Repair or replace

scotty78

Hi I have been out of the loop with computers for quite some time. My current pc broke about 10 months ago and now I want to repair or replace it. I had built it a couple of years earlier but I haven't kept up with pc components at all and I would like some advice if I should repair the hardware that I have or if I should sell my working components and just build a full new system. I had initially thought my psu was at fault and bought a new one at Xmas, however it seems that my psu was fine and the motherboard must be the issue.

I don't mind spending about £300 on a repair and I would spend £300 plus whatever I sell my current components for if I was doing a new build.

I don't play games on my system its more an htpc and I like to use kodi or view files that I have on my hard drives. Not sure how much 4k content is available at the minute but I do have a 4k tv that I will use as my monitor. Part of me thinks 1080p would be sufficient.

Last question is if I replace the motherboard or rebuild the system would I be able to just plug my multiple storage hard drives in and the system would see them or am I likely to lose all the content on my hard drives?

The items I have at the minute are as follows:

htpc case
2500k cpu
asus p8p67 pro motherboard (assuming faulty though does still light up but doesn't post)
G skill 8gb ddr3 12800
GTX 460 1024mb graphics card
SanDisk 240gb SSD sata 6gb's
EVGA 650 GQ psu (new)
Corsiar HX520 psu
7 Hard drives around 18TB

Thank you for any advice

EndlessWaves

You'd only lose access if they're encrypted or otherwise set up in a way that ties them to your current hardware (e.g. motherboard RAID).

If they're just set up as normal drives they'll be fine.

That's a 2011 system so at this point I would be tempted to say sell off the computing bits and replace them with new. The case, power supply and drives can be kept.

A ~£400 system isn't going to have much, if any, reduction in raw power and you get all the latest capabilities like 4K Playback, DRM support and output.

scotty78

Thank you for the reply, that's good news about my storage drives. Can you recommend me a motherboard, cpu and ram combo?  or even point me in the right direction. Would ryzen be the way to go over intel?

dollag

I just sold off my 2700k build recently and replaced with a more up to date pc and actually got some decent returns on the cpu and ram.

I bought the latest hardware so hopefully keep me going for another 8 years or so but it wasn’t cheap.

It depends on what you want to use the machine for?

scotty78

What did you replace it with? my htpc was in a dedicated cinema room but I sold my pj around a year ago and replaced it with a 65" hisense uhd tv. Tbh its not been the best year so my pc has been sitting in bits for 10 months and I have never really used the tv despite it being the best one in the house. The amp in the room isn't capable of 4k its a 1080p amp that can do hd sound but I just connected my pc via optical.

My pc is just used for surfing the net and for mainly kodi or media portal. I half considered just buying a z77 motherboard just to get it up and running (assuming its my motherboard at fault) but as you say maybe its time to bite the bullet and go for a new system. I don't encode or anything so mainly its just for watching media.

dollag

I replaced it due to 4K transcoding and playback.

Like you it’s usually used for media.

I kept my existing drives as already had an ssd for my main drive.

I ended up getting a 8700k, z370 mb, 16gb ddr4 ram as I also wanted to start gaming on my pc rather than a ps.

An i5 8400, mb and 8gb ddr4 ram should be had for circa £350 and yield fantastic results for a media pc

scotty78

Excellent thanks for the advice. Onboard graphics is sufficient nowadays?

dollag

For 4K media yes but not for games. I have a 1070ti also but that alone was expensive

Saul Goodman

A 2500k cpu is absolutely fine for a htpc if you buy at least a 1050ti GC.

I know because I still use my 2011 2500k along side a 1080ti for madvr upscaling.

EndlessWaves

Yeah, Intel CPU costs have risen considerably over the last few months - apparently due to shortages - so something like a Ryzen 2200G is the way to go at the moment. The 8400 suggested above is now £280 alone, so you wouldn't get one with ram and a motherboard on a £350 budget.

What do you need from the motherboard? Presumably HDMI 2.0 and 8 SATA ports, anything else?