My mobo died- What do I do?

[Cowboy]

The DFI board in my sig finally died. Its not coming back.

I've RMA'ed this board once before and it took 8-10 weeks to get a new one.

I will be RMA'ing it, but I need a computer in the meantime.

What do I do?

[Shadowmeph]

what I did was build an HTPC using older AMD parts and right now that is what I am using.

[Cowboy]

I figure I might as well build a new rig, or sell my [now] unused hardware.

And if I'm forced to build a new rig, I might as well go i7 or i5 since the price difference between am3/ddr3 and a 965BE is so small.

[Chilly]

If you can afford it? Upgrade/Re-Build! I'll even help, got a few odds and ends I'm sure you'll enjoy playing with

[chrisk]

8 weeks is tough.

I would buy a replacement board, or another brand and just pop it into the rig. When the DFI comes back sell it.

Or, as you mentioned, get an i7 setup. I personally would stick with the 1366 platform, as the boards have matured. The new platform looks to be pretty good once the boards go through their paces.

[Zero82z]

Always keep a spare rig or four ;). I wouldn't buy an i5 rig at the moment since the prices are still high. IMO, you should go with either a full-blown i7 rig, or just build a cheap C2D setup to tide you over until you get your board replaced.

[geokilla]

Can I get something for free or purchase something for cheap off you? Lol

On a serious note, I don't think you're notice much of a difference going from Phenom II to Core i5, i7. That is, unless you run Folding@Home and need all the points you can get or run something that's CPU intensive. If nothing like that meets your criteria, I say just get a new motherboard.

[HalifaxPete]

If you think it will take another 8 weeks to RMA this MB, buy a more reliable motherboard and sell the DFI when it comes back from RMA. Is the DFI MB failing due to the overclocks or is the quality of the board not up to snuff?

Purchase an i7 when your budget allows.

[Cowboy]

Nothing wrong with the DFI brand of boards... and I don't feel I was pushing it too hard. I think that I shorted something somehow and killed it somehow. But I knew that the board was on it's last legs because I would get random freezes @ stock settings every hour or so of operation, it required a hard reset to fix. I figured it was the board from the start.

Anyways, there are some problems with building a new rig/ getting a new board... its not that simple.

I don't know how many of you are aware, but I'm running an acrylic mATX case that cannot fit a board longer than 9.5" (mATX sized). AND I have 2 4870's in CF that no one seems to want to buy. There are only 3 boards in existence (including my DFI, which is no longer being sold anywhere!) that meet those criteria whilst also supporting AMD cpu's.

One is the am3 version of my DFI, and the other 2 are cheap knockoffs from jetway and an am2 variant, also from jetway.
Newegg.ca - Computer Hardware,Motherboards,AMD Motherboards,2,Micro ATX

I don't want a jetway board:

1. its ugly
2. its of poor quality
3. it won't OC well
4. it'll probably fail REALLY soon.
5. its UGLY (this is important, because I have a case that's completely see-through)

sigh.

I can't get the am3 DFI board because it requires an am3 cpu (955be or 965be) AND ddr3 memory.

so... new board... new cpu... new ram... smells like a new build to me. Might as well go i7 if I have to buy ddr3 anyways!

So that means I need an mATX i7 board... there are 4.

MSI = 185
EVGA = 240
DFI= 260
ASUS= 300

I'm thinking of going with the MSi, it looks decent and probably performs well for the money spent on it. I figure I could also get some cheap ram and a cpu off of here or off of [H]. Sigh, I'm looking at spending around $500 bucks... sigh. I HATE COMPUTERS!

[jcmaz]

You can save those waterblocks for the next gen stuff...