And then there was smoke............

[virokka]

I recently purchased a number of items with which to build a new PC. Among these was an Asrock ConroeXFire-ESATA2 i945. I came to build the PC yesterday everything went fine. But when I turned on the PC there was a moment as it started up then the smoke started coming out of the PC and the computer turned off.

I powered down everything and took the PC back apart - the motherboard had scorch marks and a burning smell coming from one of the transistors. Obvoiusly this is broken and does not work now but I was wondering if this is simply a faulty motherboard or if I had done something wrong like have too much in the system with my PSU

Rest of the PC:

C2D E6300 + Arctic 7 Pro
2GB Memory DDR2 667
ATI 1900XT 512mb
36GB Western Digital Raptor
160GB Hitachi HDD
Audigy 4

The PSU is a Hiper Type M 480W

So what do you guys think and is it likely any of the other parts are fried I dont have any way of testing them

Thanks

[Clunk]

It could be that the psu has died/is dying and killed the motherboard, might be an idea to test all the bits with a different psu if you can, just to make sure that nothing else has been damaged.

[virokka]

Ok so I have contacted the company (scan.co.uk) and I am waiting for a reply to be able to RMA

I have also bought the HIPER 580W modular Type R I have read some reviews and I feel that this will be a decent PSU - plus I have had a good experience with Hiper and this seems like a good step up

When Scan get back in touch I am going to ask if I can upgrade to one of the 965 mobos

Now I have read narrowed it down to 3 choices the Abit AB9, ASUS P5B (or P5B-E) or Gigabyte GA 965P-DS3

all 3 seem like good boards so it may come down to layout and price unless anyone knows anything specific that would sway it

I also read a lot of comments that say these boards have problems with IDE connections for Optical drives I don't know if anyone can shed any light on this or have any experience

Thanks a lot for your help

[Clunk]

I can recommend the P5B, avoid the ds3, terrible board for the money, cant comment on the ab9, not had one of those

[abeacock]

But I can recommend the DS3 and so can many other Core2Duo owners:
http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/sho...php?t=17611316

CustomPC have a motherboard special this month, that could be a good starting point, it's not on their website yet, it's the copy in the shops at the mo.

[Blitzen]

But I can recommend the DS3 and so can many other Core2Duo owners:
http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/sho...php?t=17611316

CustomPC have a motherboard special this month, that could be a good starting point, it's not on their website yet, it's the copy in the shops at the mo.

Why on earth are you hotlinking to the Overclockers website.
They are one of the biggest bunch of crooks going. Their technical staff are also very uninformed.

Do yourselves a favour and dont take ANYTHING said on OCUK seriously.
They say anything to sell their tat.

[abeacock]

I'm linking to the Overclockers forum (not the shop site) which has many public contributors as well as some Overclockers staff.

I have found more than one gem via the link, and I thought that linking to a table showing some of the better Core2Duo motherboards for overclocking was going to help virokka make an informed decision on their choice of board.

[CrazyMonkey]

RMA the board, hope everything still works... or buy a better board!

[Clunk]

Having owned both the ds3 and the p5b, i absolutely preferred the p5b. the ds3 had a hit and miss ide controller, the sata controller was also problematic (wasnt just my board, maybe a bad batch), the bios was horrible to use, onboard sound was crap (usually is), the board suffered the most 'board bend' out of the 5 different boards that ive tried, it almost looked like it was going to snap, even just using the intel stock cooler, it was fussy with ram, it shared too many IRQs, enough to cause problems, it had the worst stop/start problem of any of the boards that ive tried, the bios corrupted after a simple overclock and went into a perpetual rebooting loop, still waiting for an email from gigabyte about it 3 months on.

Maybe some of the problems have been sorted with bios updates, but some of them wont be. In my opinion, the ds3 was a cheaply made, poorly though out board and way overpriced.

The p5b is infinatley better, it has a bios that is much easier to work on, although even that was a bit hard to get used to after the DFI bios! Ive had none of the problems that the gigabyte did and its rock solid. The main thing i didnt like about the p5b was that the heatpipe cooler thing is poorly made and doesnt sit flat on the northbridge, so that is easily solved by taking it off and sticking some ramsinks on the mosfets round the cpu and an aftermarket cooler on the northbridge.

I agree that overclockers are a bunch of crooks (in my opinion).

[Rack]

ds3 has come up leaps and bounds with bios revs. I remember your issues Clunk, you had a really bad time, but I haven't had the same issues.

however will be installing a P5B Deluxe in a mates PC, will let you know.

[Clunk]

Good luck mate

[Rack]

OMFG buy the P5B Deluxe, what a fantastic peice of kit!
BUY IT NOW!

In fact, just to make it even better, buy a DS3, return it and then buy the P5B Deluxe, just so you know exactly what I'm (and clunk) are talking about... It's better in so many ways even before you get to overclocking/bios.

Clunk, I take it all back. The DS3 is comparitively sub-standard.

[virokka]

Many Thanks for all your help guys - especially Clunk and Rack - and I would like to go for one of the Asus Deluxe board that was my original plan many many moons ago

But I have a Lian-Li V1100 which inverts the motherboard and the heatpipes on the board don't work in an inverted chassis which probably leaves me with the Asus P5B-E

[Blitzen]

Clunk!!!
Our opinion are among 1000's.

[Clunk]

OMFG buy the P5B Deluxe, what a fantastic peice of kit!
BUY IT NOW!

In fact, just to make it even better, buy a DS3, return it and then buy the P5B Deluxe, just so you know exactly what I'm (and clunk) are talking about... It's better in so many ways even before you get to overclocking/bios.

Clunk, I take it all back. The DS3 is comparitively sub-standard.

Excellent

Many Thanks for all your help guys - especially Clunk and Rack - and I would like to go for one of the Asus Deluxe board that was my original plan many many moons ago

But I have a Lian-Li V1100 which inverts the motherboard and the heatpipes on the board don't work in an inverted chassis which probably leaves me with the Asus P5B-E

No worries

I had the P5B in a V1000 originally and i ditched the heatpipe cooler for a zalman passive and a set of zalman ramsinks on the mosfets round the cpu, works a treat and only about a tenner to do. I can do pics if you want them.

Clunk!!!
Our opinion are among 1000's.