Any Tech savvy people here?

So my comp took a dump (My power supply cought fire and started spewing smoke only had it 1 month.) I am pretty sure that my Motherboard did it. It had a blue light on it.

So i need a new one... My current one is a MSI K 8 N NEO 4/SLI [1] Using 2 video cards atm. So ideas on what I should get to replace it? (Something cheap)

Second only to backing up your hard drive, power supplies are the one part of a PC you absolutely can't skimp on. Here's some pretty universal advice: Buy a Corsair PSU, and hook it up to an APC UPS. You won't regret it.

Nah I am looking for a new motherboard (I have been told that the blue light on it means its gone bad and its like 5 years old.) The Power supply was an OCZ [1] and is getting replaced.

edited 20th Nov '10 1:26:56 AM by Raso

Your motherboard is the heart of your system. Unless you want to replace the rest of your hardware: CPU, video, memory, etc., your choices for replacement are determined by what's compatible with everything you've already got, and if you have a five year old mobo, chances are you can't just go get a new one at Best Buy. You'll want something as close to what you had before as possible, and you'll probably have to reinstall or at least reactivate Windows because it will think it's going on a new machine.

Honestly, when a mobo dies it's a good sign that it's time to get a new computer.

If it's five years old, compatibility would really be a problem. If you really don't want to replace most of the components, you could try asking at a smaller computer store if they have an older motherboard in stock, or settle for an used one, which I would not recommend.

edited 20th Nov '10 10:11:37 AM by MilosStefanovic

Oh god that is really not something I wanted to hear >< I just don't have the cash right now for a new comp... I only have like $100 and I just wanted to get the damn thing working for Cata's release... its just got an AMD 3400 and 2 nvidia 7600s in it ><

Sigh I want to go jump in front of a train right now my life can't get much worse.

edited 21st Nov '10 1:44:56 AM by Raso

↑It still can: are you sure your HDD got away from all the sparks and smoke safe?

I0d highly recommend that if you are so low on currency, go to your local university's CS dept. I've been able to get some nifty pieces from up to six years ago (mind you, that was four years ago) and they are more trustable than buying them used on the internets. Of course it helps if you have friends who can help you with the reinstall there.

Everything works still I think, except that the motherboard has that solid blue light and the fact that the PS cought on fire.

I did notice some lag occasionally when viewing webpages a stuff and loading World Of Warcraft but once it loaded everything was fine.

I was first thinking that the blue light was just cause the PS was defective and just wasn't suppling enough power but others have told me that the Motherboard is bad and its the other way around.

But I haven't got my powersupply returned just yet to test things.

edited 20th Nov '10 3:28:34 PM by Raso

Not to hijack, but..

Would anyone have an idea why a 4GB flash drive would suddenly turn into a <1GB one? No matter how many times i format it and which filesystem i use i just can't restore it.