Can someone suggest a suitable barebone PC...

[Wiredchild]

Right, basically my computer blew up a couple of months ago, i have no idea why, it somehow turned itself on automatically when i turned the power switch on the wall and then bang, hiss, crackle, buzz buzz, dead, "Ooo, bugger".

PC World checked the componants for me, which i must note all look/smell fine, excluding the harddrive which had obviously burnt out. Anyhow, i don't know if they checked things properly (i cynically don't think they did) but they say that none of the componants work (MOBO , CPU (socket 939), RAM, HDD, GPU, PSU), which is ridiculously bad luck.

So, i need a new PC but have no money so i'm planning on buying a very cheap barebone, a socket 939, so i can check the componants i already have and see if i can salvage anything. With this in mind, if a componant is broken, could it possibly damage a barebone i buy? And if so, would this void the warrantee? Anyhow, whatever doesn't work i will rebuy and install, but i'm desperately hoping at least something works.

Anyhow, does anyone have any suggestions as to what barebone to buy, i quite like those Shuttle ones but it needs to be as cheap as possible; i'm happy to buy one which is out of production now on Ebay or something. I'm not planning on gaming on my PC now as i just bought an XBOX360, it'll literally be for going on the internet, word processing and watching DVDs.

Any help appreciated as always,
Thanks.

 

[Celegorm]

if you live in the US, check out newegg. they have a lot of different barbones you could check out.

 

[Raffaz]

PC world are crap i wouldnt believe what their telling ya lol. Can you not get hold of another pc and test the parts yourself by swapping components around?

 

[muz]

yeah dont believe a word pc world tell you , they told a friend of mine that defragmenting the hard drive was bad cos lil bits of files get removed

as for a barebones yoou hit the nail on the head with ebay , just search socket 939 barebone although if you can try to take it to an independant computer shop that can check it for you or if you know any one that is good with computers and has a socket 939 board i wouldnt bother going out and buying a barebone when it could just be one component like the psu

 

[kchi55]

Find someone that also has a socket 939 system to test out your CPU, for everything else just find someone that uses skt 478 or something, Intel or AMD to try out your DDR ram and video card, it could just be a dead power supply, retailers like to make money off people who don't know better, fortunately, you do .

 

[muz]

Find someone that also has a socket 939 system to test out your CPU, for everything else just find someone that uses skt 478 or something, Intel or AMD to try out your DDR ram and video card, it could just be a dead power supply, retailers like to make money off people who don't know better, fortunately, you do .

yeah and in england pc world are notorius for chatting bs to their customers telling them they need like a £300 upgrade before they can use broadband . i couldnt be a tech at pc world for 5 minutes they just tell people the most proposterous nonesense (TOTAL BULLS**T) so they take out a large repair bill with pc world yet the problem is changing a jumper or adding a new ide cable i just could not stand their and charge someone £30 just for that

anyway even if you only test the ram that would tell me the cpu may still be fine

 

[Wiredchild]

Hey, thanks everyone who's replied.

I'm glad i'm not the only one who thinks PC World might be pulling a fast one and that some of the componants might actually work.

Now, i had tried a new power supply but the PC still wouldn't turn on (although the power light on the motherboard did work). From this, because it's happened to me once before, i deduced the motherboard was probably dead.

Considering i cannot get hold of a PC with suitable sockets to test the componants on (i've only got this PC i'm on now, which is an old Socket A, and all my friends computers are older than that!) it seemed like a good idea just to buy a cheap barebone as i need a new PC quick and cheap.

I just still think it's unlikely that all the componants died simultaniously. Has that happened to anyone? Surely that'd just be shockingly bad luck.