Help :( Computer needs new motherboard?!

SENATE

Member
Joined
Jun 16, 2011
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Hey hey
Okay so after a little advise..

I have a mac laptop and a big tower gaming computer.
use the pc for making beats becasue its an old gaming rig that can handle loads! Love it!

But it wouldn't turn on the other day, now its in a pc repair centre.

the bloke says it needs a new motherboard (costly as its a 3rd gen pc or something)
so obviously i NEED to replace motherboard - and find 300 quid from somewhere!

So, Im not a pc expert...
As you all do, have about 50000+ samples/ sounds/ wip tracks etc that are stored on the pc (cry)
can I get them back once motherboard is replaced? if NOT, can i get them all off the hard drive and eventually use again?

please understand that this is serious to me as i've spend 5 years making what is on that pc....

I have bought an external hard drive so in future this doesn't happen.

Sorry for the essay, its like im menstruating or something...really kinda stressy when shit like this goes down.

cheers fellas! :i_love_co
 
all your projects and samples are fine. the hard drive can be used with any PC.

and whoever's trying to charge you £300 for a motherboard is ripping you off on some next level. "3rd gen PC"... lolwut?

find out what processor your PC has and i'll point you in the right direction.
 
Right, Thanks a lot!
£300 lol
Ill have it back later on, il post specs.

You have eased my mind. Cheers
 
Yeah... don't pay that guy. Your files are safe on the hard drive, don't worry. Post your info and I can help point you in the right direction. Swapping a motherboard isn't difficult, especially if you're get the exact same one that burnt out.
 
You dont sound like a computer hardware nerd, so I'm assuming you bought the pc completely assembled, ready to go? If you did, and didnt get one of your mates to build it, do you have the make and model number of the machine you bought? That'll help us find what components you need.
It is quite possible that if you bought a ridiculously expensive pc from dell a while back, you may have difficulties replacing the motherboard. A lot of the pre-assembled pc's of old used proprietary components precisely to rip off the consumer when something went wrong.
Regardless, the cpu, memory, hard drives, etc, will all be standard components and we will be able to save your beloved sample collection.

Does anyone have any knowledge of windows HD's being plugged into macs as a slave/over usb? I have a feeling they dont play nice, anyone confirm?
 
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You'll have to reinstall Windows when you install the new motherboard so make sure you back up anything on your main HDD first.

As for picking out a motherboard - if you post a) your CPU so we know what socket you need, b) which RAM type you're using (DDR2, DDR3 etc.) and c) if you're planning on overclocking anything we can point you in the right direction.

Does anyone have any knowledge of windows HD's being plugged into macs as a slave/over usb? I have a feeling they dont play nice, anyone confirm?

Depends on the file format of the HDD. If it's NTFS then it won't work, if it's FAT then it will.
 
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300 is fucked lol, a decent one is nothing near that. Its a tower so it should slide in easy. Nothing to be stressed about mate

Yeah, I've got an ASUS P8Z77-v Pro. Pretty much as high end as you can go without throwing your money away and that was 120 quid. 300 to put in what is probably an average motherboard is completely ridiculous, you could probably pick up a decent basic one for 50-75 quid. I could probably build a basic PC that would be powerful enough for music production and to run a few games here and there for 300 quid...

The motherboard is unfortunately the biggest pain the arse to replace because it's what everything in your PC is seated in or at least plugged into. You pretty much have to disassemble and reassemble the whole machine. It's really not very difficult though, even if you don't know what you're doing. Just remember what everything is plugged into before you take it apart (or even take a couple of pics for reference), make sure you touch something metal on your PC while it's still plugged in to ground yourself, and be careful when you're handling stuff like the CPU and RAM and you're golden. You really can't go too far wrong.
 
Cheers for the help guys, I could buy a new pc for the price the bloke wants.

It is a Packard Bell I power or something. water cooled, gaming PC to be precise.
Bought it off a friend for 200quid (no pound sign on this mac) to utilise the huge RAM and processor etc
Its fantastic performance wise when Im on DAW.

Ive still not picked it up to post specs as Ive been busy, ill have a peek inside at the motherboard etc - with it being old, Im unsure if they still make the parts for these.
Would you say, buy new board online, install in house?
 
Cheers for the help guys, I could buy a new pc for the price the bloke wants.

It is a Packard Bell I power or something. water cooled, gaming PC to be precise.
Bought it off a friend for 200quid (no pound sign on this mac) to utilise the huge RAM and processor etc
Its fantastic performance wise when Im on DAW.

Ive still not picked it up to post specs as Ive been busy, ill have a peek inside at the motherboard etc - with it being old, Im unsure if they still make the parts for these.
Would you say, buy new board online, install in house?

You'll be able to pick up a used board somewhere like Amazon if you have to, I wouldn't worry too much about it. Once you know what CPU and RAM you have it should be easy. Just punch the CPU model into Google and it should take you to either the listing on the official Intel or AMD site, or a Wikipedia page if it isn't listed there any more. All you need to know is which socket it uses so you can buy a board that will take it. As it's an older machine you're probably running DDR2 RAM, but I can't say for sure without seeing the machine.

Yeah, just grab a motherboard online and do it yourself. I'd recommend something by ASUS or Gigabyte, they're really reputable brands, I've used a load of their products myself. If you aren't doing any overclocking you don't need any bells or whistles, just basic stuff like surge protection and whatnot. You'll save an absolute fortune and there's a tonne of videos about how to install motherboards on YouTube if you get stuck.
 
Ebay is worth a look. You might be able to get a second hand rig and swap some parts to make it work.

If you get the exact same motherboard and swap the parts out you might even be able to avoid having to reinstall windows. I found the same motherboard I had in my old PC when it died, replaced it and it started no problem. If you get a different motherboard you are likely to have to reinstall everything.

Branded PCs manufacturers sometimes shaft you on the price of parts but £300 sounds excessive although they'll be charging for labour as well as the parts. It's easy enough to fix these things yourself though and worth learning how.
 
Motherboards are peanuts mate.

Download CPUID CPU-Z, and tell me what is says your current board is, you want to replace like for like if you don't want to do a OS reinstall.
 
My mobo broke a while ago. Great PC sitting there unused because I can't bring myself to shell out 100s on a new cpu mobo ram combo- my lifes better not rinsing CSS anyhow
 
I built myself a quad i5 music pc with 8 gig ram for £300! It benchmarks at 6000, which is pretty decent. I can push it to about 100 tracks in ableton using many 3rd party vsti's and vsts.

My motherboard ASUS motherboard was about £40, it didnt have overclocking capabilities, even though the processor did, but it does not need it. The next step up from this is an i7 quad processor for about £100 more, and benchmarking about 8000-9000 depending on the processor, which gives plenty of headroom. An i5 quad system is great if you are on a budget.
 
It can be easier than fixing an old install if the new mobo has a different chipset. Not absolutely required though.

If it does have a new chipset its just a case of installing new drivers. A fresh install is an extreme measure.

SENATE, open up the side panel of your PC and look at the motherboard. There should be a make and model number visible on the motherboard. Post it here.

If its a 3rd Gen Intel Core processor then you will be able to get a Z77 chipset Socket 1155 Mobo for £50-70.
 
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