Buying a replacement PC, advice needed.

M

Massy2k

New Member
I've recently been having a load of problems with my current PC, its a slimline edition I payed a fortune for about a year and a half ago and now its almost completely useless. It has I tiny fan which really doesn't do anything to help cool the PC down at all, I've had to result to taking off one side of the casing just so the PC can breathe otherwise it overheats too fast and doesn't allow me to do anything. Right now with the side of the casing off, the components inside still overheat after maybe 15-20mins and when I mean overheat I mean you could cook an egg on there.

Anyway, I don't have much money to spend so I'm looking at PC base units to save a little cash. I can continue to use my old monitor, keyboard etc. The last time I went PC shopping I got hold of the PC with the most RAM I could find which was 2gig back then. But now I cant help but wonder what stats I really should be looking for when buying a PC, I desperately want to avoid getting some fancy looking PC like the current one I have because they are useless.. I really don't care how big and ugly the thing is as long as it gets the job done. I don't plan on doing anything but use the PC for internet browsing and on line gaming, does anyone have any suggestions as to what I should be looking for?

I checked out gaming PCs from PC World which look like they could get the job done but they only sell those ones as whole packages rather than just the individual PC base. I live in the UK so I would prefer to look for something inside the country and preferably someone who delivers like PC World.

I know RAM is important for online gaming but ive come across 'graphics memory' most of which only come with 256mb is this what I should be looking at?

I've looked at a few of the threads here about gaming pc's but their all about building your own and I just dont have it in me to build my own pc, I wouldnt know where and how to start.

Thanks for any advice you guys can offer :)
 
Have you blown out the inside of your case with compressed air?

Heatsinks get clogged with dust and no longer cool.
 
Well before I rebooted the computer 3 or so weeks ago hopeing to solve some of the problems I opened up the side and me and my dad blew away all the dust gathered on all the microchips as well as picked out the giant chunks of dust inside of the fan, I think somehow this has worsened the problem because it never got as hot as it gets now although it looks a lot cleaner and has a lot less dust inside of it. The little grill thing behind the fan was completely clogged up with dust but its all clear now so not sure why its having this problem, the fan is running im looking at it right now because I still dont have the case on.
 
Everything except the two microchips at the bottom get boiling hot, I dont know the individual names for all the components.

Not sure if I used the program Everest properly but heres what the report says:

Sensor
Sensor Properties:
Sensor Type Winbond W83627THF (ISA 290h)

Temperatures:
Motherboard 51 °C (124 °F)
CPU 45 °C (113 °F)
Maxtor 6L300S0 44 °C (111 °F)

Cooling Fans:
CPU 3184 RPM
Chassis 1623 RPM

Voltage Values:
CPU Core 1.30 V
Aux 1.52 V
+3.3 V 3.38 V
+5 V 5.03 V
+12 V 12.42 V
+5 V Standby 4.90 V
VBAT Battery 3.44 V
Debug Info F 35 68 FF
Debug Info T 51 45 127
Debug Info V 7E 5F D3 BB C2 01 21 (03)

My computer has only been on for about 5mins just so I could run this program so its still cool down there but in about 20 or so mins I know it will heat up a whole lot more than it is right now.

Heres some other random information, not sure if it will help.

Motherboard:
CPU Type Intel Pentium 4 650, 3400 MHz (17 x 200)
Motherboard Name Unknown
Motherboard Chipset Intel Grantsdale i915P
System Memory 2048 MB (DDR2-533 DDR2 SDRAM)
BIOS Type AMI (09/13/05)
Display:
Video Adapter RADEON X600 Series Secondary (256 MB)
Video Adapter RADEON X600 Series (256 MB)
3D Accelerator ATI Radeon X600 (RV370)
Monitor Plug and Play Monitor [NoDB] (FGXJ3A0420363)
Storage:
IDE Controller Intel(R) 82801FB Ultra ATA Storage Controllers - 2651
Disk Drive Maxtor 6L300S0 (300 GB, 7200 RPM, SATA)
Disk Drive Generic STORAGE DEVICE USB Device
Disk Drive Generic STORAGE DEVICE USB Device
Optical Drive DVDRW IDE H16X
SMART Hard Disks Status OK
 
Its a Philips LS2300
simg14282.jpg
 
With a computer that new you would be smart to put a little time into fixing the issue rather then just buying another computer. The temps you listed are a bit high but there only about 5-10 more then mine. Do us a favor and take some pictures of all the sides of the case and then a few of the inside of the case so we can get an idea of how things are setup and what kind of cooling setup it has and what extra cooling can be done.

If you could also list all of the fans and heatsinks the system has.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top