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Death of a motherboard


Crazy Gringo

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It had to happen to do-it-yourself people like me..... :lovetammy:

Here is the story.

I accidently 'damaged' my sick little 80 mm modded CPU Cooler a couple of weeks ago (A fanblade broke and made the case entire vibrate loudly when running at full speed).

So when I got some money back from the taxman I ordered a monster CPU cooler which weighs close to 1 kilo with the modded fan on it (Big Thypoon with a modded Aluminium fan on it) and got it this Saturday.

No sweat I thought and merrily went to work.

The BAD result of a couple of hours confused work was that the motherboard got bend out of shape even with the back plate in place and siezed to function properly (as in no connection to the PCI-E and other PCI slots). :bad:

So my gaming rig is in pieces all over my desk and I have learned a bit more about how to handle PCs (threats and occasional beatings usually helps. But plain torture is a major no-no).

The old motherboard will be dragged down to the recycling station and get beat up and kicked around before it is 'recycled'.

 

PS: Do any of you know any heavy duty motherbroads that can resist being shot to pieces with your weapons of choice?

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Most of the tinkering I do in my PC is on carpet while wearing socks or slippers, sometimes while the thing is turned on.

 

Hey, works for me.

 

But CPU fans are a pain from any perspective. My dad got a new one once, went through three CPUs before I worked out that it was designed for another chip make, and for want of about a milimetre of metal toasted much silicon.

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I kind of miss the bare processors, no need for any kind of heat disipation back then, mush less for any sort of fan.

My brother has a desktop PC running a Pentium-M processor with no fan (or possibly a very small one). Seems to be working well...

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I kind of miss the bare processors, no need for any kind of heat disipation back then, mush less for any sort of fan.

Yea, those were the days... But you can still have it, you know. Just stick to an ARM processor :lovetammy:

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Sorry to hear that! I bought a cooler that weighted about half a kilo some years ago, and feared that was too heavy... Did you get a new motherboard yet?

The first place from which I placed an order last Sunday said they would deliver it on Tuesday. I have not gotten an order confirmation from them as to they had sent it or not (The order confirmation also includes a Track and Trace number).

 

During my search for a new motherboard I also tried finding a local shop in the Copenhagen area where I could 'just' walk in and pick up an original Intel 975XBX motherboard. But to no avail. All of the shops that I found sold all kinds of 'old stuff' motherboardwise which I could not use.

To this I can say is. Copenhagen needs a proper/decent computer hardwarestore for the 'do-it-yourself' people and casemodders alike. Even if the shop probably will get looted once a week because of the sheer amount of money that the stuff in the shop is worth.

 

As of Wednesday still no motherboard so I wrote them a mail asking where on this planet the motherboard was and ordered some parts for another project from another onlineshop. The parts for the other project included a motherboard like the one I ordered from the first online shop and they are due to arrive today. :D

Even if I do not get them today, Thursday, I might the able to pick them up Friday most likely Saturday from the local post/pest office depending on the public transportation (which is not the most stable thing in the world) from my work and home.

 

As the resolving the mounting a 1 kilogram worth of CPU cooler I thinking about mounting it on the cabinet backplate on which the motherboard is mounted instead of giving the all important motherboard another burden.

 

UPDATE 31.03.06: The first order has arrived just now 9:16 at work and the second order is in the local post/pest office at home. As I have seen a bit closer on the board I might have to modify it a bit to make it work with the monster cooler. *Heads off to the local hardware :lovetammy: store to pick up some power tools.*

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Got my rig up and running again. At the price of a new motherboard, some misplaced spending of money and the demise of one 1 gigabyte worth of RAM! :lovetammy:

My day has not gotten better with Windows being a pain in the rear when rebuilding/modifying a PC. The stupid OS wanted me to tell itself that it was genuine program since I had changed too much hardware on my rig. :D

Otherwise then that this little ordeal I have learned a lot about the new stuff that Intel is putting into their new motherboards and that inserting graphics cards into their PCI-E slots can be a royal pain in the lower backside.

*RANT ALERT*

As for getting replacement parts here in Copenhagen on a weekend....Forget about it. The stuff that the major IT-retailers are too old technologywise or nonexisistent to say the least. And it seems that the majority of the good IT-retailers are above 200 kilometers away from Copenhagen in Jylland (Jutland) or which is just too fair away when you need something here and now.

To most of the IT-retailers in the Copenhagen area all I can say is: 'Shame on you!' (Gollum agrees) for not caring for the do-it-yourself people on your area when all you can sell is everything but hardware itself.

It would be like selling furniture in a hardware store/builders market instead of building materials. To the masses it is okay. But for the select few that actually enjoys modding/building their own system you just smell like Al Bundys feet which is not a good thing.

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They don't make 'em like they used to. I rewired my USB ports the other day with my machine still running, with no ill effects.

 

Well, besides the computer turning itself off and requiring a reboot, but that doesn't count. :D

 

And my cooling fan was once held together with a pin... stupid thing wouldn't spin, but the computer still booted, so... :lovetammy:

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MacGyver would pull out his little pocket knife and make the computer blow up in the face of his enemies. :lovetammy:

Creative thinking is always incouraged when working with computers....At least casemoddingwise.

Threats like a clinched fist, 20 lb sledgehammer, baseball bat, shotguns, custombuild PC-catapults and even the scrapyards car crusher will make a lazy PC work again like new.

But it suffices to say keep them away from water or high voltage. Even if it would be funny to see a PC get a couple of thousands of volts through it or die a horrible drowning dead while shorting out.

 

My new project include the following:

 

NZXT LEXA Case. I do dig this case a lot.

Aerocool Turbine Power PSU. Cool looking PSU. Might get the boot if some extra power is needed.

Coolermaster Aquagate Water Cooling. Looks cool.

Intels own 975XBX motherboard. But it might get switched out with as ASUS 975 chipset based motherboard (P5W-something) due to the fact that it can handle PC2-6400 and PC2-8000 ram blocks.

As for the processor....Niether a Intel 955, 965 or the biggest Conroe processor when it gets out.

As for graphic cards....The battle is on between Nvidia 7900 GTX cards in Quad-SLI or ATI X1900 crossfire cards.

And of course a PPU for that extra goodness which will be available in an PCI-E 4x version I read today.

 

No casemods for this project. As it has to be a mean and slick machine.

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