MH6~SPARTA~ Posted June 25, 2011 Share Posted June 25, 2011 Hey all. Just wanted to let ya'll know that the 4th of July came early for me this year, in the form of my PC shooting off fireworks from the motherboard. My case has a window built into the side-panel, so I got a nice view of all my electronics frying before the smoke even reached my nose. At this point I'm assuming everything in the PC is a total loss, but I will be performing tests on the individual components to see what, if any, parts I can salvage. I have no idea what caused the failure, but I'm guessing it was either a short in the computer itself, or possibly a faulty UPS. The UPS in question is a server rack UPS I got from work, a Smart-UPS 1500 from APC, which I have been using to power my PC/monitors/etc. for over a year now. When the PC began sparking, I also heard the loud UPS drone kicking in, which I think indicates a large power draw or something. So I'll need to figure out some way to test the UPS too. Though it didn't appear to have fried the other electronics attached to the UPS, so I'm thinking it was probably the PC itself, and the sound the UPS made was just it trying to compensate for the sudden change. Seeing as how this was my main PC, I'm of course anxious to build a new one to replace it. Unfortunately I'm a bit out of date on the recent releases and revisions of the hardware world. So, if those of you experienced in such matters could help, I'd be much appreciative. My current PC specs, before the failure: CPU: i7 920 Quad-core Mobo: EVGA x58 Tri-SLI GFX: EVGA Nvidia GTX 280 RAM: 12GB 1066 DDR3 Drives: Intel X-25M 80GB SSD Western Digital 300GB Velociraptor Western Digital 1TB Caviar Black/Blue Western Digital 2TB Caviar Black CD/DVD Read/Write combo w/ Light Scribe PSU: 1000W Antec Quattro Case: Antec 1200 (Will most likely reuse this for the next PC, as it should still be big enough for the newer graphics cards) I will be spending between $2500-$3000 on this build. I'd like to attempt liquid cooling for the first time too, so if anyone could give me a parts list or build tutorial for that I'd appreciate it. Since this is a rebuild, I will be building it to be top of the line, so it should be capable of running Battlefield 3 on high settings. DX11 is required for the graphics card, and I may end up going SLI. Thanks in advance for the help guys, I'll be testing to see what parts I can salvage now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MH6~SPARTA~ Posted June 25, 2011 Author Share Posted June 25, 2011 Update: PSU is definitely dead. Took it out of the PC, plugged it in, flipped the switch--sounded like a damn gunshot going off. Might be the root cause of all the problems. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Batwing~SPARTA~ Posted June 25, 2011 Share Posted June 25, 2011 Honestly I think you should have plenty of salvage parts. MB fried is a quite common issue. Your MB decided to put on a show, but not necessarely means other core parts are gone. In my opinion all of your Hard drives should be perfectly fine, included the SSD 80GB. If you are seriously unlucky you might have 1 out of 4 total HHD you had possibly fried. Theoretically also your CPU might be perfectly fine. If you wanna keep it, that is another matter. What you have to change, also if still working are: RAM - That is depending on what config you want to go. If you will move from your kind of motherboard, to the new ones following the Sandy bridge new population, you will have to switch from tri-channel to dual-channel ddr3. If you will stay with the same MB socket, you want to get new RAM simply because you had 1066 DDR3 and you definetely can get something faster than that. Videocard - Your GTX 280 was quite old and tired anyway. I am totally sure is working perfectly fine, but for you being an Nvidia guy, move toward the new 580, or if you really wanna move big money, get the 590 (Hajimoto Docet) and you will be very happy (2 580s SLI on single shot, the best you can get out there) PSU - I would not trust the old one anyway. CASE - doublecheck you are fully comfortable with what you have, especially when it comes to provide great internal air flow. True, you said you wanna go Liquid, but good airflow is always welcome I don t see why you should spend almost 3 grands for a new build. I mean, if you really wanna trash all those "working" goodies, let me know which one is the trash can.. especially the one where you will throw that nice SSD 80GB I ll casully pass by at night time Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SkeleTele~SPARTA~ Posted June 26, 2011 Share Posted June 26, 2011 Ive been looking at this card wide eyed since yesterday check it out here replace that ol 280 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zeno~SPARTA~ Posted June 26, 2011 Share Posted June 26, 2011 Sorry to hear this bud, sounds like you are going to build a mega PC. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Donziboy2 Posted June 26, 2011 Share Posted June 26, 2011 Or you could spend the same amount of money on 2 GTX 560's and you would be rocking cooler, quieter and faster. God I wish I had the money to upgrade my 285 Supposedly NVIDIA will have the 600 series in Q4 this year, when that happens ill probably upgrade. If I can find the green to do it..... