Can't quite believe I'm back here having to ask this but:
I recently built a couple of systems for my nephews, and was given a lot of advice on the components from readers of this forum. Sadly, after only a couple of weeks or so, one of them decided that a BIOS flash was essential, and when the notoriously flaky M-Flash system caused the thing to stop booting (no signal etc), his horror at getting caught led to an unholy union of screwdriver and soldered BIOS chip.
Words fail me - I don't think what's left is getting RMA'd any time soon. Other than giving him a talking to, and putting 42 padlocks on the towers, I now need a little advice:
The mobo in question was a MSI 740GTM-P25 740G Socket AM2+ with the following components:
- AMD Athlon II X2 250 Socket AM3 3.0GHz 2MB L2 Cache
- OCZ 2GB KIt (2x1GB) DDR2 1066MHz/PC2-8500 Reaper Memory HPC Edition Dual Channel Kit CL5
- PowerColor HD 4770 PCS 512MB GDDR5
The mobo cost around £40 at the time, but is now no longer available from Ebuyer. So, the question is: is there something better (with the same kind of features) that I can now replace the old one with at this price or am I better off checking around for the exact same board again. I especially ask as this board was about the one component that I had before I asked here, so would be interested in what you chaps thought of it.
Also, are there any inexpensive thermal pastes/paste cleaners that you'd particularly recommend?
Thanks again,
Jessica =)