My PC just died

General Off-Topic
#1

I have a JAMMA cabinet with a 24" CRT monitor in it, connected to a PC via a J-PAC. Everything was perfect until this afternoon…

The PC, cobbled together from the kids gaming PC cast offs uses an i7-4790k @ 5GHz on an ASRock motherboard with 16Gb of DDR3. Unfortunately, the motherboard appears to have dies this afternoon, which has left me with a bit of a predicament.

Do I purchase a second hard 1150 motherboard and drop the old CPU/RAM in it, or do I replace the CPU/MB/RAM with something newer. Even though it’s pretty ancient now, the 4790k CPU is still half decent and does everything I need. It just seems a bit daft purchasing another board for a CPU that’s approaching its 10th birthday.

On the other hand looking at comparisons, I’m gonna have to spend a bit to get something with more grunt than the 4790k…

Anyway have any suggestions on what to get thanks?

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#2

I guess it depends on what you like to run on it. I think there’s a good argument to be made for just getting a small form-factor Ryzen box and tossing it in there.

EDIT: you can surely get a cheap ivy bridge mobo second-hand, but who knows how long it’ll last.

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#3

Are you 100% the motherboard died? Do you have any way to test the board with other CPU and RAM, maybe take the PC to someone who fixes computers that could test your parts?

The gap between a 2011 CPU to one made in 2023 is considerable, but way less than something manufactured in the early 2000’s, specially for a computer focused on emulation, the benefits of dropping all your parts to buy all new ones won’t be that noticeable, unless you really push PS3/X360/current PC games, still, a really decent PC you got there.

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#4

Yes, it’s definitely the motherboard - my daughter still uses a system built on an i5-4690. I’d steal her motherboard but she might notice… Mr son however, does have a Ryzen 7 based system - maybe I need to convince him to upgrade…

Looking online, a working socket 1150 SLI board (It has two gfx cards in it) still costs second hand what they did new 8 years ago.

Still got no idea which way to go. It does run some PS3 games, but it’s generally not too much of a problem - probably because the CRT monitor maxes out at 640x480 interlaced. What sort of CPU would I be looking at to get a speed increase over the 4790k?

#5

I’m no expert, but I read the latest CPUs are really efficient overall, there are specialized websites you can compare your i7 for a more detailed analysis. If 7th gen is something you aim for, RPCS3 runs much faster with modern CPUs which feature TSX instructions, I’d guess 9th gen Intel CPUs onwards, probably?

As for PS2/Wii and below, your i7 is more than enough, even for systems which support input lag reduction.

#6

Quite a number of options would easily fit this bill.

Much has taken place in the world of motherboards, CPUs, RAM, Graphics Cards and Solid State Drives since then.

Sometimes it’s just time to cut your losses and move on.

Either get a great deal on a replacement motherboard or just get something more modern. It doesn’t have to be the latest gen. It doesn’t have to be new either but do look at your opportunity costs.

Look at the prices of Ryzen 3600s and up, B350/X370 or B450/X470 motherboards. You’ve got tons of options. GPUs like Radeon RX 6600 and up as well but of course you can reuse your old GPUs.

24" CRT? You can probably get away with a cheap AMD APU.

Replacing the motherboard is just delaying the inevitable and you can even keep your old parts as spares or use them to upgrade the other system in your home then sell the remaining parts to some sucker on the internet. Don’t be that sucker though.

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#7

Hi, thanks for the replies.

This PC has a bit of a split personality - on the one hand its main display is a 24" 15k CRT arcade monitor for that authentic arcade feel. It’s also connected to my 75" 4k TV for those 4 player Bomberman sessions…

To display to the CRT I use a Radeon R9 280x (The last Radeon to have a real, proper analogue VGA output) while the TV connects via an RTX 2060. Using the CRT, it really doesn’t matter what CPU is in there - the Radeon is the bottleneck.

I guess I’ve been happy with this PC for the past few years and had the motherboard not failed, I wouldn’t dream of replacing it. Think I’ll buy a second hand 1150 motherboard which will give me time to plan my next PC build…

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#8

Interesting, hopefully you can share the full details of your setup one day.

This makes me think of my setup. Have you ever tried running something like this?

CyberLab Mega Bezel Death To Pixels Shader Preset Pack

Or this?

RetroGames4K’s Mega Bezel screen pics, gameplays & custom settings

Or even this?

Sony Megatron Color Video Monitor

This?

Koko-aio shader discussions and updates

This?

New CRT shader from Guest + CRT Guest Advanced updates

This?

Sonkun’s crt-guest-advanced-hd presets thread

Or maybe this?

Zomb’s Mega Bezel Pack

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#9

Hardware wise, my PC is as follows:

Intel i7-4790k (Overclocked to 5GHz), AIO water cooled.

16GB DDR3L RAM

Radeon R9 280X Graphics card

Nvidia RTX 2060 Super Graphics card

1x 1Tb SATA SSD (Boot)

3x 16Tb SATA Hard Drives (Storage)

Currently no motherboard :frowning:

Everything except the drives has been cast offs from the kids gaming PCs.

