Efff My life

[NickF]

This weekend I had an oddball problem with my motherboard. Somewhere, a cap randomly started to squeal loud, and high pitched. I turned off my computer, let it sit for a while, rebooted and it seemed fine. Ok, i think it was just a freak thing maybe it was just overheating. I go upstairs and eat something, come back to my computer and its at a BSOD. FRACK! Now I can't even get it back into Windows, just keeps BSODing. All of a sudden CMOS resets itself, and everything is fine (at stock clocks). Since then I've been running at stock clocks, afraid I'm going to do damage to my other components. I'm also afraid to find the leaky cap and try to fix it because, as my HD4830 could testify, I can't solder very well

My problem now is, what board should I buy. I don't have money for new ram- so I'm stuck with DDR2 for now. I'm going to recycle this new board for HTPC use with my old PII 940 down the road, so I would like to get a standard ATX sized 790GX/785G board that will allow me clock decently with my 965. I'm broke really, and I'm getting very little hours at work right now..So I'm going to say my budget is around $120.

My cheapest option would be to go with this, and it would be very nice for my HTPC setup down the road. But being a 785G, SB710 it probably won't clock as well as a 790GX board with SB 750.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813128395

My second Option is to pick up a newer DFI, the 790GX/SB750 board. Looks great, nice cooling, same BIOS format that I'm used to, ect. Its just a bit pricey.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813136058

Third option is to go with ASUS, which in all honesty I'd rather avoid at this point. I think ASUS has made some wonderful boards this time around, and the M4xxx generation has been particularly amazing. However, like Intel, ASUS has become too big, and I don't like supporting the big companies. I feel that they are out more to make a few bucks than they are out ot innnovate, something the small companies like DFI strive for, and the medium sized companies like Gigabyte always have done.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813131368

I'm leaning towards getting the Gigabyte board, as I plan on going 890FX/DDR3 come early summer time. I'm just really mad that I'm getting my venomous x today, and I can't even use it.

Edit: just thinking, but my baord has all solid Japanese caps. Anyone else ever seen solid caps squeel?

[Zeus]

So you'd rather stick with DFI and leaking caps than buying Asus?

What about a used board, especially since you're planning to stick with DDR2?

[NickF]

Th caps on my board are an isolated incident. I'd rather not buy used/refurb.

[BeepBeep2]

The board in my sig works (very) well...I'm on the latest BIOS and loving every bit of it.

No integrated graphics but alot of cool features. Just a 790FX without steroids in the PCIe section...

[NickF]

Deactivated on newegg.

Edit: Also out of stock on mwave and zzf.
Edit2: In stock on amazon for $114
http://www.amazon.com/GIGABYTE-GA-MA.../dp/B001U8PZE2

[AgentGOD]

If you don't care about more than one PCI-E 2.0 x16, then this should be alright for you:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813128387

I think it'd be the AMD equivalent of the famous GIGABYTE GA-EP45-UD3R that I have.

[NickF]

I swear that was deactivated this morning..

[NickF]

I found the cap that was making bad contact, jiggled it a bit and problem seems to have solved itself..Still looking at getting a new board tho.

[BeepBeep2]

If you are still getting a board, it's a solid one. I see deactivated on newegg also....hmm.

ZipZoomFly has it in stock:

http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/Produc...tCode=10010623

[Smellydeli]

I don't think caps squeal unless they're venting. I've repaired a couple of boards that had bad caps and they worked fine after, soldering isn't that difficult.

The folks at badcaps.net are really into repairing mobos and diagnosing electronics. They may use antiquated computers but they know their stuff.

[NickF]

http://www.overclock.net/overclock-n...apacitors.html
In any event, my board and my chip hate me. My chip won't do 4.0GHz, and my board won't do a NB clock over 2.2GHz.