New system time....

Audiophiliac · Post by **Audiophiliac** » Sat Oct 18, 2008 2:07 pm

It has been several years since I built my current PC. It currently lies in a grave of dust and unuse since the catastrophic failure it died from. I was out of town, and the PSU fan bit the dust and took out either the motherboard or the CPU. So I left it and have been using the Sony TZ laptop as a 24/7 desktop. It has been fine, but I do not want to use it in this capacity anymore. Time for a new build. Here is what I am thinking. Feel free to chime in with ideas or opinions.

- Silverstone TJ04 (current case I modified and it works great, is solid, looks good, and it is quiet)

- Corsair HX520 (the PSU I bought when the Nexus gave up....although I am curious to try a Pico PSU)

- X2 4850e 45w CPU

- 4GB RAM (2x2GB)

- 2 HDD (400GB Seagate, and 1TB WD GP)

- My trusty Plextor DVDRW

- Some passive CPU cooler (Xigmatek? Sunbeam? Thermalright? Scythe?)

- replace current orange Nexus 120 intake and exhaust fans with fresh units (likely the Nexus black and white 120 units)

- Gigabyte MA78GM-S2H microATX board (?)

Sounds decent, yeah? Will a Pico PSU be up to the task of this modest system? I already have a thread to get more info on a passive CPU cooler, but I want one that can mount on an AM2 board so if faces the rear of the case. Make sense?

KyonCoraeL · Post by **KyonCoraeL** » Sat Oct 18, 2008 3:28 pm

what can u salvage from your dead desktop?

you might be able to repurpose it, afterall motherboards from a few years ago are under 100$, generally.

Audiophiliac · Post by **Audiophiliac** » Sat Oct 18, 2008 8:48 pm

Well I am salvaging the case, the PSU (if I dont go with the Pico), one of the hard drives, the optical drive, and possibly the fans if they arent worn out. I dont know if I can re-use the XP90 cooler on the AM2 platform...and even if I could, I am not sure it would be the best to try and run passively.

So I am re-using alot of parts....all but the motherboard and CPU and RAM. I can probably find a use for the RAM. And I am almost sure the processor is ok and its just a shot motherboard. But I dont know anyone who has a spare 939 chip to test it with. And rather than spend the $$ trying to narrow down the issue, I would rather buy new.

Trying for a more power efficient build this time. Not that my current rig is a beast. But just trying to get a bit more out of it.

Audiophiliac · Post by **Audiophiliac** » Sat Nov 15, 2008 9:36 pm

I might be in luck. I was about to rip apart my old box and clean it up in preparation for the new stuff, when I decided to give it one last shot. I stripped it down, took out the mobo, dusted it off good, remounted the essentials, cleared the CMOS, and fired it up. So far, so good. I need to do some more testing, but it seems to be working ok.

This means I will not have to build a new PC for a while!

How efficient is that?

I will be upgrading to more RAM and larger hard drive however.