Motherboard/CPU Recs

Took my computer in to a shop today. Desktop and my old laptop that overheated. The desktop quit working when the power at the house went out, when power came back the computer stayed off. When I hit the power button it spun the fans and lit the lights, but wouldn't boot. Tried a few more times and it wouldn't even do that. Put the PSU in another computer and it worked. Put the RAM in the same computer and it worked. Put them back in my case. Removed all USB devices. Took out the video card and network card. No change. Took board out of case- no burns or other marks. Reassembled. Told this to the shop. They call me later and tell me PSU/Motherboard/CPU are bad. WTF? :wbs: They ask me how far I want them to go with it:skep: Saying they can get a new board for $80 and they'd price a processor and charge a couple hours labor. F that! I'll pick it up Monday and order my own parts. The laptop died on me a few years back. I figure the processor fried because the venting sucks. It still spins the drives and fans with a charged battery or on the supply but won't boot or display anything. The shop tells me it won't do anything and that the power supply section of the motherboard is dead as well as the CPU.:wbs: Say it would be cheaper to find a new laptop. Fine- that thing is old and only an 800 MHz and the maker is out of business. I don't think should have to pay them anything since they didn't do chit. I'm looking for recommendations for a solid, reliable, up-to-date board (full ATX)and CPU combo. I definitely want front USB, and front audio would be nice. Current processor is a Sempron 3200+ (1.8MHz) so I want to go faster. I think I have a 8x AGP 128Meg video card and a 512Meg stick of PC3200 in it- not playing Halo 3 or anything. Not overclocking. Not looking to spend a chitload either.

This looks like a decent combo, but the board has a lot of mixed reviews. Also not sure what it means "accept Sempron, X2 and FX series" when those are socket 754, AM2/AM2+ and the board is a 939. http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=3564520&CatId=1619 Just found this too. http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=3559714&CatId=2621 Last but not least: http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/searchtools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=3618458&body=QA#tabs And I'm going to bed.

The most frequent issues I see are Power suppls....that on off on off stuff with power going out is really hard on them That's why all of mine have UPS's in the middle. Before you drop all that bread on a new system, spend 30 bucks on a new 500+watt PS and hook it up to your box and see if it boots (you'll want a new one anyway with a new board) often, the 12v (what the fans run on) works but the 3.3 or 5.5 v side burns out.

While I'm at it, I've built literally hundreds of systems and used to be an AMD fan....but I've since become an Intel pusher...they just seem to last longer. I AM a big ASUS fan for either processor......

I put the supply in a known good system and it ran fine. Did the same thing with the RAM. I tried the supply from the good system in my case and it didn't work. I ended up ordering two of these: http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=1558820&CatId=1554 PC5400 DDR2 1GB from Crucial and this bundle: http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=3618458&CatId=2417 An Asus board (100MHz FSB and Nvidia Northbridge) and AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800+ and some MassCool thermal grease. Overkill for my needs really. I saw plenty of boards for less, but I've heard good things about Asus and I really don't want another no-name that goes out of business. As far as I can tell my socket 754 heatsink and fan will fit the 939, but I still need a PCI or PCI express video card.