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I don't know what to do with it anymore. Probably just consider the whole thing an epic failure and not mess with it anymore, at least for a while. I put the new CPU (which finally arrived today) in it and installed the new fan (which was a pretty big PITA), but when I power it up, it just does the same thing as before. It powers up to the point where all the fans are running and the case lights light up, but nothing beyond that. The monitor shows no signal and the whole thing just sits there doing nothing.
At this point, I am not sinking any more money into this thing, even if any potential fix were to be relatively cheap and simple. Unfortunately, I don't really have the money to buy a new comp at the moment. Well, I technically do, but I don't feel comfortable spending all that much right now.
Even so, allow me to use this space to kind of think out loud about some possibilities for whenever I do finally get around to getting a new one.
Things that can be salvaged out of the current comp and put into a new one:
- 1 brand new 640GB SATA HDD, just arrived today with the new CPU and fan. Still bubble-wrapped.
- 1 damaged but likely fairly easily repairable (I hope) 640GB SATA HDD, identical to the one above, except that this one still has all my crap on it.
- 1 Soundblaster Audigy2 PCI card.
- 1 DVD-RW drive.
- 1 newish D-Link PCI NIC
- 1 newish USB optical mouse.
- (maybe) 1 new 450W PSU. Depends on how big of a hulking brute my new comp would end up being.
- (maybe) 1 new Zalman CPU fan. Not sure about this one, as it would depend on a new motherboard and whatever CPU slot it may have in it. This one claims to be compatible with Intel Socket 775, Intel Socket 478 (what I have now), and AMD socket AM2/754/939/940.
Things that can be salvaged, but most likely won't go into a new comp:
- 1 new Intel Pentium 4 3.0GHz socket 478 CPU, ever so slightly used. Any new comp I get will want to have a much beefier CPU in it. Not sure what I'll do with it though.
- 1 ATI Radeon X1650 AGP graphics card. Again, I'll want a beefier graphics card, and one that isn't a pretty much obsolete AGP model. Probably PCIe, unless they have something even newer than that by the time I get around to it.
- 4 1GB sticks of, I think, DDR400 RAM. Again, I'd probably be better off with stronger RAM as well.
- 1 Asus P4P800-E Deluxe motherboard. This is definitely the biggest bottleneck toward upgrading my computer. The previous three components were limited based on the specs of this MB. This, of course, is assuming that my present problem doesn't in fact lie with the MB itself somehow, and that the thing even is able to be salvaged at all.
- 1 tower case. I maybe could use this still, but it's pretty cramped, as I found out while dealing with all this current crap, so I'd probably be better off getting a new one.
- 1 PS/2 keyboard. This thing, though still working, is older than dirt (a lot of which it is encrusted with). It was part of my pre-this comp for years. I'd like to replace it with a USB keyboard. The added bonus being that it would be useable on the Wii as well. Even if I don't get anything else right now, heck especially if I don't get anything else right now, I'll probably go ahead and get one of those, because typing things out with the Wiimote as I have for the past month or so (this post included) truly sucks.
Honestly, though, I haven't really missed my comp too awfully much. It sucks that I have a bunch of PC games (and more coming over the horizon) that I can't play and music I can't listen to and such, but I haven't felt like a man dying of thirst or anything. Mostly because the Wii has been... well, at least adequate for my basic Internet purposes, and both it and the 360 have kept me pretty well for games. In fact, I'm not at all sure at this point that my next "big" purchase won't still be a PS3, as I had originally planned, before all this crap with the computer started up. It's going to be hard to resist when The Last Guardian comes out, which is when I'd planned to finally get one (however long away that may still be, I don't know).
At this point, I am not sinking any more money into this thing, even if any potential fix were to be relatively cheap and simple. Unfortunately, I don't really have the money to buy a new comp at the moment. Well, I technically do, but I don't feel comfortable spending all that much right now.
Even so, allow me to use this space to kind of think out loud about some possibilities for whenever I do finally get around to getting a new one.
