Friend's computer not functioning..

[KSoD]

Most places will charge a small fee to test it. But unless they have a AGP video card there isnt any reason why you would have to go with legacy hardware. If they have PCI cards they will still work in new mobos with new CPU's.

I still have a sound card from way back in the early 2000's that i got and it is still used today on my machine. What components are you looking to make sure you have support for that you would need to get older hardware for?

 

[Dakaggo]

It's because of cost mostly. The graphics card is integrated. I'd need a new motherboard with an integrated video card, new ram if it's DDR2, a new processor as well. In the end I really just need to know if the processor and motherboard are working. If they're both broken it might be better to get new stuff but if only 1 is broken it's much cheaper to get a single replacement.

 

[KSoD]

You might get lucky and find a place that will test the stuff for you. for minimal cost.

 

[Dakaggo]

Could you recommend a newer DDR2 motherboard with integrated video?

I'm hoping at this point that only his motherboard or processor is broken. It would be much cheaper if that's the case. Just replacing one of them would cost like $30-50.

 

[Dakaggo]

Tested the power supply today. All the voltages came out perfect so I'm thinking the motherboard just died on it's own. If that's the case the processor should be fine and they can just buy a cheap replacement motherboard.

The replacement doesn't have a integrated GPU though so I was looking for a good replacement. He plays games but generally only at 1024 x 768 , which is good cost-wise. I was thinking of suggesting this:

Newegg.com - HIS Hightech H467QT512P Radeon HD 4670 IceQ Turbo 512MB 128-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFire Supported Video Card - Desktop Graphics / Video Cards

Looking at it though he has an embarrassingly bad AMD Sempron 3400+ (2Ghz) processor. 256KB L2 cache. So my question is what kind of performance would he get with such a bad processor on 1024 x 768 resolution? Would it be just as good to get this:

Newegg.com - BIOSTAR VA4653NH51 Radeon HD 4650 512MB 128-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFire Supported Video Card - Desktop Graphics / Video Cards

Or something even weaker? To be honest I'm not too clear on the whole bottlenecking situation so I'm not sure how this would work out.

 

[philbar71]

it would be better just to get a new mobo cpu and ram. but get the 4670 so he will have some upgrade room in the future.

 

[Dakaggo]

it would be better just to get a new mobo cpu and ram. but get the 4670 so he will have some upgrade room in the future.

I know but that would cost something like $200 (CPU, Mobo, RAM), plus the cost of a new video card which could be around $100 if he gets something good enough for games. So instead of $20 to get it up and running it would be $200. I'm trying to save them money.

Also the 4670 went up by $10... hmm well who knows what the prices will be in a few weeks or months.

 

[Dakaggo]

Horay! Alright so I went to:

Quantum RF Computer Services - Staten Island's Premier Computer Repair Center, Staten Island PC Maintenance, Computer Networking

It's basically one guy who works out of his house. He really knows what he's talking about though (I talked to him about plenty of topics and he didn't miss a beat). Anyway he gives free diagnostics on wednesdays so he checked my friend's processor for free. So now I know for sure that his motherboard and only his motherboard broke. Power supply, ram and processor are all fine. That's what I thought but I needed to make sure.

So now my situation is that I need some thermal paste apparently. I've never done this kind of thing before but I have to replace a motherboard. Any good guides for something like that?

Also does anyone know the cheapest place to get decent thermal paste? I found Artic Silver 5 on amazon for about $9 including shipping (it's $12 including shipping at newegg). Any other suggestions?

Also on a side note is this a good recommendation for a cheap video card to play stuff at 1024 x 768?

Newegg.com - Open Box: MSI R4670-2D512 Radeon HD 4670 512MB 128-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFire Supported Video Card