Made a boo boo with hardware for my wife's computer - advise please.

Agony_Aunt

Agony_Aunt
Wife needed a cheap upgrade as her old comp was playing up and it recently had a Windows reinstall. She had some of my cast off parts, so guess it was just age related.

However, when buying the new parts i foolishly didn't check CPU compatibility with the motherboard. Put the new comp together, wouldn't boot, went checking everything, and finally discovered this via Gigabytes support page for compatible CPUs.

So, now i need to try and return a part and get a compatible part. I don't want to make the same mistake.

Here are the parts i bought

Mobo: https://www.dns-shop.ru/product/fe7ed41aff333330/materinskaa-plata-gigabyte-ga-a320m-s2h/
CPU: https://www.dns-shop.ru/product/39fea32f7e393330/processor-amd-athlon-x4-970-oem/

Here's what is available
Cheapish Socket AM4 mobos: https://www.dns-shop.ru/catalog/17a...-platy/?price=2999-4000,4001-7000&f[8lf]=evwg
Cheapish AM4 processors: https://www.dns-shop.ru/catalog/17a...ce=2499-4000,4001-6000,6001-10000&f[70m]=emb2

(You can play with the filters on the left, its not hard to understand even without Russian).

I'm thinking its easier and cheaper to replace the motherboard.

Any advice before i give the shop a call and try and sort it out?
 
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nemolomen

nemolomen
Honestly I don't see anything in those search results that I would actually buy or even recommend to anyone.

Last year (this month) I replaced the AM3+ ASUS M5A97/AMD FX-6300/16GB DDR3 system I put together in mid 2015 with ASUS TUF X570/AMD Ryzen 7 3700X/16GB DDR4-3200 which I expect to last four more years.

I've tried going the cheap out route in the past and gotten burned nearly every time. OTOH, if you're going to go cheap, or "need" to go that way, go Intel Core i3 with 4 cores or a Core i5 with 2 or 4 cores. I think on the low end Intel is better overall, in my experience.

But I normally go AMD since around 1997 or so for

Have you looked for a pre-built system, on sale, in the price range in which you are bound?
 

Agony_Aunt

Agony_Aunt
nemolomen said:
Honestly I don't see anything in those search results that I would actually buy or even recommend to anyone.

Last year (this month) I replaced the AM3+ ASUS M5A97/AMD FX-6300/16GB DDR3 system I put together in mid 2015 with ASUS TUF X570/AMD Ryzen 7 3700X/16GB DDR4-3200 which I expect to last four more years.

I've tried going the cheap out route in the past and gotten burned nearly every time. OTOH, if you're going to go cheap, or "need" to go that way, go Intel Core i3 with 4 cores or a Core i5 with 2 or 4 cores. I think on the low end Intel is better overall, in my experience.

But I normally go AMD since around 1997 or so for

Have you looked for a pre-built system, on sale, in the price range in which you are bound?
Click to expand...

Keep in mind its for my wife, who just needs MS Office and her social network games. Just looking to throw something cheap together and since i already have the parts ideally not want to change all of them. Not sure about their returns policy either if there is nothing wrong with the components. Its possible i might have to accept that i've wasted some money.

Pre built systems in the price range are no better.
 

nemolomen

nemolomen
Agony_Aunt said:
Keep in mind its for my wife, who just needs MS Office and her social network games.
Click to expand...
This is precisely where I've had bad luck in the past with going cheap when recommending builds for others.

Agony_Aunt said:
Just looking to throw something cheap together and since i already have the parts ideally not want to change all of them. Not sure about their returns policy either if there is nothing wrong with the components. Its possible i might have to accept that i've wasted some money.

Pre built systems in the price range are no better.
Click to expand...
Which available motherboards will that CPU actually work in?
 

Agony_Aunt

Agony_Aunt
nemolomen said:
This is precisely where I've had bad luck in the past with going cheap when recommending builds for others.


Which available motherboards will that CPU actually work in?
Click to expand...

Yes, i already messed up, hoping someone else can advise. Something not too dodgy.
 

Lyvan Kitaen

Lyvan Kitaen
I'd just buy a cheap used Dell Optiplex off of ebay. You can pick one up for around $200 or less. I have a couple of them ( a 7050 SFF and a 7040 mini) and they would work fine for what you describe.
 

Agony_Aunt

Agony_Aunt
Lyvan Kitaen said:
I'd just buy a cheap used Dell Optiplex off of ebay. You can pick one up for around $200 or less. I have a couple of them ( a 7050 SFF and a 7040 mini) and they would work fine for what you describe.
Click to expand...