It’s kept in a Play Scene JAMMA cabinet, with the PC built using one of these:

There’s also a J-PAC adaptor to connect the front panel and CRT to the PC.

Software wise, I use windows 10 along with the AttractMode front end. The main emulators are GroovyMAME and RetroArch. AttractMode has been significantly customised to allow me to build nested menus. I’ve lost count of the number of batch files and scripts I’ve had to write to get it all working together.

I think if I ever get rid of the CRT monitor, I’d look into the shader and effects packs but until then there didn’t seem any point. I do have a Samsung (Non-widescreen) 21.3" LCD monitor that’s pretty much a direct size drop in for the 24" CRT but I’ve resisted the idea. I think once the CRT or Radeon dies I’ll think about it.

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#10

Thanks for the detailed setup info. Sounds like you might need to make regular backups to protect all of your hard work!

I wasn’t thinking about you getting rid of the CRT monitor, just thinking that you might have enjoyed the “next best thing” or possibly even a comparable experience for those 4 player bomberman sessions on that 75" 4K TV, especially since you already have all the horsepower you need sans motherboard.

Was also genuinely curious as to whether or not you actually ever experienced some of RetroGames4K’s and my latest work on that gloriously huge TV of yours!

#11

Ah, get you.

I’ve never tried - not because I’m not interested but the way it’s set up at the moment is that I have a button on the control panel that if pressed runs a batch file that disables one of the graphics cards and enables the other - repeated presses swap between them.

This means that from the emulators perspective it’s using the same configuration regardless of which display is being used. To enable effects only on one display will take a bit of work - unless I’m thinking about things wrongly.

I’ve ordered a replacement motherboard (A used Gigabyte Z97 based board) - when it arrives and set up we’ll have a play.

IMG_0225
IMG_02253735×2112 1.32 MB

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#12

Thanks for the pics!

These are some examples of what my latest presets look like.

Potential Spoiler Alert

The easiest answer I can think of for this is to run a side by side configuration for each display/GPU/RetroArch setup combo but RetroArch does support multiple configuration files.

I’m sure someone a lot smarter than I am might have already figured out a solution to this somewhere.

I actually have one of these, SLI too, sitting in a draw for some years now with some DDR3 2400 plus a Core i7-5775C relidded, with liquid metal between both dies and the heatspreader!

My plan is to build it into an emulation rig, primarily to run my Mega Bezel Reflection Shader presets but you’ve given me a lot to consider.

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#13

You may want to go to the manufacture’s website of the second hand motherboard you purchase and see if the BIOS are upgradable. That in my experience of running Linux for 13 years, has helped.

I looked on Amazon for LGA 1150 motherboards and most are under $100.00. The “Refurbished” MSI Z97 PC Mate LGA 1150 Intel Z97 on Newegg’s website for $60.00 looks good to me.

Best wishes for a new mobo.

Hope that helps.

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#14

Hmmm. Not having much luck today. The new motherboard arrived but we’re not having much luck. I’ve just got the m/b, CPU, RAM and PSU connected but all I get is a flash of a mouse pointer, then nothering. The mouse pointer will be from the BIOS since there’s no drives connected.

I made a video here: https://youtu.be/dusS5_RNMms

My old motherboard had issued with the SATA ports and the CPU/RAM/PSU still work perfectly on it. Please, ignore the state of my desk lol.

#15

Have you tested the RAM/CPU/GPU etc in another PC? It would be nice to iron out possible faulty RAM, etc.

#16

My original motherboard still powers up, it just doesn’t detect anything connected to the SATA ports any more. I think this was caused because the SATA ports are in line with a PCI-E 16x slots - you need to use right angle cables and even then the graphics card presses down on the SATA connectors/cables.

So, yes I’m reasonably confident the CPU/RAM/PSU work OK.

#17

I’ve just decimated my daughters PC (The only other 1150 system I have access to). The new board doesn’t work with my 4790k or my daughters i5-4690. I managed to find about 90GB of DDR3 and it doesn’t make any difference which is used either.

I guess this “Fully working” motherboard isn’t.

#18

That’s a bummer, I imported a 1150 from Alixpress a few years ago and the board works like a champ. What are you planning to do, ask for a replacement?

#19

If nothing works…try to remove the small battery from the mobo for 10/15 minutes and then put it back and try the start-up.

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#20

I’d say that getting a flash of the mouse pointer is a pretty good sign that the board might be working.

Make sure the CMOS Jumper is on Normal operation instead of CLR CMOS.

Try a new CMOS Battery or a known good one.

Leave out the CMOS Battery for at least an hour and also remove the CPU and RAM.

Test all RAM in good system using MemTest 86+ or use only 1 stick of known good RAM until you get everything up and running.

It could be a simple memory training issue that you’re experiencing.

If this is the case you can get a PCI-E SATA card and be back in business again.

Could just have some cracked/cold solder joints. Something that a good electronics repair technician might be able to easily repair.

Have you tried brand new SATA cables?

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