Peterborough Linux User Group (Canada) Forum

Linux & Android => Marketplace => Topic started by: Jason on May 14, 2019, 07:58:02 PM

Title: Looking to buy a quad-core system or borrow power-supply to test with system
Post by: Jason on May 14, 2019, 07:58:02 PM
Hi folks,
My wife's computer is on the fritz. Not sure if it's the power supply or the motherboard. It is an Intel Core 2 Quad system with 8 GB of RAM. The power supply fan doesn't appear to spinning so I'm thinking it's just that. If anybody has a power supply that I can even borrow to test to see if the motherboard is still working, that'd be really handy. Then I could look at buying a new one. It's a SFF system but I could move the motherboard to a different case if I can't find a reasonably-priced SFF power supply.

Alternatively, if anybody has a quad-core system (AMD or Intel) at any speed they can part with for a reasonable cost, I might just do that. I'm going to check with Reboot tomorrow to see what they have available.
Title: Re: Looking to buy a quad-core system or borrow power-supply to test with system
Post by: dougal on May 15, 2019, 02:17:13 PM
hey Jason , i have a tower spare power supply you could use to check the mobo with, don't have a SFF one handy right now.
Title: Re: Looking to buy a quad-core system or borrow power-supply to test with system
Post by: Jason on May 15, 2019, 03:46:46 PM
Thanks, Bill Dougal. Going to see what Reboot has shortly and I'll let you know.
Title: Re: Looking to buy a quad-core system or borrow power-supply to test with system
Post by: dougal on May 15, 2019, 06:12:41 PM
i've got a couple of towers with quad, under 3ghz. are you using hdmi output from a card?
Title: Re: Looking to buy a quad-core system or borrow power-supply to test with system
Post by: Jason on May 16, 2019, 02:16:10 PM
Quote from: dougal on May 15, 2019, 06:12:41 PM
i've got a couple of towers with quad, under 3ghz. are you using hdmi output from a card?

I am but I have a graphics card which will be moved to the new unit.

Reboot has a Dell server with a quad-core Zeon processor that I've ordered for $109. They're testing it today and putting Windows 10 on it.
Title: Re: Looking to buy a quad-core system or borrow power-supply to test with system
Post by: dougal on May 16, 2019, 07:33:01 PM
that's a decent machine and price...FYI and others...I usually ask about 25$ to cover any costs I may have in these units or to purchase parts for the next ones.
Title: Re: Looking to buy a quad-core system or borrow power-supply to test with system
Post by: Jason on May 16, 2019, 08:43:52 PM
I should have thought of checking with you directly first, Dougal. I'll try and remember for the next purchase :)

I'm still going to try and get the old machine working again if it's just the power supply. If it's the motherboard, it's probably not worth it. So the next time you're in town, Bill, shoot me a text. Oops, thought you were Bill :)
Title: Re: Looking to buy a quad-core system or borrow power-supply to test with system
Post by: dougal on May 17, 2019, 12:23:44 AM
my assumption here is that you have attributed one of my earlier posts to Bill....and because i'm not receiving  notifications on this topic (though the settings say I should??) i would be happier to exchange emails than use this forum thread, to figure a way to get the power supply to you.
Title: Re: Looking to buy a quad-core system or borrow power-supply to test with system
Post by: Jason on May 17, 2019, 03:59:23 AM
Lol. Duh, yeah. Sorry about that. I'll contact you via email. Want to get my wife's system up and running first so probably won't be until the weekend after this one.

Regarding notifications, perhaps check your spam folder if you haven't already. And make sure the email address you're using for your profile is the one you want to get notifications on. I've noticed it's not the address you've used when you and I have conversed on email the last few months.
Title: Re: Looking to buy a quad-core system or borrow power-supply to test with system
Post by: Jason on May 21, 2019, 08:08:18 AM
Though the tech at Reboot was saying I was going to be getting a Xeon-based system, it ended up being one based on Intel Core 2 Quad 2.66 Ghz, which is fine since it was what I wanted originally. The system it was replacing was Core 2 Quad albeit at 2.4 Ghz so that's fine and they knocked $10 off the price since it uses DDR2 ram (came with 8 GB same as before). Ended up being $99 + taxes.

Basically, it's a Dell Precision T3400 and the case inside is really nice, most things don't require screws and the cooling is insane. I've never seen such a big heat sink included in a system before. The huge fan is attached on the side of the heat sink and pulls air/through it. Built quality looks great. Though it came with an old nVidia-based card, my wife's is better so I switched it over along with her 240 GB SSD to replace the 500 GB built-in SATA drive.

They installed Windows 10 on it for me. I restored my wife's files from a backup and used EaseUs ToDo Backup to clone the drive to the SSD. I did it that way because I was worried about her Windows 10 license not working and it's a lot nicer than doing it with Clonezilla. They have a free version that will do full cloning (Windows/Mac only).

She's been pretty happy with it so far.