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New MB or new CPU, MB, RAM?

lifeblood

lifeblood

Senior member
My mother’s PC motherboard is being unreliable and she wants me to fix it. She uses it for recording cable TV shows (via media center), Netflix, Bridge (card game), email, web browsing, light Office Productivity.

ASRock A780GMH/128M mATX MB
AMD Athlon 64 4400+ (Brisbane)
2x2Gb DDR2
HD3650 (512Mb) Video Card
Hauppauge WinTV-PVR-150
450W Corsair Powersupply (less than 1 year old)
500Gb Hard Drive
mATX case
Windows 7 Pro

I am now faced with a battle. I can (A) get a new AM2/AM2+/AM3 motherboard like the ASRock A785GM-LE and keep everything else, (B) buy her a new AM3+ MB, DDR3 RAM, and give her my old Athlon II X3 435 (Rana) CPU, or (C) I can buy her a new CPU, MB, & RAM (Intel or AMD, I don't care). The cheapest and easiest is option A which is about $65 on Newegg. However, it really has no future. If a grandchild visits and wants to play Minecraft or Guild Wars 2 or some other lower end game, it will not be a pretty picture (literally). I can put in my old HD4830 video card but its going to be held back by that 4400+ CPU.

So, what should I do? Cost is not the critical factor (it’s just my inheritance she’s spending), but I don’t want to be wasteful. Anyone have any nuggets of wisdom they wish to impart (along with part numbers)?
 
Before you go spend money, how did you determine the motherboard was the problem?
 
DSF said:
Before you go spend money, how did you determine the motherboard was the problem?
Click to expand...

When you hit the power button, maybe the PC starts, and maybe it doesn't. I've removed all the components except CPU and one stick of RAM and the problem still occurs. I thought it was the power supply so I replaced it, but it still does it. The tried a different case so it's not the physical power button.
 
Does the motherboard itself have a power button that you can try to start it up with? Does the problem occur then also?
 
lehtv said:
Does the motherboard itself have a power button that you can try to start it up with? Does the problem occur then also?
Click to expand...

No, it doesn't have its own power button, but I have put it into different cases (which have different power buttons) and it still occurs. The only thing I haven't swapped out is the CPU and I don't have access to an old X2.
 
I have a friend with that same motherboard, and it too is going out. It boots just fine, but the sound sometimes cuts out. Seems to be a hardware problem, but haven't tested it extensively.

He has an X4 630 or 640 CPU in it, and 2x2GB DDR2-800.
 
I would go B or C. B is cheaper, and makes use of an extra CPU, while C could be faster, if you went with an FX or i3. DDR3 is cheap enough, privodes some extra performance for Barcelona and newer AMDs, and even an X3 2.9 is going to be quite an upgrade.

Just make sure you have room for the video card and PVR-150, slot-wise. You're going to have a hard time finding a PCI-e capture card that will give you the analog quality of that one.

Just the board would get it back going, but...
 
Once again, mfenn saves the day. With a typical 2-slot video card, that board's PCI slot will be usable by the PVR-150, and leave a 1x spare.
 
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