- Apr 30, 2014
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- 4,510
About 3 weeks ago I had some dental surgery done, and while I was hopped up on percocets, I knocked over my juice and it fell onto my case. Immediately I pulled the plug on the surge protector, but the PC had already powered down at that point. This was incredibly stupid on my part and honestly, I have nothing or no one else to blame but myself.
After this, the computer would not power up at all. I swapped out my PSU and still nothing, no lights, fans or boot. Using both PSU's however, the mobo standy light ( I think that is what it is called) was on, but I never got any beeps or activity whatsoever.
Two days later, the PC starts right up no problem, using the same hardware that was in when the juice spilled. It started up with 3 BSoD's, and it turned out that the RAM wasn't properly seated. Reseated it, and this time windows repair had started to run itself. Once the repair is complete, windows starts up and runs fine for two weeks.
Then, last night I was playing a youtube video, and BAM, complete shutdown. Now I am back to the same symptoms, no power, fans, beeps or boot. I have swapped PSU's, tried to run with just the CPU, HSF and 1 stick of RAM...nothing. Tried to run with NO RAM(trying to get beeps, to see if my mobo is still alive)....nothing.
At this point I believe it is my motherboard that has died. Here is my dilemma however. I got my PC from Best Buy(I know, I know) in 2010. I have since only swapped the PSU and GPU. Here are my specs:
**Dell Studio XPS 8100**
i-5 650 (3.2ghz)
4x2Gb Nanya RAM (says 2gb.2Rx8.PC3-10600U-9-10-B0.1333)
Corsair TX650 PSU
Nvidia GTX 660 ti GPU
500gb HDD
Dell Motherboard (L1156 Socket)
**Games played**
Wargame: Red Dragon
Arma 2
Arma 3
Space Engineers
Dayz Standalone
KSP
Battlefield 2-4
When I start to research motherboards, it is next to impossible to find one with a L1156 socket. I know that the CPU is old and they don't produce any boards with L1156 sockets anymore. SO I have two options, use the same CPU and get a refurb'd board OR buy a new CPU and motherboard. Am I correct in this assumption?
Lastly, I am a PC gamer. After upgrading my GPU, I didn't notice massive gains in performance (sitting around 30FPS in Arma on a server restart, about 10 in Agia Marina). Is the i-5 650 considered a low end CPU? If so, I would guess I would be better off getting a CPU + Mobo package from Newegg or something.
I have about $500 I can spend on new hardware, although with a 3 year old know that gaming isn't my life. If I could NOT spend that $500 on hardware alone, I would be extremely happy haha. So, with that budget, any suggestions on the best avenue to take? Thanks again for reading this longgggg post, but from one dedicated PC gamer to another, I REALLY appreciate it!
EDIT: I found a refurbished Motherboard, the same one I have currently for $35. Is the CPU decent enough to buy this refurb'd mobo, and put he rest of the money into other parts(i.e. SSD, Ram)?
After this, the computer would not power up at all. I swapped out my PSU and still nothing, no lights, fans or boot. Using both PSU's however, the mobo standy light ( I think that is what it is called) was on, but I never got any beeps or activity whatsoever.
Two days later, the PC starts right up no problem, using the same hardware that was in when the juice spilled. It started up with 3 BSoD's, and it turned out that the RAM wasn't properly seated. Reseated it, and this time windows repair had started to run itself. Once the repair is complete, windows starts up and runs fine for two weeks.
Then, last night I was playing a youtube video, and BAM, complete shutdown. Now I am back to the same symptoms, no power, fans, beeps or boot. I have swapped PSU's, tried to run with just the CPU, HSF and 1 stick of RAM...nothing. Tried to run with NO RAM(trying to get beeps, to see if my mobo is still alive)....nothing.
At this point I believe it is my motherboard that has died. Here is my dilemma however. I got my PC from Best Buy(I know, I know) in 2010. I have since only swapped the PSU and GPU. Here are my specs:
**Dell Studio XPS 8100**
i-5 650 (3.2ghz)
4x2Gb Nanya RAM (says 2gb.2Rx8.PC3-10600U-9-10-B0.1333)
Corsair TX650 PSU
Nvidia GTX 660 ti GPU
500gb HDD
Dell Motherboard (L1156 Socket)
**Games played**
Wargame: Red Dragon
Arma 2
Arma 3
Space Engineers
Dayz Standalone
KSP
Battlefield 2-4
When I start to research motherboards, it is next to impossible to find one with a L1156 socket. I know that the CPU is old and they don't produce any boards with L1156 sockets anymore. SO I have two options, use the same CPU and get a refurb'd board OR buy a new CPU and motherboard. Am I correct in this assumption?
Lastly, I am a PC gamer. After upgrading my GPU, I didn't notice massive gains in performance (sitting around 30FPS in Arma on a server restart, about 10 in Agia Marina). Is the i-5 650 considered a low end CPU? If so, I would guess I would be better off getting a CPU + Mobo package from Newegg or something.
I have about $500 I can spend on new hardware, although with a 3 year old know that gaming isn't my life. If I could NOT spend that $500 on hardware alone, I would be extremely happy haha. So, with that budget, any suggestions on the best avenue to take? Thanks again for reading this longgggg post, but from one dedicated PC gamer to another, I REALLY appreciate it!
EDIT: I found a refurbished Motherboard, the same one I have currently for $35. Is the CPU decent enough to buy this refurb'd mobo, and put he rest of the money into other parts(i.e. SSD, Ram)?
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