Fix i7 930 system (motherboard) or ditch?

[Nessism]

Have had intermittent problems with the motherboard not detecting drives for a while now (Asrock X58 Extreme). Have changed drives, updated drivers, fresh install, latest bios, etc, and I'm convinced the problem lies with the board somewhere. This particular system has had several large capacity drives fail too, and while I don't understand how a MB could destroy a drive, it does make me wonder sometimes.

At any rate, I'm torn on whether or not to replace the motherboard or just ditch the board/cpu and move on. I'm no power user and the cpu is plenty fast for me. Just want the system to be reliable. Unfortunately, new 1366 socket motherboards are hard to come by and not cheap. Not enthused about purchasing a used motherboard either. Have done just that numerous times before with other systems, but this experience is making me gun shy.

Failing picking up a cheap new MB, what cpu and MB do you guys recommend as the best value that would have as good or better performance than what I'm using?

 

[Ken g6]

Failing picking up a cheap new MB, what cpu and MB do you guys recommend as the best value that would have as good or better performance than what I'm using?

Depends. What are you using it for? And how many drives do you have hooked up? Any other odd ports you need? And I assume you're not overclocking; do you want to?

 

[mvbighead]

I dunno if it even depends. I did a quick search, and most boards were upwards of $150. I'd try to get what you can out of the CPU on forums/ebay/craigslist, and look for an 1155 setup. If a decent board was available for $80, I'd think that'd be the route to go, but there really aren't many options.

Edit:RAM is still DDR3 so no need to sell that.

 

[Ken g6]

Hm, used CPU, I didn't think of that. a 3570k wins at everything but highly-threaded stuff like 7-Zip. And of course a 3770 or certain Xeons would have HT, so they'd win at everything by a wide margin.

There's also the OCing 1150 with 4670k if he was overclocking or using hyperthreading, the non-OCing 1150 route if he wasn't, or even the AMD FX-8320 route if he was doing something that uses a lot of threads. (Although AM3 seems to be on its way out.)

 

[Nessism]

I dunno if it even depends. I did a quick search, and most boards were upwards of $150. I'd try to get what you can out of the CPU on forums/ebay/craigslist, and look for an 1155 setup. If a decent board was available for $80, I'd think that'd be the route to go, but there really aren't many options.

Edit:RAM is still DDR3 so no need to sell that.

This pretty much sums it up. Boards are crazy expensive, but the i7 chip ain't worth jack.

Wouldn't mind supporting AMD again. Someone's gotta do it. 90% of what I do on the computer is just normal office stuff and some occasional PDF creation/conversion.

Thanks for the responses.

 

[nwo]

If you have a Micro Center nearby, you could pickup a pretty nice AMD APU combo for around 100 bucks.

 

[greenhawk]

out of interest, have you checked the power from your power supply while under load? The HDD playing up and dieing indicate to me issues similar to low supply voltages. That or a bad power splitter.

otherwise, a completely new system should hopefully address what ever the issue is issues.

 

[Blain]

Are the capacitors bulging or leaking right now?

 

[frozentundra123456]

I would go with any quad core ivy or has well if you want similar or better performance than what you have. However, if you main usage is light tasks like you mention, an i3 would be a good choice, or even a Pentium might be sufficient. I think any of those will have single threaded performance equal or better than your current processor. Just depends on how much multithreaded performance you need.

What gpu are you running?

 

[Puffnstuff]

You know this thread reminds me of exactly why I have a second evga x58 mb complete with water blocks and i920 sitting in a box ready to go if my classified should unexpectedly go out. If I were the op and couldn't locate a reasonably priced x58 mb I would seriously consider an amd am3+ mb and fx cpu. That is the route I would take if I had to leave x58 right now.

 

[Nessism]

There is nothing visibly wrong with the motherboard, and I've installed a new power supply recently as well. The issues seem to be limited to the SATA drive control sub system.

When booting the computer it will hang and not load the OS. Typically stalling out at the Windows 7 splash screen (at the shimmering windows logo). After rebooting, the system will hang in the same spot. Disconnecting all drives but the boot drive and the system boots fine. Connecting everything back up after a few days rest so to speak, and typically the system will come back to normal. Sometimes the system boots but the drives are not detected, then they come and go seemingly at random during the days use.

I'm ready to move on from this system. Don't want anything slower than what I currently have, and ideally the new system will carry me a few years forward. I'm not a gamer. Main thing other than websurf and normal office type stuff is some video conversion from time to time. Currently have 3 2GB stick of ram so thinking about adding one more for 8GB total. I enjoy building and upgrading computers, even though I don't put the systems though the paces like some do. My son games on a i5 2500 system w/ HD 7870 video card and beats on that thing mercilessly. Have a Gigabite MB in that system and it's rock solid. Tempted to steal that MB and chip and upgrade his system, since he's the power user, not me.

 

[mfenn]

Are you looking to upgrade the CPU/mobo/RAM or a whole new system? What's your budget look like? I say RAM becasue I don't think I would reuse old 2GB DIMMs, likely 1.65V, unless I was really strapped for cash.