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So I shut down the ol computer last night, wake up this mornin and stroll in with my coffee to find the fucker won't power up. I figure I'm down to either the power supply, or the motherboard is so cooked that she won't do shit. ( I didn't stick around to see it if it actually powered down the night before.)

So heres my question. Buy or build? I've noticed that some systems in store are cheap enough now, it would almost be worth it to buy it and stuff a video card in it. Anyone round here have opinion as far as what I should be looking for? I'm not scared to build and I don't have a unlimited budget, but I can afford something will be fairly recently obsolete. HELP!!!

First, when you press power, do you get any whirring at all on your motherboard? Typically, unless the wires on the on/off thingy are whacked, if it is a motherboard issue, the fans will start up. If not, it's probably the PSU.

If you have a decently-okay rig right now, it'd probably be worth your while to plunk down an extra $40 and put a new PSU in.

Also, I always say build. There's a sense of self-satisfaction to step back and say, "I built this" when you finish. There are also a few good builds out there that Trippy (knows his shit backwards and forwards) has commented on to search through. Ask Azazel (sp?) as well -- I think we helped him last time he built.

Yep, I fully endorse the statement above. Definately build. Then you can tweak the exact hardware to your own preferences.

If you plan to get a vid card and you know what you're doing then definitely build. Pre-built machines tend to have low quality power supplies and motherboards to offset costs, not to mention some companies (like Dell) put all sorts of weird shit in the case that makes upgrading a pain in the ass. Alienware is always an option for a gaming machine but it sounds like you have the time to build and are looking to avoid the high price tag they put on it to build it for you.

Prebuilts are full of garbage, as mentioned.  Their innards are frightening.  Also, you certainly must have a few reusable parts like optical drives and hard disks and chassis.  Build it yourself and you usually only have to pay for a mobo, CPU and RAM, sometimes vid card depending on what you want to do.  Flip side is that it can be time consuming.

I tell you what, if I get a few minutes over the next few weeks, if you PM me a budget, I can toss around some ideas. Otherwise, search the boards.  :pedobear:

Nah, press the button, nothing happens. No lights. No music.

Build. Got it. Budget? Hm. I'd want something that would only be recently obsolete, so, say, 2200 max. Have fun!

PS. I'm a mechanic so the basic research I did for my first machine went well, but I'd enjoy some specialized insight on memory spec and all that as I only SORT of understood it. Electronics is not my specialty until I train it up. >< And thanks for the replies fellas. I cried a little this morning.

$2200? USD?

That's a super-computer, hoss.

Did you check to make sure the outlet is actually working? Did you look inside to see if the power switch is still wired to the motherboard correctly (e.g. it didn't somehow work it's way loose)?

What Trippy said:  The first rule of troubleshooting is to check your power.

Look at the plug and make sure it's still connected to the wall outlet, if it's on a power strip make sure the cat didn't step on the cut off switch, go check the circuit breaker, etc... etc...

Is it just for games?  My last PC was an out of box piece of shit with decent processing speed from Circuit City or some dreadful place like that.  I stuck a brand new top of the line video card in it and there isn't a game I can't run at maxed out graphics. Well under $1K.  I'll probably do pretty much the same thing this time around, too.  Other than games, there isn't anything I do that is graphically intensive with Windows.  For any thing else, we have computers all over the place running all sorts nerdy weirdo stuff.

Yeah I checked power. Even whipped out the ol volt meter and checked the cord. (Whee) Everything is still connected where it should be. Ah well. Time to go parts shopping I guess.

EDIT: At least I hit train Learning 5 in EVE. So that gives me a couple days right? Yeesh

Please let me know if theres any conflicts here you folks can see. Think I've come up with some good stuff but if anyone sees a better deal on a better part, please say so.

Mobo:             Asus Striker II Formula LGA 775 nForce 780i SLI ATX Intel mobo
VidCard:          EVGA GeForce 8800GTS 512m 256bit GDDR3 PCIE 2.0x16 SLI
Chip:               Intel E6700 Conroe 2.66g LGA 775 65w
Mem:              OCZ 240 pin DDR2 SDRAM 1066 (x4)
PSU:               PC Power & Cooling Silencer 750 EPS12v 750w

All of it found on Newegg, haven't checked on pricing yet. Thanks again peoples. The wife is beginning to be irritated by my usage of her machine.

That's way less than $2200.

Might as well get 2 8800GTs.

Narf. 2200 was me max budget.  :awesome_for_real:

Get different ram. OCZ is traaaaaash. Go with Corsair or Crucial.

OCZ is a big piece of dogshit. I linked some quality RAM in the PM I sent you, Walrus. Go with Corsair.

Roger that!

Nice rig.

Might want to pick up the PSU first to see if your old machine will boot up with it. I'm still not convinced its not the PSU. Even with a blown CPU or chipset, something happens somewhere if the PSU isn't toast.

Yep. Tore the guts out last night and sho nuf, there was a nice lil molten piece of wire where there shouldn't have been. So I donated the board, chip and memory to my dad and I'm gonna see if my old 6800 gt will work in my wifes computer. Hey, an upgrade every 6 years ain't bad.