# Project: Goodfriend



## Radical_Edward (Nov 28, 2010)

Well, today I went over to my old friend from highschool's place to help her upgrade her old 939 socket mobo's CPU to a Athlon X2. She's the one that was in need of a new graphics card, it now seems she's in need of something else.... 


A new mobo. :shadedshu

















Now sadly, she's on a very fixed income, so she's up shat creek, I told her to send her new X2 back for a refund (As it was way to much money and that could be better spent on a new mobo.)

So I'm either going to spend money out of pocket or hopefully be able to help her find some cheap parts to replace her current guts. 

If anyone wishes to help, that's awesome and I thank you in advance, if not, thanks anyways for looking at the thread.


----------



## sneekypeet (Nov 28, 2010)

Trip to radio shack and recap that board


----------



## Radical_Edward (Nov 28, 2010)

Eh, is it really worth it for a old 939 board? She had to spend $85 on a old AMD Athlon 64 X2. It's time for a upgrade. At least in my book.


----------



## Radi_SVK (Nov 28, 2010)

sneekypeet said:


> Trip to radio shack and recap that board



Now thats what I call a perfect solution under these circumstances!!


----------



## sneekypeet (Nov 28, 2010)

if you already have the iron its a $5-10 fix.


----------



## Radical_Edward (Nov 28, 2010)

Maybe I'll give it a shot. I have the tools needed for it. Just need the caps.


----------



## sneekypeet (Nov 28, 2010)

Google the numbers on the caps. I know u can get em online cheap if you aren't real close to stores.


----------



## Radical_Edward (Nov 28, 2010)

Thanks Sneeky, I'll see what I can do fix wise, wish me luck.


----------



## (FIH) The Don (Nov 28, 2010)

love these kinda things, shows its not just about how big e-peen you can get, but about helping each other with what you got 

those 85$ could be used on a used am2 + board for like 30ish something and a 50$ cpu, perhaps one of the older phenom 8650 triplecores


----------



## Cybrnook (Nov 28, 2010)

Just to randomly chime in, I recently saved an old 939 HP board from death by re-capping it. It honestly cost me $5 (shipping included) to order the caps I needed and a whopping 15 min of work and it was a fun little project. MB works like a champ and is now my xbox modding pc. 

Go for it! Just make sure to keep an eye on the positive side of the cap. (Is usually opposite of the white stripe on the board under the cap. (If I remember correctly)).

Good luck and have fun doing. I'm sure she would be impressed by your "Mad scientist skills"


----------



## (FIH) The Don (Nov 28, 2010)

what mb is that?


----------



## Radical_Edward (Nov 28, 2010)

It's a EVGA Nforce4. I'm going to try and recap it, if I can't do it right, she'll return the "new" X2 she bought, and spend $140 + ship for a the following. (I have a feeling some of this will come out of my pocket, but that's okay with me.)

MSI 740GM-P25 AM3 AMD 740G Micro ATX AMD Motherboa...

AMD Athlon II X2 210e Regor 2.6GHz 2 x 512KB L2 Ca...

GeIL 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1066 (P...

She'd have to find a new GPU later on.


----------



## Hayder_Master (Nov 28, 2010)

Radical_Edward said:


> seems she's in need of something else....



if there is something more else , buy new a motherboard for her don't be Skimpy 

LOL, i was joking dude do as sneeky told u


----------



## Radical_Edward (Nov 28, 2010)

Seems she just spent $175 for more ram and the "new" CPU, she's planning on returning them and spending $140 plus ship for the above. Then I'll recap her board, and she can sell it for parts to pay for a new GPU.


----------



## MT Alex (Nov 28, 2010)

Radical_Edward said:


> It's a EVGA Nforce4. I'm going to try and recap it, if I can't do it right, she'll return the "new" X2 she bought, and spend $140 + ship for a the following. (I have a feeling some of this will come out of my pocket, but that's okay with me.)
> She'd have to find a new GPU later on.



I have been eyeballing this combo for weeks, thinking of upgrading my wife's 4200+.  $100 for an AII x2 240, Mobo, and 2 gigs of ddr2.  [FS] Athlon II x2 240, ASRock AM3/AM2+, DDR2, 9600...


----------



## Radical_Edward (Nov 28, 2010)

Thing is, if she upgrades, that's all she'll be able to do for quite a while. So a AM3 board would be better for the moment.


----------



## TheLaughingMan (Nov 28, 2010)

I believe this RAM would be a better overall buy:  GeIL Value PLUS 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM D...

It is $2 cheaper and the latency is not that great, but the clock speed should still give better overall throughput for her system.  And if the mobo can't clock that high, it should have similar timing as the RAM you picked out, but at 1333 Mhz instead of 1066.

An extra $2 overall can be used on the mobo for a huge bump in GPU power with say:  BIOSTAR A880G+ AM3 AMD 880G HDMI Micro ATX AMD Mot...

Not sure what she plans to do with the system, but that mobo's GPU should handle HD video like it was a joke and do some light to mild gaming if she is into casual games or older titles.  It should be easier to bare with until a dedicated card is found for her.


----------



## Radical_Edward (Nov 28, 2010)

Thanks for the RAM link, and I don't think much of biostar.


----------



## TheLaughingMan (Nov 28, 2010)

Radical_Edward said:


> Thanks for the RAM link, and I don't think much of biostar.



lol

At the price range you have to work with....it is all about the same "quality" and I use that term loosely.


----------



## Radical_Edward (Nov 28, 2010)

Yeah, but I would like to deal with good customer service, something that I so far, have had great luck with MSI in being just that.


----------



## TheLaughingMan (Nov 28, 2010)

I don't think that would be an issue.

Either way, glad to help.


----------



## t_ski (Nov 28, 2010)

Interested in how you make out recapping the board.  We have a lot of Dell systems at work that seem to be dying because of bad caps.  $5 fix versus $100 for a new board is definitely the way I'd rather go, but one of the electricians at work said you can't recap these if they are multilayer boards.  It seems he was full of shit, just trying to keep himself from having to do some extra work.


----------



## Radical_Edward (Nov 28, 2010)

I'll make sure to let you guys know how the recapping goes. If it goes well that board will be up for grabs on here or Craigslist.


----------



## sneekypeet (Nov 28, 2010)

t_ski said:


> Interested in how you make out recapping the board.  We have a lot of Dell systems at work that seem to be dying because of bad caps.  $5 fix versus $100 for a new board is definitely the way I'd rather go, but one of the electricians at work said you can't recap these if they are multilayer boards.  It seems he was full of shit, just trying to keep himself from having to do some extra work.



I'm going to go ahead and say i want your tech's job

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/fixing-motherboard,1606-7.html


----------



## freaksavior (Nov 28, 2010)

Which caps does she need?

I have these - 







If you need them, they are yours. Pm me and we can discuss shipping


----------



## Radical_Edward (Nov 28, 2010)

FZ57 1500 6.3V

That's what the old caps that are vented say. I did some googling and found these... 

http://www.badcaps.net/store/product_info.php?products_id=66

http://www.badcaps.net/store/product_info.php?products_id=65

Also, if anyone has a decent video card recommendation for her case, that would be awesome. This is basically her case, hers is very similar. Also she already has a 500W PSU with two 6 pins for a graphics card.


----------

