Failed Motherboard

[tornado_31]

Hi, my Gigabyte socket 939 manboard just failed, after 2.5 years of fairly good use. I am considering buying a ASUS A8N-LA (for $60.) to replace it. Anyone out there have this ASUS MB or know anything about it. Also, can anyone share their experiences and/or knowledge regarding my Gigagte motherboard that failed. The model number is GA-K8NSC-939. thanks, John

 

[englandr753]

Unless you dont forsee needing a faster system, I would spend the difference needed to overhaul the system and get newer hardware. Probably around 300 bucks and use your old hard drive, cd rom, case, mouse, keyboard, monitor and OS.

Theres a night and day difference in the new hardware from the 939 setup.

If you dont need, want or cant afford that then I dont know anything personally about that particular board but ASUS is usually a good brand. Especially from that era of time. I would use Gigabyte or ASUS mobos for a replacement...

 

[toosober]

Add another 100 to your budget and you can upgrade to an AM2+ platform with a faster CPU and faster ram. You will be future proofed for a bit.

 

[tornado_31]

You have convinced me to spend a little extra to get a lot more. I have decided to upgrade to a more current AM2/AM2+ motherboard (maybe you can suggest one) , newer Corsair memory 4 GB (which you can for a song at Newegg), and the AMD Athlon 64 X2 6400+ processor. I know the X2 6400 does not come with a heatsink/fan. I am currently using a 7000 series Zalman heatsing/fan combo for my current X2 4800 CPU. Do you know if that will work with the 6400? Also, is it okay to the run this new hardware with Windows XP Home service pack 2. A couple other things - I decided on the EVGA Nividia 9600 GT video card (which you can get for a song at newegg) - not a real barn burner, but much better than my current EVGA Nvidia 7600 GS. Last question - I have two CD-rom drives and would like to re-use them, however, they are IDE, not SATA. Is that going to present a problem.?

thanks again!

John

 

[englandr753]

The CD roms will be fine for now. If you can later convert to SATA it will increase airflow a bit better than having those IDE cables in the way.

You can reuse the XP OS no problem.

The 9600GT is a decent card for the price. I have one in my media center system and my bud has one in his with an AMD 6000 X2 cpu and two 32" LCD displays. We played F.E.A.R. with no glitches at all. You can later get a faster card for your next birthday or Christmas...

You could drop down to the next CPU and it comes with the stock heatsink and fan:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103272

You wont notice much difference between the two cpus for 28 bucks difference and you could spend that money on 1 dual layer SATA dvd drive.

Problem solved!...