttle there?

edit:disabled all speedstep options i could find, no change. Tried running something in the background and checking processor speed, it's always 3.4ghz.
 
Last edited:
That is weird. I have the Asus Sabertooth Z77 board.

Mine idles at 1.5Ghz, then throttles up to my overclock of 4.3Ghz.

Try setting Turbo and Intel Speedstep back to Enabled. And change the multipler to 20. And see what it does?

And did you update to the latest BIOS? If not, I recommend you do that.
 
What are you using to see processor speed? Try using a CPU benchmark program such as Intel Burn Test to stress the CPU enough to make it throttle to 4.2Ghz.
 
I was under the impression that the either the bios general screen or the windows my computer/properties screen would show current processor speed (it did for my old q9450), but this apparently isn't true anymore. Loaded up cpuz and coretemp and they both show the processor running at 4.2ghz. Running a test with prime95, temps are around 61c with 1.2v on the processor which seems to be acceptable - though core 2 is consistently 3 degrees higher than the others and makes me think i need to reseat the heatsink.

Sorry, this was my mistake and looks like it was working correctly all along.
 
What you are probably seeing is the CPU name that has the speed within' it most likely.

If CPU-z reports 4.2Ghz when under load, you're rocking 4.2Ghz then.

As for core 2 being 3 degrees off, that's normal and probably nothing to do with how you've seated your heatsink. I've seen it off by as much as 8* between cores consistently across a heatsink and a water block.
 
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