That would take quite some time. Especially with Russian customs and delivery. She has problems with her computer right now.

And, as i said, i already have parts, just 1 part needs changing. Looking for advice on which part to change for what.
 

Ashnak

Ashnak
Scratchhing head...

MSI claims (on their page): Supports 1st, 2nd and 3rd Gen AMD Ryzen™ / Ryzen™ with Radeon™ Vega Graphics and 2nd Gen AMD Ryzen™ with Radeon™ Graphics / Athlon™ with Radeon™ Vega Graphics and A-series / Athlon X4 Desktop Processors for Socket AM4

Looking on the MSI supported CPU list https://www.msi.com/Motherboard/A320M-A-PRO/support#support-main-block-qvl , I can see the Athlon X4 970 (just after the A-Series) - BUT according to this table, that CPU doesn't have a GPU, so the question is: what GPU are you using/how do you define "does not boot"?
 

Agony_Aunt

Agony_Aunt
Ashnak said:
Scratchhing head...

MSI claims (on their page): Supports 1st, 2nd and 3rd Gen AMD Ryzen™ / Ryzen™ with Radeon™ Vega Graphics and 2nd Gen AMD Ryzen™ with Radeon™ Graphics / Athlon™ with Radeon™ Vega Graphics and A-series / Athlon X4 Desktop Processors for Socket AM4

Looking on the MSI supported CPU list https://www.msi.com/Motherboard/A320M-A-PRO/support#support-main-block-qvl , I can see the Athlon X4 970 (just after the A-Series) - BUT according to this table, that CPU doesn't have a GPU, so the question is: what GPU are you using/how do you define "does not boot"?
Click to expand...

GPU is an old GTX760. Also got my old 960 lying around, but for that i'd need a better PSU and trying to keep the budget down.
 

Ashnak

Ashnak
Just to make sure (common mistake I'm not exactly innocent of myself): you plugged the monitor into the GPU outputs, not the Mobo outputs?
 

Agony_Aunt

Agony_Aunt
Ashnak said:
Just to make sure (common mistake I'm not exactly innocent of myself): you plugged the monitor into the GPU outputs, not the Mobo outputs?
Click to expand...

The mobo has no graphics card. Although i did do that once a long time ago. But i can also hear the thing isn't booting. Not even a beep.
 

MickyG1982

M
Agony_Aunt said:
GPU is an old GTX760. Also got my old 960 lying around, but for that i'd need a better PSU and trying to keep the budget down.
Click to expand...

Shouldn't need a new PSU for that card, the power consumption for the GTX 960 is actually less.

In any case, I had a similar issue years ago where I bought a CPU mobo combo that was "compatible" but, as it turns out, the mobo needed a BIOS update for my CPU to work with it. In my case I had to buy the cheapest compatible CPU I could possibly find that was compatible with it, install that, then update the BIOS.

If you have a mate with a compatible CPU nearby that is willing to let you tinker with their PC it might be worth asking to borrow their CPU for a bit and do what I did.
 

Agony_Aunt

Agony_Aunt
Ryox said:
Yes, strange, according to the mobo manual it should support an Athlon X4 970. Sometimes you need to upgrade the mobo firmware to extend support to some CPU, did you try ?

Edit : you can flash with the latest firmware : https://www.msi.com/Motherboard/A320M-A-PRO/support#support-main-block-download
Click to expand...

Umm... that's the one that has been suggested to buy, not the one i got in the first place.

I hope i don't need to flash the bios for the CPU to be compatible, because without a compatible CPU i wouldn't be able to do it! :D
 

Agony_Aunt

Agony_Aunt
MickyG1982 said:
Shouldn't need a new PSU for that card, the power consumption for the GTX 960 is actually less.

In any case, I had a similar issue years ago where I bought a CPU mobo combo that was "compatible" but, as it turns out, the mobo needed a BIOS update for my CPU to work with it. In my case I had to buy the cheapest compatible CPU I could possibly find that was compatible with it, install that, then update the BIOS.

If you have a mate with a compatible CPU nearby that is willing to let you tinker with their PC it might be worth asking to borrow their CPU for a bit and do what I did.
Click to expand...

Ok, a PSU adapter then ;) But its ok, she can live with the 760 i'm sure.

As for the upgrading the bios, that would be a gamble since the CPU not officially supported with the Gigabyte board. And besides, trying to find someone who can lend me a compatible CPU might take a while.

Really would like to get her comp done this weekend, which means sorting it out in the next couple of days.
 
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