k guys and gals, ive got a pc here thats developing an unusual fault thats leaning me to think its the mobo

sometimes it resets the bios (battery could be at fault), sometimes it locks up in win7 and gives a faint squeal, other times it locks up and gives a loud noise. ive also had nvidia boot manager come on insert system boot disc error

tbh i cant be bothered fault proving as its long and boring so im after a new mobo+cpu upgrade

currently im using a q6600 on an evga 680 mobo thats served me well for many years, ive got a donor machine for the cpu so its not wasted

i like intel and, as i use ssd's, id also like intel chipset instead of nvidia so i get trim support without messing with chipset drivers

so without going to the extreme, whats a worthwhile upgrade, anywhere between 200-400 notes (mobo, cpu+4-8gb ram)

suggestions anyone??

Check out Scan for an i5-2500k/mobo/RAM combo. About the best bang for buck at the moment

And long live the Q6600

thought about 1 of those but arent they getting old now or is the 2nd gen much better?

i built my bro one over 12 months ago and tbh it wasnt really any faster tha this q6600, maybe im spoilt by this cpu

is there anything just around the corner worth waiting for? the new i7's sound poor from what little ive read

The new i-series aren't much changed, higher prices, slightly less power consumption!

hmm ill have to do a little googling, this still works but i do wonder if itll last, each time i reboot i hold my breath lol

I agree with babs, the i5 2500K is the one to go for and the new Ivybridge processors are a bit disappointing, they're a die shrink rather than a new architecture but Intel seemed to be boasting quite a bit about their new transistor design so I was expecting better clock speeds for the desktop and 35W quad core laptop parts but neither have been announced. I'm surprised you didn't find the i series processor faster, the C2Ds and C2Q's were good in their day but I find them frustratingly slow alongside the newer processors at stock speeds, the K series parts are simple to overclock and can go pretty high with ease.

John

The 2500k are unlocked and can be overclocked to silly speeds in comparison to 1st gen i series , they are a totally different animal and the i5 2500k id currently the best on price / performance , the i7 series is not worth the extra cash , read this http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/gaming-cpu-overclocking,review-32328-4.html

Agreed. The i5 is a good compromise between price/performance. Even overclocked slightly it will probably run cooler than your Q6600.

Still running my Q6600 system. I really don't see any point in upgrading... it's still lightning quick and never goes above 40c in my system.

Phil

k guys and gals, ive got a pc here thats developing an unusual fault thats leaning me to think its the mobo

sometimes it resets the bios (battery could be at fault), sometimes it locks up in win7 and gives a faint squeal, other times it locks up and gives a loud noise. ive also had nvidia boot manager come on insert system boot disc error

tbh i cant be bothered fault proving as its long and boring so im after a new mobo+cpu upgrade

currently im using a q6600 on an evga 680 mobo thats served me well for many years, ive got a donor machine for the cpu so its not wasted

i like intel and, as i use ssd's, id also like intel chipset instead of nvidia so i get trim support without messing with chipset drivers

so without going to the extreme, whats a worthwhile upgrade, anywhere between 200-400 notes (mobo, cpu+4-8gb ram)

suggestions anyone??

Hi mad monk,

When you've chosen your new bits you may want to replace your hard drive. It sounds to me as if all the symptoms you've listed point to that being the most likely cause of the problem even if 'smart' tells you it's ok. That's assuming your fans, (cpu and case fans) are working ok. The squeal can only be hd or fans both of which will likely cause Windows to lock. Try swapping it out with any old drive you have and I'd be surprised if the problem still exists. Bios battery may be going out to lunch as you say, but not necessarily as I've seen bios reset themselves when an hd fault is present. Of course, a dry joint causing fluctuating power to the IDE/SATA controllers due to bad cable or bad board are the other things. So it could well be your mobo and you are definitely on the right track. I know you prolly know all this but it's good for the forum to throw these things about I guess. Good hunting... :yes:

Completely forgot to answer about the actual problem, haha!

What Estate Man said is right, there's only really a couple of things it could be (apart from a rodent )

lol cheers guys, the hdd is fairly new, crucial m4 and testing seems to show no issues, also my 2 mechanical hdd seem to test ok, memtest runs fine and monitoring the psu (thermaltake modular truepower, now thats a mouthfull) shows decent power on all the rails, i did wonder about the gfx card but it never goes above 60c ( gtx 275 ) as you can see i got a little bored lol

the squeal is very unusual and is nothing like ive heard before, no clicking either and sometimes it doesnt lockup but moving the mouse and clicking tabs opens nothing as if its hanging, as the memory tests ok im again swaying to the chipset on the mobo, poss overheating northbridge but theres my quandary, too many possibilities again highlighting the p.i.t.a of pc's

id just like that w0w upgrade but im not so sure its possible given what i have already

Install nVidia system tools.

It will show you accurate motherboard temperatures.

I used to have a 680 based board and man it got HOT and I had a few stability issues. I ended up sticking a fan over the heatsink on the mobo which helped a lot.

My 780i board also used to get even hotter until I installed water cooling.

Might be worth a check.

Phil

I just upgraded from Q6600 to a i5 2500k and its a decent upgrade. Overclocked to 4.2ghz on the click of a button and runs fairly cool, however I do have a large after market cooler on it. Didn't find any reason to clock it higher but I expect it will go a fair bit more.

which mobo did you get chronicbint?

and cheers philje ill try that

Edited 23 January, 201214 yr by the mad monk

Asus P67 Sabertooth with 8gig of crucial ballistix memory and the i5 2500k, those bits were around £300. There are cheaper boards about though.

Sabertooth is top quality!

tbh i want top quality, u get what u pay for and this has lasted me 4 years hard labour, my main wants are usb3/sata 6bg and intel chipset for better ssd trim support, nvidia is a pain for this, well old boards like mine anyways

well ive got pi$$ed with this pc and just bought this lot Intel i5 2500k, Gigabyte Z68AP-D3, Corsair 8GB DDR3, hopefully itll work fine with no messing about

well ive got pi$$ed with this pc and just bought this lot Intel i5 2500k, Gigabyte Z68AP-D3, Corsair 8GB DDR3, hopefully itll work fine with no messing about

Good choice , Gigabyte boards are rock solid and that chipset is THE chipset for the Sandybridge processors , you should have a nice machne when you finish .

well the pc is up and running, numpty here didnt realize that newer boards dont come with ide so i had no dvd drive

installing windows was fun

well the pc is up and running, numpty here didnt realize that newer boards dont come with ide so i had no dvd drive

installing windows was fun

Windows 7 install from a USB stick or USBHDD rocks. Not seen a Win7 DVD for ages. (download ISO from MSDN) :)

yeah thats what ive done then copied all the chipset drivers from the motherboard cd

ill still get a dvdrom though, lost the pushout on this case so i got a big hole