It's related to my mother's PC. About a week ago, she was scanning something into a PDF and suddenly it crashed and rebooted by itself. After that, it would only last a few minutes before crashing and rebooting again. I started it in Safe Mode and it seemed to work fine, but I really didn't know what was causing the crashing, so my mom just made a backup of everything while in safe mode, and then we took it with some guy to have it checked and possibly reinstall XP.

Today, we went to the guy's place, and he tells us that the processor and the motherboard are fried. I found that strange given it was running fine in safe mode before we took it there. I asked that and the guy claims that it was way too dusty inside and that it could have damaged while he removed the dust... is that really plausible or did this guy just screw up?

Anyway, we now have to replace the motherboard, processor and maybe the PSU, plus he also suggests we add more RAM. The guy can get us the parts and he is suggesting an Intel Dual Core processor at 2.2 Ghz, an AsRock Core 2 Duo Motherboard and also 2GB of RAM. All this for $180. Should I go with that or are there better options for a similar price?

Help appreciated.

Aw. I only clicked here because I thought you were going to ask for advice on dating minors. :p

-.-

Alright then can a mod please change the title to just "Seeking advice" then? :p

How is he sure it's fried? Have you tried re-installing XP/ubuntu live CD and stressing it? If he damaged it while removing the dust he broke it. It's quite easy to remove (even really bad) dust without breaking components.

Doesn't seem too bad a price for the components though, but I don't know the normal price for over where you live. Does the motherboard have any decent features? SATA, PCI-E, etc?

Aw. I only clicked here because I thought you were going to ask for advice on dating minors. :p
yep, pretty much

How is he sure it's fried? Have you tried re-installing XP/ubuntu live CD and stressing it? If he damaged it while removing the dust he broke it. It's quite easy to remove (even really bad) dust without breaking components.

Doesn't seem too bad a price for the components though, but I don't know the normal price for over where you live. Does the motherboard have any decent features? SATA, PCI-E, etc?

He's tried the processor on other motherboards he's got for testing. I don't know how he tested the motherboard itself but I'm guessing a similar manner. As for the features of the motherboard he's choosing, I don't really know. I asked him to write me down the components he had chosen but he only wrote the brand, not the exact model... at this point I'm just wondering which brand is best and what I should be looking for in a motherboard. The guy should be able to get me any other type of components, and if not I know of a place that can order them for me.

edit: I have a hunch this is the one: http://www.asrock.com/mb/overview.asp?Model=4CoreDual-SATA2

I'm not entirely sure tho.

If it is that one, bare in mind you'll never be able to put a decent graphics card in - it only supports AGP or PCI-E up to 4x

I've no experience with Asrock before though, so dunno how reliable it would be.

I've been looking for processors so I can figure out what kind of motherboard would be best.

I've come out with four choices, the i7 920, the Quad 6600 and either the Duo e8500 or e8200, ranked from most expensive to cheapest.

My mom doesn't use heavy processing applications, but she does tend to run several programs at the same time. Usually a couple browser windows with a dozen tabs each, loading a few youtube videos and downloading them with real player I think, running Outlook on the background all while scanning documents with Adobe Acrobat to save them as PDFs. She sometimes also runs a program that downloads whole websites too.

I would preferably go with the i7. I don't know if it's much of an overkill or not, but I would like her to have a computer that will run as smooth as it can. The con is that I would also have to get an expensive motherboard to go with it...

So... anyone has any thoughts that could help me choose?

is there a reason you don't want to go with an amd-based solution?

Alright, trying to come up with a configuration for each Processor, to see how much each would cost, approximately.

Most Expensive:


Intel Core i7 920 @2.66 Ghz ~ $350 ($280 on Amazon)
Gigabyte GA-EX58 UD3R Motherboard ~ $200
Kingston 2GB DDR3 RAM ~ $40
PCI-E Graphics card. I haven't picked one. Doesn't need to be powerful, I just want something that can support two monitors. Could settle with a Mobo with built-in graphics that can handle two monitors...



That's at least $590 + the graphics card. It's doable, but if someone can point out a cheaper solution that would be ace.

Less Expensive:


Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 @2.4 Ghz ~ $180
MSI P43 Neo-F Motherboard ~ $90
Kingston 2GB DDR2 RAM ~ $20
Again, I'm looking a cheap good graphics card that supports two monitors.



Sums up to $290 + the graphics card. Pretty affordable I guess...

Least Expensive:


Intel Core2 Duo e8200 @2.66 Ghz ~ $130
MSI P43 Neo-F Motherboard ~ $90
Kingston 2GB DDR2 RAM ~ $20
Graphics Card. Same ol', same ol'...



$240+.

Keep in mind I suck at choosing Mobo'severything... I've been searching around but I really don't know what features to look for. I'm almost picking them at random. :p

The HDD is working so I'll keep the one she has, and the CD and DVD drives have been borked forever but my mom already has external drives. Integrated sound is good enough. The only thing I would probably look for is more USB ports as my mom has two external HDD's, an external DVD-R, an external CD-R, Printer and I think there's other external HDD's around but I'm not sure.


is there a reason you don't want to go with an amd-based solution?
None, really. If you can suggest a better AMD solution be my guest. I only have a couple of days to figure this out before we have to make a choice.(Mostly because I want my iMac back. :p)

is there a reason you don't want to go with an amd-based solution?

They're pants these days? :p Intel have some very nice processors for decent prices. AMD have some alright processors.

Personally an i7 is overkill even for a gaming machine at the moment - you'll find a decent core 2 duo/quad to be more than enough for just about anything you can throw at it.

I haven't looked up all the motherboards you already posted, but make sure that the one you choose definitely has PCI-e 16x, SATAII and can accept RAM with a FSB clock of 800MHz, 1066MHz or even higher.

Those are basically standard these days and anything older/inferior will give you the same problem of changing the motherboard should you need to replace or add new components in the (near) future.

Definitely stay away from AGP though.
That one's from 1997 and phased out by PCI-e since 2004.

As for the price, is there a price comparing website for your region/country?

I haven't looked up all the motherboards you already posted, but make sure that the one you choose definitely has PCI-e 16x, SATAII and can accept RAM with a FSB clock of 800MHz, 1066MHz or even higher.

Those are basically standard these days and anything older/inferior will give you the same problem of changing the motherboard should you need to replace or add new components in the (near) future.

I'll take a look. I'm sure they all have PCI-e 16x, not sure about the rest.

Definitely stay away from AGP though.
That one's from 1997 and phased out by PCI-e since 2004.

The reason the guy picked an AGP-capable board is because I currently have an AGP graphics card on that PC. But I think I'll just stick with on-board graphics or get a cheap PCI-e card.

As for the price, is there a price comparing website for your region/country?
Nope. I'm just trying to get a rough estimate. The guy putting this together will handle making the order, I'll just consult the prices of the different configurations with him and go from there.


Personally an i7 is overkill even for a gaming machine at the moment - you'll find a decent core 2 duo/quad to be more than enough for just about anything you can throw at it.
But... but... the benchmarks... :o