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Batwing~SPARTA~ Posted June 26, 2011 Share Posted June 26, 2011 Ive been looking at this card wide eyed since yesterday check it out here replace that ol 280 I would put a BIG NO on that, Skele. The Nvidia 4xx series was "not the good one". It was a hype when it came out, of course all of the Nvidia fans would not openly admit the limits on the 4xx architecture. If you need to upgrade an Nvidia card, at the moment you need to choose among the 5xx series, whatever fits your wallet better. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Slain~SPARTA~ Posted June 26, 2011 Share Posted June 26, 2011 On the water cooling this fourmis great for help/info. I'm not much of an expert but I just put my CPU and GPUs underwater and can help with a parts list. Depending on what you want to cool will change what you need. You can do CPU, GPU, RAM, and motherboard if you want the last two arent really need unless your going for crazy OC and or have a hot motherboard. I don't know how that case will be for mounting radiator with out some mods or putting them on the out side. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SkeleTele~SPARTA~ Posted June 27, 2011 Share Posted June 27, 2011 I would put a BIG NO on that, Skele. The Nvidia 4xx series was "not the good one". It was a hype when it came out, of course all of the Nvidia fans would not openly admit the limits on the 4xx architecture. If you need to upgrade an Nvidia card, at the moment you need to choose among the 5xx series, whatever fits your wallet better. 10-4 its just sooo cool looking LOL Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MH6~SPARTA~ Posted June 27, 2011 Author Share Posted June 27, 2011 I'm very happy right now. Turns out, my PSU was the only thing that fried. Motherboard seems OK, memory seems OK, etc. etc. I don't know how they survived intact, because it looked like a damn fireworks show inside my PC case, but I'm glad they did. I haven't tested all my HDDs yet, as I'm at work (where I did the testing), but my main O/S SSD is fine. Also can't test my graphics card until I get home, as the biggest PSU we have at work is 500W and doesn't have the necessary connectors. So, just need to buy myself a new PSU, and then I can put off upgrading for a couple more years. Will probably still get a better graphics card shortly before BF3 is released though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
custard~SPARTA~ Posted June 27, 2011 Share Posted June 27, 2011 Whats make is the PSU cos thats the next one I get? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Donziboy2 Posted June 27, 2011 Share Posted June 27, 2011 Depending on the orientation it was probably sparks from your PSU. Last PSU I had die it just stopped outputting 12v. So everything lit up dimly but nothing ran. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MH6~SPARTA~ Posted June 27, 2011 Author Share Posted June 27, 2011 Whats make is the PSU cos thats the next one I get? Antec 1000W TruePower Quattro I don't know whether to praise or scold Antec, because on the one hand seeing a fireworks show like that and not having it fry at least the motherboard is pretty amazing in my opinion. On the other hand, when looking at the recent NewEgg reviews, apparently I'm not the only one to have it fail after about three or so years. Some failed elegantly (shut off, wouldn't turn back on), while others failed as mine did, going out in a blaze of glory. I think my next PSU will be a Corsair. Though I'm first going to see if Antec will replace my fried Quattro, as it is still under warranty. Because my case was an Antec 1200, my PSU sat on the bottom of the case instead of the top. Still, it looks like there were sparks coming off of the motherboard, near the CPU heatsink, but maybe it was just my imagination. Maybe I was seeing reflections in the metal from sparks coming from the PSU itself, who knows. But it sure did produce a lot of smoke, and my APC battery-backup UPS kicked into overdrive trying to compensate. Which made it all the more loud, and startling. I'm just glad it was a relatively nice PSU that failed and not some cheapo off-brand--because then I probably would have lost some internal components as well. Edit: Think I may go with this Corsair PSU, the HX1050: http://newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139034 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
custard~SPARTA~ Posted June 27, 2011 Share Posted June 27, 2011 Any part that goes down without taking out something else is bloody good in my book. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Batwing~SPARTA~ Posted June 27, 2011 Share Posted June 27, 2011 If all of this resolve to be just the PSU to be replaced, is a very good ending story I am glad for you A lot of money saved... now start to save some solid green for your next videocard, because you need one, soon Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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