Damaged Circuit Board on GPU

I'm having some bother with my GPU. Whilst re-attaching a fan on the side of my case, the screwdriver slipped causing damage to my graphics card. Four transistors have broken off, two of the small (approx. 1-2mm) and two of the ultra-tiny (I don't even think they're 1mm in length). After looking under a magnifying eye glass, I can see the two smaller ones are completely destroyed, and one of the slightly large is missing. I've managed to recover one of the larger transistors, although it looks useless as its "legs" remain inside the circuit board itself.
Needless to say, the system will not boot.

I was wondering if it would be possible to have the board repaired. Although I am presuming this is far to micro to approach with human hands. As well as a number of transistors completely missing and need replacing. Would I have to look at sending it away to an AMD lab for repairs or would this not be worth the cost?

The only other option I can see, is to fork out the cash for a replacement and be more careful in the future.:shocked2:

EDIT: It's an ATI Radeon HD 6870 if that helps the matter.

If you know someone who can reflow components, it's worth a shot to ask them as it's an hours work for them.

If you take it to a shop, you are going to spend a lot with no guarantees.

Personally, I'd buy new and slap yourself across the face to ensure you remember and not slip again.

Considering the value of a working, second hand 6870 is in the region of £50-70, I'd suggest that unless you have a contact who is very well acquainted with circuit board repairs it'll not be worth the cost and hassle of the repair.

Could it be repaired, yes. Would it be economical, if you can't do it yourself then doubtful. The price of postage two ways plus a specialist to repair it I image would quickly surpass the second hand value of the card.

I'd suggest you start counting your pennies, you should be able to get something the same or roughly equivalent in terms of performance second hand for less than £100 (quick ebay browse, though check out the Hexus classifieds!)

My thinking exactly. So to scrap the idea of repairing the card. Lets move to the idea of upgrading, as oppose to just replacing. I've read some good reports of: http://www.amazon.co.uk/EVGA-GeForce...=cm_cr_pr_pb_t
Or would you guys recommend another? (Please let me know if this topic is becoming a topic that should be posted elsewhere on Hexus!)

Having a budget of around this price, if I am to replace this card I don't see a point in buying something as dated as my 6870.

Also found the same card but ASUS: http://www.ebuyer.com/397601-asus-gt...x660-dc2o-2gd5

I'm not too sure about the different manufacturer differences..

If that's your price point and you want to buy new, then it's a toss up between the 660 and 7870. They trade blows in real world benchmarks.

You might want to consider the 7870LE which I have seen under £170 a couple of times, which is nearly as quick as a 7950.

Funnily enough this is the two cards I had open in another two tabs on my browser! :)
So take the 7870 for example, after doing a quick search on Ebuyer and Amazon, there's a fair few of them with an alternate price bracket of around £15-£20. XFX, ASUS, Gigabyte,PowerColour, Sapphire... but they're all a 7870 card. Does this narrow down to "paying for brand" or is there a lot more to it than just the brand or how it physically looks?

I understand OC is over clocked, and I presume LE is Limited Edition?
Sorry for my lack of GPU knowledge! :)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Bounty_Bam

I understand OC is over clocked, and I presume LE is Limited Edition?
Sorry for my lack of GPU knowledge! :)

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That is correct.

http://www.dabs.com/products/gigabyt...&q=7870&src=16

Warranty repaired 7870 for under 130 delivered....

Quote:

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Originally Posted by stilkun

That is correct.

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Not quite... OC does stand for overclocked (usually), but in this case LE is the codename for the the GPU.

A normal 7870 uses a Pitcairn die, which is made up of 2.8 billion transistors. A 7870 LE uses a Tahiti LE die, which comprises 4.31 billion transistors - the same as the 7950/70. I have no idea why they didn't call it the 7930.

It's still relatively rare in the wild, and most retailers don't seem to differentiate between normal 7870s and LEs. Aria do.

Check out the benchies in this review and see how you feel.

Looking over some reviews of the 660Ti / 7870LE and from what I seem to gather, a lot of people are favoring the 660Ti, although it's more pricey.
The rest of my system is well over due an update too though, take my PSU for example, it's a Corsair HX520W and the CPU been a Quad 6600 (lol).

Providing my PSU can power either of the two mentioned cards, what would your choices be? Does anyone actually have either card and can vouch for them?

Not to sound too picky, but replacing a GPU is a big thing for a freelance photographer!
Thank for all your time and effort in helping me out here too :) Muchly appreciated.

EDIT: I mainly use my PC for large resolution Adobe Photoshop CS6 work, Video editing (Sony Vegas) and Gaming (nothing major: WoW mainly - but I'd like to future-proof myself in the process.)

The 660Ti is a marginally better card but hovers around £50 more expensive so actually offers quite a bit less bang for buck. That said it's run a bit cooler and quieter so if those are very important to you the premium might be worth it.

This is quite a useful metric when looking to compare upper-mid range card performance, although note that the 7950 result on those charts is not the boost edition, which is more commonly available now and closed the gap to the 670 quite a bit.

Your PSU is still sound and plenty for a single GPU rig :)

Ah a nice diagram, that's more my wave-length ;)

So it looks like the best "bang for buck" for me would be the 7870 Black I think.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/VTX3D-Radeon...ywords=7870+le

..or I could take out a mortgage and get a GTX 690 ;)

I think you might need to look a the rest of your system before you meet with the bank manager :p

VTX3D stuff is fine (I believe they are the manufacturers behind re-badged e-tailer cards too), but they tend to only used reference designs/coolers and I'm not familiar with their warranty procedure.

Hey Bounty, I'm not sure if this is the same 7870 that uses the 7950 chip or not but its a good price.

http://www.waeplus.co.uk/item/207469...on---2-GB-GDDR

It seems VTX make two versions of the HD7870 with the same part number VX7870 2GBD5-2DHV3E One with 1280 shaders and one 1536.