PC question

[bbortko]

I have an older custom built pc that has had 2 issues in the last month. First issue was the fan on the front of the case stopped working, bought a new fan and found I wasn't getting power so I connected it to another fan location on the mother board and all was well. Today I wasn't getting audio so I plugged my speakers into the headphone jack and that bandaged the problem. My question is if I'm not getting power to these to ports is this a sign the board is starting to go and I should start shopping? I did some research last year and found my pc isn't powerful enough for windows 7(which I'm running) so I shopped around to possibly speed up the pc and found to upgrade the processor or memory I need a new mother board which essentially means a new pc so at least to my knowledge there isn't a cheap fix. I basically pay bills, upload, pictures, and burn dvds so a pc isn't that important where I need one asap like a student or someone who works from home does so I want to make sure I have to replace before I replace.

 

[ecoli73]

If you are technically inclined you can track down the failure of the power supply; other wise I suggest at the very least backup all your data...you can run your computer to the ground before replacing, but be sure your data is safe first.

Pay to get it fixed is not worth the time or the money.


Sent from my iPhone using MonsterAquariaNetwork app

 

[bbortko]

When I did the fan I poked around and the fan was being fed off the board not directly from the power supply. Audio has to come from a program so doesn't it have to come from the processor and the board? I replaced the power supply less than 2 years ago and over the last year the pc has only been used a few times a week so not a lot of miles on it so I'm hopping its not that, sucks paying $100 to keep it running without actually upgrading anything.

 

[Chrisplosion]

Lol never pay someone to fix a hardware issue on a computer, not worth the money when its usually simple to fix. Sounds like it could be the power supply but my guess is your Motherboard is on its last leg. You could always replace the the Motherboard or this could be your change to do a little upgrade. If your get a new motherboard you will probably have to get a new CPU. and possibly new RAM.

Since you say you computer isn't powerful enough for Win 7 mess guess is you don't minds lower end computers which means you could still upgrade for fairly cheap. AMD computer builds are cheaper than Intel. I would need to know more about what you computer currently has (motherboard, cpu, ram type, current power supply) before I could make any recommendations.

You have modified/built your computer so you know its not as scary as it sounds.

 

[darth pike]

If you don't have a seperate sound card, then yes it does sound like your MB is starting to go. They usually get progressively worse over time, though the time it takes until a critial failure can vary quite a bit.

As was mentioned, paying to have it fixed would be almost the same price as getting an entry level name brand rig ... in other words, not worth it.

Given it's age, I wouldn't even try to upgrade it (and I work on computer hardware issues for a living). Start saving up and get an above entry level rig.

 

[Chrisplosion]

Then again you could probably buy a really cheap desktop, which would probably be better. Run your old HDD as a secondary so no lost files.

Spent about $650 building my computer scratch. Only thing I might upgrade on mine in the future assuming nothing craps out is my video card but it still able to play high end games with no issue.

 

[Wiggles92]

Build a new PC as it sounds like your current one is one its way out.

I recently did two builds, and I was quite pleased with what I got vs. what I spent; I had everything put together in under an hour & was done with installing Windows 7 a little bit later. Building a PC is a super simple project, and the results are well worth it; just be sure to not overly cheap out on certain parts (especially the PSU; had one fail after 15 minutes on my one build since it was a junk PSU) and all will be well.

 

[bbortko]

While I technically don't need anything fancy I have very little patience for waiting on the pc to think. The pc originaly had bootleg xp and my wife didn't like how she couldn't use some microsoft programs and had to be careful not to update so she added a full version of windows 7 not knowing the pc wasn't built for it. The pc is from January 2005 and has a AMD Antholon 64 Processor 3000+, 2gb of memory and a 150gb hard drive. My understanding is that most smart phones are more powerful than this thing but it was nice new.

I've changed power supplies, fans, and added ethernet cards in the past with no problems. I have watched the tutorials on newegg and feel comfortable building a pc on my own especially since I have a laptop to look something up should I hit a snag with the bios stuff but the physical assembly looks to be a breeze. Since I'm out of work for the moment I did some shopping around and this is what I'm leaning towards:

