re: PC Discussion - Gaming, Performance and Enthusiasts

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what sort of machinery do you use to do the socket change outs?

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I bought an infrared BGA rework station. It's just a cheap one I paid $450 for so I can get my feet wet but it works so far no problems. I plan on upgrading soon though since it seems like something I am going to keep doing.

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also, how do you know all the board needs is a new socket?

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I have been buying brand new boards from Newegg they take in as returns with bent pins. I have a few other sources I get some from but so far Newegg has been the majority. All of the boards except for one that I have bought still had the plastic protectors on the heat sinks and stuff. People have been messing them up while installing the CPUs.

I also bought a MOBO tester in case it doesn't post or something after I change the socket out. If I mess the board up too bad I either RMA (if I can) or save them for scrap parts. I have been just buying Asrock boards because you can take a sledge hammer to an Asrock board and they will send you a replacement for $50. I sent them back the first 4 I fricked up and the replacements should be here next week. I will make a little on those boards but at least I am not losing money on them while learning.

I only have an Asus board that I can't do anything with so far because I pulled the connector pads off of the mobo when taking the old socket off. It was the second one I did and I only paid $12 shipped for it so no biggie.

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for our purposes at work it either works or it doesnt. if it doesnt work, get a new one.

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I called some shops last week here in LC and they said the same thing but only because there is no one in the area that does BGA rework. I am taking some business cards into some next week and a few of them seemed genuinely interested. We will see.

I am also going to see about buying their bad stock to repair and sell on ebay.

There isn't really a "game" aspect to it. They have different flights and scenarios that you can fly but its not a game like COD and other games that have different levels. It can be very realistic if you have a high performance PC and tons of add-ons. If you Youtube "FSX HD" you can see edited videos that people create that look very realistic. I know a few private pilots that use it for down time when they are not flying.

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stout

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thats really smart. i may take that sort of idea to our owner and see what we might do.
sometimes we end up in the situation where the customer absolutely cannot risk an OS reinstall due to not wanting to lose programs. obviously sometimes we cant find said board from any vendor other than ebay. this might be a decent solution.

Thanks for the help again guys. I may have a few more questions when I start doing the build but this definitely gets me started in the right direction.

If you don't know how to build newegg has a great how to video series on youtube

First Boot successful, now to get windows on this beast.


Thanks to blue for half the shite in this pic

company of heroes 2 awaits.

I was on OCN and someone PM me to join TD. I saw this thread and figured why not

Grats. Now do some cable management on that thing please.