Hey all, I'd been using my laptop as my main computer for the past year now, but I missed having a desktop. So I decided, instead of buying a whole new computer (I'm not that much into gaming anyways), I would just use whatever parts I could find around the house. I'd just finished builing it yesterday: Asus K8N-E Deluxe motherboard, AMD Athlon 64 2800 processor, ATI Radeon 9600 256MB video card, 712MB DDR ram (was going to update this), 2 x 500GB Seagate 7200RPM HDs, 120GB Maxtor 7200RPM HD, and a DVD burner (not sure which, not at home now.) The main use of this box was to be a file server, and I noticed after only a couple of hours uptime that the hard drives were getting really hot. So I grabbed all of my extra fans (from the past two decades), and set about connecting them to the motherboard and power supply. This required stripping the wires and modifying the ends (these fans are 20 years old, remember), which worked for five of the fans. When I got to the sixth and last fan, I stripped the ends and connected them to the fan leads on the motherboard, turned it on, and a big puff of smoke accompanied by a crackling sound filled my room. Damn. I left it overnight, and booted it up this morning. It seems to start up normally, but the display is just a bunch of flashing stripes and squares, and then it hangs. So I guess it all boils down to two questions. First, what are the chances that something else other than the motherboard (i.e. the processor) have been damaged? I took everything apart, and was unable to find any burn marks anywhere. the only odd things I noticed were a slightly different texture (not sure how else to explain this) on the component on the motherboard where the crackling came from, and the processor was stuck--literally, impossible to pry off, unless I get a screwdriver--to the heatsink. Second, what now? Should I buy another Asus K8N-E Deluxe? Hardly seems worth the ~$130 for a new one at NCIX.com, especially if the processor's gone, too. A bargain basket socket 754 motherboard? There are a few going for under $30 on eBay. I was thinking maybe I should invest in a whole new rig, and get back into gaming for all these great new games coming out (Bioshock, Crysis, Half Life 2: Episode Two). I could offset the price by selling these parts on eBay--although again, I don't know which ones are working and which aren't. Writing all this helped put it into perspective, and I'm leaning towards buying a bargain basket replacement motherboard. Any input is very welcome Edit: anyone know what the difference is between the Asus K8N-E and the Asus K8N-E Deluxe?
$30 on ebay, I would suggest, what connectors did fans use 20 years ago? same/similar to ones we use now?
