Ugh, Motherboard Died. Upgrade?

[Creatre]

Motherboard died on my old system, see system specs. Looks like it's basically impossible to find LGA 1366 boards anymore. I don't really game much anymore, mostly use for a home theater PC.

What are my options on the current gen stuff? I'd like to get it up and running for about $200 or less. If I go away from LGA 1366 I gotta do mobo, memory, and cpu and it seems unlikely to do on the budget.

Thanks!

 

[erocker]

There's plenty of X58 boards around for under 200 bucks. Check ebay. It's most likely going to be the least expensive way to go.

 

[D007]

X58 is a bit old.. Consider a micro ATX mobo. Great performance, half the price and modern hardware.
If you don't sli and do tons of peripheral stuff, I'd definitely consider it.

 

[zsolt_93]

You could maybe step down to an i3-i5 range Haswell CPU and sell your i7. You will be at a loss no matter what, but you can take something lower power and more feature packed than a used x58 mobo. And they tend to be a bit more economic in low load situations then the first gen. The ram would still work though, that is something that you can reuse. i3 will fit your budget but i am not sure that i would like to step down from a 4 core 8 thread cpu to one that isnt even a native 4 core, personally hence why i suggest an i5. Or you could find some 3rd gen Core I stuff on sale/second hand, maybe you can even fit an i7 or an unlocked i5.

 

[hat]

Don't forget he said it's mostly HTPC... not gaming... and even an i3 should be good to go for gaming with 2 cores and 4 threads. Don't forget there's been many improvements since first gen i7, in terms of raw speed. Sandy Bridge brought the biggest jump, then Ivy Bridge improved a little more and then Haswell improved a little bit more.

You can reuse the DDR3 (you'll be at 4GB for dual channel, or IIRC 4GB dual channel and then one lonely additional 2GB stick in single channel). The cheapest 1150 i3 is 3.4GHz, still nothing to take lightly, considering the Haswell architecture and the HT which may come in handy with multihreaded apps. Even the cheapest 1150 board on Newegg would work fine for an HTPC... the HDMI port will deliver audio (and video too if you want the integrated graphics) but you're limited by one pci-e x16 and one pci-e x1, and only 2 DIMM slots (as most cheap boards). It's up to you to decide on the board based on what you need. But if you choose a board with 2 DIMM slots you should be okay with just 4GB until you can afford to upgrade the memory later, should you choose to.

 

[arbiter]

i would say mid range i5, he says he doesn't game much anymore so i5 will have power for times he wants to game and still pretty cheap.

 

[brandonwh64]

I picked up a alienware motherboard off ebay for 75$ shipped that was supposedly good but had bent pins. I bent them back and its been working like a champ ever since crunching 24/7 @ 3.6ghz

 

[Ja.KooLit]

a g3258 and B85 board that can overclock. but if you are in US, there is alot of g3258 bundle which is about 100usd only. you can reuse everything.

2 core is more than enough for htpc. i think.

 

[eidairaman1]

a g3258 and B85 board that can overclock. but if you are in US, there is alot of g3258 bundle which is about 100usd only. you can reuse everything.

2 core is more than enough for htpc. i think.

An Athlon 64 939 can handle Htpc duties fine even.

 

[Vario]

mobos from 939 time period have really shitty capacitors . Mine sure does.

An Athlon 64 939 can handle Htpc duties fine even.

 

[Aquinus]

mobos from 939 time period have really shitty capacitors . Mine sure does.

Aye. Have one in the attic with bulging caps.

 

[Ja.KooLit]

An Athlon 64 939 can handle Htpc duties fine even.

probably. But if you buy a new one for HTPC duties, why not buy new architecture instead? And also, he already have ddr3 ram, better to buy a ddr3 compatible board instead. I choose g3258 because I like it. It is budget cpu that you can overclock. my g3258 is oc'd at 4.3 on asrock b85M-HDS. I know I could OC more cause temps are fine but the board cannot deliver more juice.

 

[Aquinus]

200 USD is a pretty slim budget. A new, cheap 1366 motherboard would probably be your best option.
Maybe something like this? http://www.ebay.com/itm/New-Intel-D...145882028?pt=Motherboards&hash=item51c1ecf1ac

 

[sneekypeet]

Gigabyte UD5 Rev 2.0 X58 motherboard $100
Found here... http://www.techpowerup.com/forums/t...-24gb-ddr3-and-tons-more.205494/#post-3167444

 

[Creatre]

Thanks all. Decided to go the i5 route since its not that muh more than just a mobo. Went to microcenter today and picked up a i5 and mobo. Put it all together and no boot. Ugh.

Now Im not sure if its a doa mobo or something else in my system. But I already tried a new psu with the old board. I should have not returned it yet just in case. Guess I gotta hope its a doa mobo and get another and thats all it is. May pick up some more memory in case that is it I guess.

 

[Aquinus]

Thanks all. Decided to go the i5 route since its not that muh more than just a mobo. Went to microcenter today and picked up a i5 and mobo. Put it all together and no boot. Ugh.

Now Im not sure if its a doa mobo or something else in my system. But I already tried a new psu with the old board. I should have not returned it yet just in case. Guess I gotta hope its a doa mobo and get another and thats all it is. May pick up some more memory in case that is it I guess.

A lot of boards will have some kind of BIOS code using either two 7-segment displays or LEDs. That you should be able to tell you what is failing when it doesn't boot.

 

[Jetster]

If you only have $200 then find the X58 board

 

[jaggerwild]

Motherboard died on my old system, see system specs. Looks like it's basically impossible to find LGA 1366 boards anymore. I don't really game much anymore, mostly use for a home theater PC.

What are my options on the current gen stuff? I'd like to get it up and running for about $200 or less. If I go away from LGA 1366 I gotta do mobo, memory, and cpu and it seems unlikely to do on the budget.

Thanks!

What wrong with the X58?
Might be interested................

 

[Creatre]

No idea what's wrong with it. On the LED it's flashing F3 F6 b8. That's the code for memory error, but memory is fine. Seems to be a common problem from my research online.

I got the new board working. I was being an idiot with my network card, figured it out piecing it together one by one out of the case. So up and running with a i5-4690k now!

 

[Creatre]

Btw, ended up costing my under $300 from Microcenter for cpu, motherboard, and new cooler. So slightly above budget but with some stuff that should last me longer. Might part out the old cpu too to make back some.

 

[jaggerwild]

Refresh me where is the controller on that plat form? I like to tinker let me know what you'd want for it...............