Motherboard replacement

Dacelonid

Am having motherboard troubles and looking to replace it as cheaply as possible. Long story short, computer gets stuck in a boot loop and the only way to get the computer to actually boot is to clear the bios settings. Since this problem began I have replaced the power supply, graphics card, hard drives, case (both as part of normal upgrade and to try solve the problem).

All thats left is the motherboard. If I could get away with just replacing the motherboard, that would be great, but am open to replacing the motherboard/cpu/ram

What I currently have
Part|Details
Motherboard|ASRock z68 Pro 3
CPU|Core I5-2500
RAM|G.Skill Ripjaws DDR3-1333 PC3-10666 8Gb
Graphics Card| AMD Radeon R9 200 series
Hard drive 1|Samsung SSd 840 EVO 120Gb
Hard drive 2|WD 500Gb


The performance of this system is fine, I mostly use it for games and am able to play most new releases at decent settings.

My preference would be just a straight swap of the motherboard (maybe one with support for the usb ports on the front of the case (Corsair carbide R9 I think) but if it was reasonably priced, wouldn't be adverse to a complete upgrade of motherboard/processor and I guess ram.


1. What is your budget? €400

2. What will be the main purpose of the computer? Gaming - Will want to play GTA V, Witcher 3. Arkham Knight, Assassins Creed Unity

3. Do you need a copy of Windows? No

4. Can you use any parts from an old computer? Yes, see above.

5. Do you need a monitor? No

5b. If no, what resolution is your current monitor and do you plan to upgrade in the near future? 1920x1080 and would like to upgrade to 27" next year

6. Do you need any of these peripherals? No

7. Are you willing to try overclocking? No

8. How can you pay? Bank Transfer/Credit Card/Laser/Paypal

9. When are you purchasing? After getting paid in April (24th)

10. If you need help building it, where are you based? No help needed


TIA
/Dace

SterlingArcher

2 boards on adverts around 80 euro.

Or get an



Cpu xeon 1231 v3 260

Mobo Asus h87 or h81 90

Ram Crucial Ballistix Sport 8gig 60

This comes out at just over 400. But you get an i7, decent mobO. My advice sell the i5ram on adverts ( a popular chip) and you will easily cut this cost down.

You never said what gpu. But if it only low end.
Hell wait and sell the i5 ram gpu and get a high end gpu.

You have a few options there let me know your thoughts.

Ps prices are high right now thanks to weak euro. So hopefully the prices above will have come down 20 euro.

Dacelonid

The graphics card is new enough and don't feel the need to replace it (R9 270)


Stretching the budget a little and I came up with this, any thoughts?

Item|Price
Intel Core i5-4670 Box, LGA1150|€228.74
ASRock H97 Pro4, Sockel 1150, ATX|€85.21
16GB Kit Crucial Ballistix Sport Series DDR3-1600, CL9|€114.02
Shipping|€18.99
Total|€446.96

Actually the total is €427 from geheil, fluffys script doesn't seem to include the discount

Digital Solitude

CPU is overkill if its strictly gaming, as is 16gb ram

SterlingArcher

Definitely no need for 16 gig of ram.

And at a 30 euro difference a non k i5 vs i7 does not make performance / value sense.

if you want an i5 can get one for about 180.

Dacelonid

So drop the Ram to 8Gb, what about the CPU?

Digital Solitude

i5 4460 is 180, good enough for gaming for 2-3 years. Your call on that though.
Could get an ASRock Extreme 3 motherboard for 120 (I think that's the one), with 8gb ram and the 4460 to stay inside your original budget, and leave space to add another r9 270

SterlingArcher

Dacelonid wrote: »

So drop the Ram to 8Gb, what about the CPU?

Well the i5 4460 is 183. Thats nearly 50 euro cheaper than the one you linked,The difference is 3 Ghz.

The xeon is 30 euro more expensive than the i5 you linked. It has same Ghz but 8 cores Hyper treading. no use as of now in gaming but witcher 3 recommend specs i7...

Basically the i5 you linked represents poor value/performance.

Dacelonid

SterlingArcher wrote: »

Basically the i5 you linked represents poor value/performance.

Damn, got that from a PC Gamer suggested mid range build

So having saved €100 I am now at

Item|Price
ASRock H97 Pro4, LGA 1150, ATX|€ 85.21
8GB Kit Crucial Ballistix Sport Series DDR3-1600, CL9|€ 56.89
Intel Core i5-4460 in-a-Box|€ 182.89
Total|€324.99

Digital Solitude

That's pretty much it. If you don't want to upgrade the GPU or PSU yet then a hard drive while you're paying for shipping might be an idea

Johnboy1951

Dacelonid wrote: »

Am having motherboard troubles and looking to replace it as cheaply as possible. Long story short, computer gets stuck in a boot loop and the only way to get the computer to actually boot is to clear the bios settings. Since this problem began I have replaced the power supply, graphics card, hard drives, case (both as part of normal upgrade and to try solve the problem).

