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General discussion

MSI MOBO - slow death

May 27, 2014 1:54PM PDT

Truly thankful for all this help recently from the cnet community. It's just that time again, when you find yourself financially stable and have the time to do computer upgrades and fixes you've been putting off the past couple of years.

Let me introduce the amazing and wonderful board, MSI H77MA-G43. This has served me well the past two-ish years. So has the graphics card. On this desktop I really enjoy just messing around with adobe after effects, sony vegas pro, and fruity loops 11.

Inside of the roomy Antec case is:
http://www.frys.com/product/6909367 (link to case)
Intel Core i7 2600 @ 3.40GHz
8.00GB Dual-Channel DDR3 @ 665MHz (9-9-9-24)
MSI H77MA-G43 (MS-7756) (SOCKET 0)
2047MB NVIDIA GeForce GT 630 (EVGA)
111GB Crucial_CT120M500SSD1 (SSD) holds win7 and heavy apps, but all their video storage and stuff goes to the raid
1863GB ARRAY0 (SATA)
it also has a disconnected optical drive as dvd/cd are a rare thing these days.

Here is the issue. This past year I got the brilliant idea of connecting an AMD Raedon 5770 and trying to SLI it to the EVGA GT 630. To make matters worse, we cant forget me trying to charge two laptops, a cell phone, and two more things all out of the back of the MOBO's USB ports.

The PSU is some kind of corsair rated for 750w. It should've handled everything fine? Everything is running through two (still working) surge protectors, both about $35.

As a result of that brilliant stroke of genius...
*Only the four front USB's (two 3.0, two 2.0) work.
*One of the SATA ports are dead, leaving 4/6 left, also providing the need to unplug the dvd drive to give room to the 1TB SeaGate laptop drive I put in as a backup incase the raid failed.
*2/4 ram slots are dead, which left me with no choice but to buy two 4GB ram sticks. Everything seemed to be cut in half.

This past year, the MOBO has been dying a slow and painful death. Also the wireless card slot doesn't work, tried it with an extra I had floating around from an older desktop.

About four hours ago I called MSI, and they were unable to help, just offered to sell me a new MOBO. I'm already expecting to shell out another 200-300 for a MOBO, just not until this one really kicks its bucket.

Is there anything to do to breathe new life in this board or is it truly tared n feathered? Was thinking of putting it in an empty Dell XPS 8300 case and trying to turn it into some sort of storage server.
If it is indeed (and most probably on its last bits) dying, what are some decent somewhat cheap MOBO's out there?
Looking for one with preferably more SATA 3 ports (4 SATA 3, 4 SATA), and two graphics cards so I can setup two of the EXACT cards this time. Also looking for USB 3.0 which is fairly common anyways.

ps-
built the rig myself, except for mounting the CPU, I had a technician at Frys put that on for me.

To save posts, also been interested in a DIY HTPC for around 400 bucks. Just something that doesn't struggle to play 1080p video on the 32" samsung that is also a 1080p display. RasperryPi just didn't do the job. My friend has one and it really fights tooth and nail to play 1080p, and Transformers 1 or 2 it just gives up and you see frame skipping.
Should I go micro atx or mini atx for the case and mobo?
Looking for a small, but still flexible case to house the parts, while being as silent as possible. If going the MiniATX route, would there be enough airflow to be able to use a fanless PSU and just go with a quiet 120mm fan in the back?

Discussion is locked

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My old core 2 duo lenovo laptop with Intel 4500MHD HDMI
May 27, 2014 2:18PM PDT

Played 1080p on the HDTV just fine. As to Transformers please don't go near movie downloads in any discussion here. You may not be aware our host is CBS.
Bob

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never again
May 27, 2014 2:37PM PDT

Sorry, from now on, I'll never again mention about movies in general. Was aware CBS hosts cnet, didn't realise that talking about other movies was a no-no. And by downloading, does backing up dvd's purchased in a retail store count as illegal? Honestly can't see any reason after paying for a movie one isn't allowed to back it up somewhere for later use or travel purposes. Nonetheless, I'll make sure that I never mention movies on this forum again. Thanks for the heads up.

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We had a discussion about it
May 28, 2014 1:12AM PDT

And discussions were locked, cleaned even when we noted a CNET article on how to do this. So let's steer clear of the minefield.

Back on topic. Here, a 2.0GHz Core2Duo laptop with 4500MHD over HDMI ran just fine at 1080p. Didn't have any 3D back then so my bet is it might be hard to find less capable machines.
Bob

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USB charging
May 30, 2014 1:35PM PDT
"To make matters worse, we cant forget me trying to charge two laptops, a cell phone, and two more things all out of the back of the MOBO's USB ports."

why not buy a powered USB hub and save your motherboard's USB ports?
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@james d..
May 31, 2014 4:48AM PDT

the reason for charging two laptops, cell phone, etc.. was because at the time I figured why not. Ever have a why not moment in your life? This was at the point when the two ram slots were already dead and after one of the two GPU slots died too. Figured it's already half way there so no harm in seeing if it can charge most of the devices at that time. Found out too much Watts or Volts (not sure which), but there's a slightly singed look to the MOBO in that area. Got a new MOBO since then. Went with ASUS.

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this sounds like bad caps
May 31, 2014 12:06PM PDT

check badcaps.net site and also google "bad capacitors" and set google to Images, so you can see what I mean. That problem has many symptoms that can appear, but what you describe are some of the classic ones.