Help me recover from lightning

F

flurp

Weaksauce
Joined
Aug 14, 2004
Messages
111
Hello

When I was building my machine two years ago, the folks here at the Hard OCP forums were the best resource I could have found. A friend helped me build my rig and it served me well for the past two years.

Well, we had some lightning and somewhere the next day, after I thought I had survived ok, my power supply died (no power whatsoever) while I was at work. I bought a new power supply and got power but the MB doesn't recognize the hard drive. Tried to put in another sata drive and it was no go as well, so I'm to the point now where I know that at a minimum, the sata controller on my MB is dead.

Here was my original thread

My Old Rig

Here were the key pieces that I'm concerned about

Hard Drive
SAMSUNG 120GB 7200RPM SATA Hard Drive, Model SP1213C

Memory
Corsair XMS Extreme Memory Speed Series, (Twin Pack) 184 Pin 1GB(512MBx2) DDR PC-3200 - Retail

Motherboard - This is fried
ABIT "KV8 Pro" K8T800 Pro Chipset Motherboard for AMD Athlon64

Power Supply - This is brand new (replacing the fried NeoPower 480)
Antec NeoPower NeoHE 550

Processor - Unknown status atm
AMD Athlon 64 3400+, 512k L2 Cache


Video Card - Been very happy with this
PNY 6800 GT 256 MB DDR3

I could, theoretically afford an entirely new rig, but all I play is WoW and the current machine runs it like a champ

So, here are my questions

Should I just buy another similar MB? I couldn't even find the KV8-Pro. What is the best 754 MB available? Preferably through newegg

I don't overclock at all. I like to put in the parts and then mess with it as little as possible.

Should I just take the plunge and upgrade to a more recent generation MB and processor?

I'm assuming that would be a 939 board. If so, what combo of board and processor would be near the "price break". Don't need cutting edge, but if I upgrade MB, obviously, I'd need to upgrade the processor as well.

Would my memory be ok with the new generation amd MB?

Just looking for some advice on the two paths. Currently, all I have access to is my wife's laptop, so I'm jonesing for my old machine.

When i suffered my misfortune, my first thought was to come here. Thanks for any help that you folks can give me.
 
The problem is finding out what's good an whats bad without other rig to plug it into to test. Likely the mobo will be dead. The problem is that lightning will kill sensitive electronics very easily - meaning the entire computer can be at risk. Get a decent surge protector. BTW, check to see if you are eligible for any insurance whether through homeowner's, renter's, or surge protector's guarantee (do note that their terms are strict).

If the old HDD works, then back it up ASAP! It could potentially die at any time due to induced stresses.

Option 1: buy some cheap used parts (cross fingers) and test them out. The problem with this method is that until you test, you don't know what is good or bad. This means you could end up buying an entire computer to test the old computer. Not a good proposition.

Option 2: get a medium end new computer. Wait for a sale and get a $180 conroe (E6400 if you're lucky), $60 mobo, 1gb ram, 320gb seagate 7200.10 HDD ($95), PCI-E video (or choose older mobo that still has AGP).
 
Maybe I should just let my tech-savvy friend take it for a few days. He probably has a bunch of random parts he could use to test.

Thanks for the suggestion!

I'd prefer to milk this rig for another year or so rather than just buy all new guts.
 
Ok. It looks like I have a replacement processor of the same type, so all I need atm is a motherboard

My local Fry's has all of the boards listed in the link and they're all open box

Which of those boards should I buy?

I'm just trying to limp along for another year before I replace everything.

http://shop2.outpost.com/search?cat=-51554&pType=pDisplay

I had an abit, so I'mleaning that way, but I don't know anything about ecs
 
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