Did you replace the BIOS battery?
Did you try flashing the BIOS?
Have you done a long memory test?

Dacelonid

Johnboy1951 wrote: »

Did you replace the BIOS battery?
Did you try flashing the BIOS?
Have you done a long memory test?

Yes, Yes and no.
Whats a long memory test, just to save me googling? D'oh I guess you just mean the more intense memory test rather than the quick one, then the answer is yes, several times

Johnboy1951

Dacelonid wrote: »

Yes, Yes and no.
Whats a long memory test, just to save me googling?

A comprehensive one that takes a long time ..... often can take up to 24 hours, but usually a fault would appear much sooner than that, if present.

http://www.memtest86.com/

The free edition is sufficient.

One last question ...... if you unplug the hardware from the motherboard, such as HDD, optical drives etc. does the motherboard successfully come up?

Dacelonid

Johnboy1951 wrote: »

A comprehensive one that takes a long time ..... often can take up to 24 hours, but usually a fault would appear much sooner than that, if present.

http://www.memtest86.com/

The free edition is sufficient.

One last question ...... if you unplug the hardware from the motherboard, such as HDD, optical drives etc. does the motherboard successfully come up?

Have replaced the PSU in case that is the direction you are going in.

It is hard to diagnose the problem by unplugging devices as it doesn't consistently fail to boot, if you get me. I have unplugged all USB devices, boots, plugged them back in and it still boots. Next time it fails to boot, unplugging the USB's doesn't work, but unplugging the harddrive fans might. It is so random that I cannot conclude that the unplugging of devices is having any effect at all. In fact I have been stuck in a boot loop, with nothing apart from the motherboard connected.

One other possibly salient point, the computer seems to be "stuck on". What I mean by that is, when I disconnect the power (when stuck in the boot loop) and then connect it again, the computer starts trying to boot straight away.

The only reliable way to break the boot loop is to reset the bios. The last time I did that, it worked perfectly fine for 3 or 4 months until today.

In possibly a year of this problem I haven't been able to isolate what the problem is, so all that is left I think is to ditch the mobo

Digital Solitude

He's getting at testing the RAM

Johnboy1951

Dacelonid wrote: »

Have replaced the PSU in case that is the direction you are going in.

It is hard to diagnose the problem by unplugging devices as it doesn't consistently fail to boot, if you get me. I have unplugged all USB devices, boots, plugged them back in and it still boots. Next time it fails to boot, unplugging the USB's doesn't work, but unplugging the harddrive fans might. It is so random that I cannot conclude that the unplugging of devices is having any effect at all. In fact I have been stuck in a boot loop, with nothing apart from the motherboard connected.

One other possibly salient point, the computer seems to be "stuck on". What I mean by that is, when I disconnect the power (when stuck in the boot loop) and then connect it again, the computer starts trying to boot straight away.

The only reliable way to break the boot loop is to reset the bios. The last time I did that, it worked perfectly fine for 3 or 4 months until today.

In possibly a year of this problem I haven't been able to isolate what the problem is, so all that is left I think is to ditch the mobo

No I wasn't going to PSU, as you had already replaced it

But you did get to where I was going with

In fact I have been stuck in a boot loop, with nothing apart from the motherboard connected.

.... but the board would have had the memory on it I guess.
So that seems to be the only item not tested.

Other than that it could be some stray connection or short on the motherboard itself.

Interesting problem

Do check the memory - just in case ... although I have my doubts.

(BTW, if dumping the motherboard do let me know ..... I find such problems intriguing )

Dacelonid

Johnboy1951 wrote: »

No I wasn't going to PSU, as you had already replaced it

But you did get to where I was going with

.... but the board would have had the memory on it I guess.
So that seems to be the only item not tested.

Other than that it could be some stray connection or short on the motherboard itself.

Interesting problem

Do check the memory - just in case ... although I have my doubts.

(BTW, if dumping the motherboard do let me know ..... I find such problems intriguing )

Yeah going to do the memtest, won't hurt and hopefully it does show up something this time.

Thanks for all the help everyone, both with the diagnostics and possible purchases

Dacelonid

An update seeing as this is more about diagnosing my motherboard than me buying anything.
Did the memtest and there was no errors.
Since I reset the bios, it is back to booting normally. Well when I say normally I mean trying unsuccessfully to boot 4 times and booting properly on the fifth attempt.
Seeing as it is booting again I am going to hold off on the upgrade, 1 to see if prices drop and 2 to see if I can afford a spec closer to the Witcher 3 specs

Thanks for all your help