Antec Three Hundred Illusion Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case
BIOSTAR TZ77XE3 LGA 1155 Intel Z77 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard with UEFI BIOS
Intel Core i5-2500K Sandy Bridge 3.3GHz (3.7GHz Turbo Boost) LGA 1155 95W Quad-Core Desktop Processor Intel HD Graphics 3000 BX80623I52500K
G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model F2-6400CL5D-4GBPQ
Western Digital Caviar Black WD1002FAEX 1TB 7200 RPM 64MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive
ASUS 24X DVD Burner - Bulk 24X DVD+R 8X DVD+RW 12X DVD+R DL 24X DVD-R 6X DVD-RW 16X DVD-ROM 48X CD-R 32X CD-RW 48X CD-ROM Black SATA Model DRW-24B1ST/BLK/B/AS - OEM
or
AMD Phenom II X6 1090T Black Edition Thuban 3.2GHz 6 x 512KB L2 Cache 6MB L3 Cache Socket AM3 125W Six-Core Desktop Processor HDT90ZFBGRBOX
ASUS M4A88T-V EVO/USB3 AM3 AMD 880G HDMI USB 3.0 ATX AMD Motherboard
everything else the same as above

Roughly $100 savings with the amd any suggestions as to things I should change would be greatly appreciated. Oh and I'm thinking of using the corsair gs 600 power supply in my current pc to help save a little cash, if there is a problem its a quick and easy fix so I'll deal with that when I have to.

 

[Wiggles92]

While I technically don't need anything fancy I have very little patience for waiting on the pc to think. The pc originaly had bootleg xp and my wife didn't like how she couldn't use some microsoft programs and had to be careful not to update so she added a full version of windows 7 not knowing the pc wasn't built for it. The pc is from January 2005 and has a AMD Antholon 64 Processor 3000+, 2gb of memory and a 150gb hard drive. My understanding is that most smart phones are more powerful than this thing but it was nice new.

I've changed power supplies, fans, and added ethernet cards in the past with no problems. I have watched the tutorials on newegg and feel comfortable building a pc on my own especially since I have a laptop to look something up should I hit a snag with the bios stuff but the physical assembly looks to be a breeze. Since I'm out of work for the moment I did some shopping around and this is what I'm leaning towards:

Antec Three Hundred Illusion Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case
BIOSTAR TZ77XE3 LGA 1155 Intel Z77 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard with UEFI BIOS
Intel Core i5-2500K Sandy Bridge 3.3GHz (3.7GHz Turbo Boost) LGA 1155 95W Quad-Core Desktop Processor Intel HD Graphics 3000 BX80623I52500K
G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model F2-6400CL5D-4GBPQ
Western Digital Caviar Black WD1002FAEX 1TB 7200 RPM 64MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive
ASUS 24X DVD Burner - Bulk 24X DVD+R 8X DVD+RW 12X DVD+R DL 24X DVD-R 6X DVD-RW 16X DVD-ROM 48X CD-R 32X CD-RW 48X CD-ROM Black SATA Model DRW-24B1ST/BLK/B/AS - OEM
or
AMD Phenom II X6 1090T Black Edition Thuban 3.2GHz 6 x 512KB L2 Cache 6MB L3 Cache Socket AM3 125W Six-Core Desktop Processor HDT90ZFBGRBOX
ASUS M4A88T-V EVO/USB3 AM3 AMD 880G HDMI USB 3.0 ATX AMD Motherboard
everything else the same as above

Roughly $100 savings with the amd any suggestions as to things I should change would be greatly appreciated. Oh and I'm thinking of using the corsair gs 600 power supply in my current pc to help save a little cash, if there is a problem its a quick and easy fix so I'll deal with that when I have to.

I would go the AMD route for sure.

Also, you'll want to get DDR3 memory (at least 1600 MHz) instead of DDR2 considering that it's the new standard & is often cheaper than the DDR2 stuff. You can go with a lesser processor in order to save some money if you want since overclocking is a pretty simple matter as long as you take your time & do testing. For example, I safely took my AMD Phenom II X6 1045T (2700MHz) up to 3250 MHz with a little bit of adjustment to the multipliers, voltages, & such in the BIOS; it's running stable at that speed with just the stock cooling, too, so you could go even higher if you got a better CPU fan & heatsink. I can post the full specs of this build & the other one later tonight/early tomorrow if you want.

 

[Chrisplosion]

I have an i5 in mine and love it. Only reason to get an i7 over an i5 is hyper threading which I don't need. AMD is cheaper but I prefer Intel though.

This is exactly what is in my computer. Paid $671.34 with shipping. Prices change constantly change on newegg and keep in mind unless you are playing games you don't really need to buy a video card.

Case - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811147153
CPU - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115074
MOBO - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813121506
HDD - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136769
Disk Drive - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827135204
PSU - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817170017
GPU - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814121435
RAM - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231426
Bluetooth - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833340019
Also got a few free card readers and sd cards with the order.

Mine is powerful enough to run Netflix/movie on one screen and play high end games on the other screen without a dip in performance. Watching Scrubs right now on one screen and playing Assassin's Creed Brotherhood on the other, yes I run two monitors