Replace 939 Board or build new?

[jelifah]

Good morning,

While I was away on vacation I think my motherboard was fried by lightning through the Ethernet Cable. While I can't be 100% positive, I'm pretty sure if I replace the board my system will start up and run fine.

Should I just try to find a Socket 939 motherboard, which I'm having trouble doing, and replace it? Or would you recommend replacing the big 4 (CPU/RAM/Video/MoBo) completely?

 

[nOOky]

Upgrade...

 

[daveybrat]

Definitely upgrade, you aren't going to find any decent 939 new motherboards anywhere. Maybe some used ones on ebay, but not worth it IMO.

Put your money towards a nice upgrade. From what you have now i'd probably look to upgrade to a Phenom II X3 or X4 cpu, or an Intel Quad.

 

[dbcooper1]

Upgrade; you might replace the board only to find out the CPU's gone too and maybe the RAM.

 

[Rhoxed]

upgrade! parts are cheap right now

 

[flashMemory]

I would definitely get a 939 board while they are still around. The reason being that you can always just give the comp to someone or you can just use it as a backup or HTPC. It is worth the effort. But first I would consider checking the ram and the video card. IF those are well than 90% of the time it is the motehrboard. And most likely if you look on the board and yuou see no damage it can be a grounding issue. Rebuild your system and make sure you have good screws and they are placed correctly.

 

[Martimus]

For the cost of a new S939 board, you could get a cheap CPU, MB, and RAM. You could keep the old X800XT, or update that for cheap too. Replacing the board just doesn't seem to make since, considering how cheap a complete replacement would be; which would be faster no less.

 

[GeezerMan]

I got one of those NEW retail boxed Foxconn 939 NF4 Ultra boards on Ebay last month for 40.00 delivered. I had a spare 939 CPU to use.

 

[Martimus]

Originally posted by: GeezerMan
I got one of those NEW retail boxed Foxconn 939 NF4 Ultra boards on Ebay last month for 40.00 delivered. I had a spare 939 CPU to use.

Wow, I couldn't find one for less than $100 when I was looking 18 months ago. (I thought my KN1 had died on me, but I got it back up and running.) I would figure they were even more scarce now.

 

[GeezerMan]

Originally posted by: Martimus

Originally posted by: GeezerMan
I got one of those NEW retail boxed Foxconn 939 NF4 Ultra boards on Ebay last month for 40.00 delivered. I had a spare 939 CPU to use.

Wow, I couldn't find one for less than $100 when I was looking 18 months ago. (I thought my KN1 had died on me, but I got it back up and running.) I would figure they were even more scarce now.

yeah, geeks.com had some, and Ebay had a whole bunch by different sellers. There may be some still out there.

It's out of stock at Geeks, but here is the info.:

Link

 

[Silversierra]

Only 939 I can find in stock...FWIW
http://www.geeks.com/details.a...-NP&cat=MBB&cpc=MBBbsc

 

[TuxDave]

You should buy my old S939 Shuttle Barebone that I'm using as a footrest.

 

[GeezerMan]

The Foxconn 939 NF4UK8AA-8EKRS is now 60.00 delivered on ebay.

 

[TurtleCrusher]

Yeah that opteron is still suitable for most needs. Maybe even gaming.

My advice? Buy the Asus from geeks.com and OC it as much as you safely can. Also, pick up a 4650 for gaming. It is sooooooooo much better (4-6x) then the x800xt.

 

[hans007]

given that you have an opteron 170 and those sell for about $100 on ebay..

you'd be much better off building a new box, and selling your old expensive DDR1 ram and 939 dual core chip

 

[Dadofamunky]

Originally posted by: TuxDave
You should buy my old S939 Shuttle Barebone that I'm using as a footrest.

I totally recommend that...

 

[jelifah]

Thanks for the research on the motherboards. This morning I was leaning towards a complete upgrade but now I'm wondering about getting the Foxconn board. For $60 it's worth a flyer.

Granted I'd still have to replace the video card, but moving off AGP wouldn't be such a bad thing. Then I'd still be able to use my RAM and processor just a little bit longer.

I should've mentioned just last month I upgraded my x800xt to the 3850, just hadn't updated my sig yet. Of course the 3850 and x800xt should be a pretty easy resell.

 

[Bonesdad]

What do you use your computer for? Just surf the net? If you are still using 939, I'd assume you aren't into cutting edge gaming...

 

[exar333]

I would be suspect of anything else in that system if you did indeed have lightning damage. You may find the effort not worth it to keep anything from that build.

Ebay "as is" auctions will be your best friend.

 

[trake1]

Would he have to reinstall Windows from DVD for this motherboard swap?

 

[jelifah]

@Bonesdad - My '21 monitor has a max resolution of 1600 x 1200 and I'm able to play Bioshock without much of a glitch at that setting. Beyond that I play, or played, WoW, Left 4 Dead, Warhammer, and some others. While I can't play Crysis or any other big names it's good enough for me a married guy with a 2 year old.

@ExarKun333 - If I can 'save the system' with a $60 mobo as opposed to a $500 rebuild for the main 4 components then I'd much rather prefer that solution. While I realize I could do a 'good enough' build for $200 - $300 I know my personality would bump the components. I'm good with data backups and if the system can run another year or two I'd be thrilled. Remember I JUST bought a $100 AGP card less than 4 weeks ago so clearly I'm in the 'keep it going as long as possible' group.

@trake1 - There are documented methods where you can do a mobo swap without a Windows reinstall. If the eBay motherboard swap works and brings the system up I'll most likely ending up doing some sort of reinstall anyway though.

 

[acole1]

Originally posted by: trake1
Would he have to reinstall Windows from DVD for this motherboard swap?

It would be best, but I have found, more often than not, that the OS will still boot up with a new motherboard. It just makes the drivers messy.

 

[Jester666]

I would strongly recommend upgrading, you'll notice a huge difference even with a 'good enough' build. Plus I don't think you're accounting for what you could sell your existing parts for. Dual core socket 939 parts are getting good prices on ebay and you could probably get close to what you paid for that 3850 agp. If you don't want to go through the hassle of selling, that's one thing, but a few months back I was able to sell a s939 X2 3800+, ASRock dual-sata2, 1gb pc3200 and buy an e5200, used p35 mobo, and 2gb pc6400 without putting in any extra $$$. Used sysprep; so no windows reinstall and easy overclock to 3.2GHz and the speed difference is amazing.

 

[jelifah]

For the sake of posterity for the curious I decided to go the Foxconn Motherboard route. A guy is actually selling it for $36 shipped! What finally pushed me over the edge was finding out when I got home that my Wii won't power on as well (It was downstairs on a surge protector so I don't know what went on while I was on vacation.). If the motherboard purchase, and replacement PCI-Express video card, work even for 6 months then I'll at least join the PCI-Express generation. So when I think about upgrading my system I'll only be confronted with a CPU/Mobo/RAM, change as opposed to the video card being another hit on the wallet at the same time.

I'll update my results in a week or so.

Thanks again for the input.

 

[alcoholbob]

$36 shipped? That's impressive considering the price of shipping these days. For secure packaging (double boxing) a motherboard sized package that's in the $20-25 range. If you consider the price of the packaging ($4-5), then the guy is basically giving it to you for a lunch at Del Taco.