Things that can be salvaged out of the current comp and put into a new one:
- 1 brand new 640GB SATA HDD, just arrived today with the new CPU and fan. Still bubble-wrapped.
- 1 damaged but likely fairly easily repairable (I hope) 640GB SATA HDD, identical to the one above, except that this one still has all my crap on it.
- 1 Soundblaster Audigy2 PCI card.
- 1 DVD-RW drive.
- 1 newish D-Link PCI NIC
- 1 newish USB optical mouse.
- (maybe) 1 new 450W PSU. Depends on how big of a hulking brute my new comp would end up being.
- (maybe) 1 new Zalman CPU fan. Not sure about this one, as it would depend on a new motherboard and whatever CPU slot it may have in it. This one claims to be compatible with Intel Socket 775, Intel Socket 478 (what I have now), and AMD socket AM2/754/939/940.
Things that can be salvaged, but most likely won't go into a new comp:
- 1 new Intel Pentium 4 3.0GHz socket 478 CPU, ever so slightly used. Any new comp I get will want to have a much beefier CPU in it. Not sure what I'll do with it though.
- 1 ATI Radeon X1650 AGP graphics card. Again, I'll want a beefier graphics card, and one that isn't a pretty much obsolete AGP model. Probably PCIe, unless they have something even newer than that by the time I get around to it.
- 4 1GB sticks of, I think, DDR400 RAM. Again, I'd probably be better off with stronger RAM as well.
- 1 Asus P4P800-E Deluxe motherboard. This is definitely the biggest bottleneck toward upgrading my computer. The previous three components were limited based on the specs of this MB. This, of course, is assuming that my present problem doesn't in fact lie with the MB itself somehow, and that the thing even is able to be salvaged at all.
- 1 tower case. I maybe could use this still, but it's pretty cramped, as I found out while dealing with all this current crap, so I'd probably be better off getting a new one.
- 1 PS/2 keyboard. This thing, though still working, is older than dirt (a lot of which it is encrusted with). It was part of my pre-this comp for years. I'd like to replace it with a USB keyboard. The added bonus being that it would be useable on the Wii as well. Even if I don't get anything else right now, heck especially if I don't get anything else right now, I'll probably go ahead and get one of those, because typing things out with the Wiimote as I have for the past month or so (this post included) truly sucks.
Honestly, though, I haven't really missed my comp too awfully much. It sucks that I have a bunch of PC games (and more coming over the horizon) that I can't play and music I can't listen to and such, but I haven't felt like a man dying of thirst or anything. Mostly because the Wii has been... well, at least adequate for my basic Internet purposes, and both it and the 360 have kept me pretty well for games. In fact, I'm not at all sure at this point that my next "big" purchase won't still be a PS3, as I had originally planned, before all this crap with the computer started up. It's going to be hard to resist when The Last Guardian comes out, which is when I'd planned to finally get one (however long away that may still be, I don't know).
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no subject
Date: 2010-01-17 04:20 am (UTC)From:For a new system, it's going to be impossible for you to reuse your CPU, RAM, and video card. Motherboards just aren't made with AGP anymore, and given 5 years of evolution, the RAM you have now is far far too slow and the CPU sockets are different to the point where they don't even use pointy little pins. Also the stock heatsink/fan that comes with a new CPU is just fine, so you might as well retire that part as well. You will need to reinstall Windows, since an existing installation on an old hard drive is configured with the drivers from the old system, as well as Microsoft's anti-piracy measures will switch on once it sees that you have more than 2 hardware changes at once.
Finally even your new power supply will probably not be enough depending on how powerful your new video card is. The new cards, even mid-high end ones that go for around $250, require dedicated power lines that plug directly into the cards themselves. You'll likely need something that runs at least 600W and has those specialty plugs.
On-board sound and network are commonplace on modern motherboards, and unless you're doing something really crazy like running a proxy server or are an audiophile that can tell the difference between the sound of pin drop at 260kbps on an mp3 and 320kbps on an OGG/AAC/whatever, you won't need either of those two PCI cards.