1150 LGA/ Mini-itx current gaming machine questions/direction advice?

[jayseearr]

Let me briefly explain the machine in question before i get into a few questions and begin to seek advice/direction:

- AsRock Z97e-itx/ac motherboard (broken pciex16 slot)
- Intel i7 4790k 4ghz cpu (4th gen haswell chip socket 1150 LGA ) / Noctua NH-U14S
- MSI Rx580 Armor OC 8gb gpu
- Fractal Design Nano S case (mini itx)
- 8gb Patriot DDR3 1600mhz RAM (single channel 1x8gb stick)
- Corsair SF600 PSU
- Samsung EVO 860 1TB SSD / Toshiba 3TB HDD

Ok, so i discovered the one and only pciex16 slot on this mini itx board is not working which really has me me scratching my head on what to do next. My goal is to get this machine up and running capable of mid-level 1080p gaming as cheaply and efficiently as possible. Normally I would say no big deal just replace the board/add a ram stick and you got a working/quality gaming system. In this case however, given the older 4th gen chip socket and build form factor the options appear to be extremely limited. Most manufacturers have stopped producing SFF boards that support this particular socket type. ( the motherboard in the machine currently is selling for 200-300$ used and $400-500 new if you can even find it which is just absurd ). Although this is an aging chip it's still fairly bad ass and capable of what I need it do in this situation. I'm not willing to by used a used board off of personal sellers on ebay and pay over priced shipping, and wait longer than usual on a part that may or may not work. I'm open to the idea of buying a used board from a certified repair/refurbished seller that back their product but i can't seem to find a reasonable deal going that route either. It seems as though I'm stuck between biting the bullet and buying an obnoxiously over-priced refurbished board with rapidly dating memory support / or replacing the chip/board/case/ram which is of course less efficient and more costly. Any advice/direction would be appreciated. what would you gurus do in this situation given the circumstances? obviously nobody wants to spend more money than necessary to accomplish their goal but at the same time I'm starting to feel as though I'd pretty much be pissing into the wind if I drag this chip along for the ride (even though I'd like to). Perhaps there's a cheaper alternative than rebuilding half the system that i have not wrapped my head around or maybe there's a reliable/reasonable motherboard source for this chip/case that I haven't managed to find.

I looked into the pci-e slot with a magnifying glass to try to identify the problem and it seems as though there is either a tiny little piece of metal in there or one of the pins is distorted causing it to appear shinier than the rest of the pins. Since the motherboard is pretty much useless to this machine without a pcie 3.0x16 slot i briefly entertained the idea in my mind of pulling the plastic protective covering off and investigating a little further or attempting a surgery, but then again I think my chance of success would be minimal and I wouldn't want to risk damaging the gpu after the fact

 

[Vario]

Thats really the problem of ITX systems long term. You could switch to a m-atx motherboard, keep your current ram and cpu, and get a different case, or just build a new system but you wouldn't be able to reuse your current CPU and ram.

Since anything LGA1150 is quite old at this point and the motherboards are mostly used, you might be best off building a new system. On eBay, the term 'Refurbished' doesn't mean anything other than 'Used'.

 

[jayseearr]

Thank you vario, I certainly wouldn't have built this configuration myself I just happened to get a good deal on it second hand. The small footprint is nice but in my opinion it's not worth the compromise of features and overall support. Not to mention the nuisance of having to play legos anytime you want to service or maintain it. That said, it's been a great machine for almost a year now until the slot started to malfunction -_-

 

[steen]

If you're happy enough with existing performance, I'd track down a suitable used matx/atx board from your local Sell/Swap/Buy forum, get a bigger case & try to match a 2nd 8GB RAM module. You may even luck onto an itx x87/97. If you think it's a PCIE contact, use a probe to try removing fragments/straighten contacts. I recently bought some used parts & so far, so good...

 

[jayseearr]

For me personally I was happy with the performance. Of course it can always be better but ultimately I'm just seeking 1080p 120hz-144hz performance (as that's the monitor i have) Steen I think what you mentioned may be my best play. If i could get this system up and running and sell it as a whole 6 months to a year down the road that would be ideal. I'd love to avoid the headache of trying to part this machine out and i could maximize my return on it better with less effort. not to mention I think it still has potential of being a great starter rig for someone else in the future if i can get it there(reasonably).

 

[steen]

Yeah, I know where you're coming from. I probably agree with @Vario, though. Cut your losses, sell the pieces you have as they seem to fetch a decent price, even the MB with defective PCIEx16, & move to a newer new/used platform. I lucked onto someone who upgraded their render boxes & sold me the old parts cheap. I've wanted to upgrade the kid's X58 W3680 systems for some time & had a couple of P9X79 Deluxe boards with SNB-E that I thought to upgrade to IVB-EP. For the price of a 1680v2, I got a 2700x/x370/16GB DDR4 combo. When factored over three systems & bonuses of 3x 250GB nvme, unused stock HSFs & the old cases it was a no-brainer.

 

[jayseearr]

Well, I appreciate your guy's feedback. If that's the route i choose to go, what do you think the best option for selling the board would be? Obviously i would have to sell it as defective and i have zero experience with that. On the other hand i feel as though it could potentially be an easy fix in the right hands and therefore still quite valuable. Anybody have any experience with buying or selling defective mobos that would have any advice in this regard?

 

[Vario]

One possibility is list the motherboard on eBay as "For Parts or Repair" in the title and probably for $50 buy it now. Make sure you describe it completely and note that it works but the PCIE slot no longer functions but may be repairable.

The 4790K would be $190 buy it now.
The ram stick would be $30 buy it now.

I would not do free shipping, just make sure you weight the box carefully so your shipping estimate is correct and you don't lose money on shipping. I use eBay's sold listings feature to find the prices for hardware.

 

[jayseearr]

Ok thanks again you two . I suppose that is what i most likely will do. It's an unfortunate headache and i will go without a machine for quite a while but such is life I suppose. Aside from all of that, the idea of completely refreshing the machine the way I want it is certainly exciting.