anyone know if a 939 Opteron heatsink can be used on an AM2 Athlon64? Looking at what it will take to replace everything :(
It seems stupid to try just buying a new 939 mobo when it may turn out to be that my CPU and RAM are dead too, then I would be stuck replacing them with DDR and a 939 CPU instead of being on AM2.

Yeah, prices have come down a good amount. I'm looking at the Gigabyte M61P-S3 w/ an A64X2 blackbox and 2gigs of Corsair for about $300. That should be a solid system. If my 7600GT is dead then throw in another $100 for an 8600GT. If my HDD is dead then good riddance, it's a 60gig ATA133 I've had for years so throw in another $60 for some fancy SATA shit. In reality I will probably buy the cheapest AM2 CPU I can find to save money since swinging $300 is going to be really hard right now. If my Opty HSF I have now works on the AM2 chip then the blackbox CPU is a bit more affordable at least. Sure wish I could fucking test my gear though, I don't have anything to swap out and can't figure out why the fuck the new PSU isn't powering shit up at all, it's really weirding me out, doesn't seem like normal behavior at all. I guess I will really just have to bite the damn bullet and buy new shit. I've been without computer for a week now and it's driving me nuts already.

Here's a good bundle, AMD AM2 style. 

AM2 MoBo Package Deal

And here's a good bundle from the Intel side. 

Intel MoBo Package Deal

DDR2 Ram for the Intel

Then I'll get you a nice price on some stuff from the egg.  I use both, which ever has the best price, wins. 

I know how annoying it is when a shitty PSU fucks up your computer, It happend to my new computer, I got my components tested, the frazzeled components were there Motherboard, Hard Drive and the PSU itself, it might be the same for you, so you might not have to go and get a new CPU, RAM or Graphics card. I think the casue was very simple, I accidentally put in the power cord into the back of the PSU while the cable was live ( I thought it was off ) causing it to short out. Do you think you might have done the same thing?

Supertalent RAM
Great Mobo for OC'ing
Budget CPU

Go Intel, I did and I've been loving it

If my opty cooler will work on an AM2 Athlon I can just transfer it over, it's a nice HSF with heatpipes and whatnot. I may go for the blackbox if it can, otherwise I'll save the money and get a retail A64X2 and accept that I won't be able to push it as far. I did find out that the new Phenoms are backwards compatible with existing AM2 boards, so there's my upgrade path. I get paid soon so I may just pull the trigger on this and deal with the consequences of being short $300 down the road.

Re: Motherboards, I'm really leaning towards that gigabyte board. I've dealt with their boards in the past and been happy. I don't care about SLI since there is no way I can afford two videocards, and it's supposed to be a solid overclocker.  I'm skeptical of sub-$50 boards, but don't have the budget to buy a high-end board.

Re: RAM, I've never messed around with DDR2 but it looks like even the cheapo stuff is pretty good. I will probably just go with whatever Newegg or mwave has cheapest at the time. 


One thing I am really worried about is if my HDD is dead. Almost nothing is backed up :( I actually lost about 70% of my MP3 collection about a year ago when my external died, I was literally about to move my collection back onto my main drive after doing a rebuild when the thing headcrashed. If it's all gone that will suck, I have/had mp3s that pre-date Napster. We used to download them via FTP! For real.
If my drive is dead, can anyone recommend a good value drive? Speed is more important than size, and longevity is more important than speed. Basically, I don't care how small the drive is so long as it's fast and won't die unless it gets fried by a power surge!