Couple of things I'd like to comment on from all the responses. "positively dry it out unplugged. Then see if it turns back on when dry. Maybe no harm done, but likely something's fried by the sound of it."- Unless your family is in the habit of drinking distilled water and your house in a clean room, you're hosed. If the machine was off when it was water, this would have a pretty good chance of working. You may try to clean it with alcohol and they allowing to dry, but i doubt it will work.
"I'm pretty sure the CPU is a Core 2 Quad, and those are pretty pricey, if you can even find them" - Correct, don't bother. Even if you find compatible hardware, it will cost the same or more than the latest gen. "When picking a CPU....start by looking at http://www.cpubenchmark.net/"; - The first step to finding a good processor is to determine what you want/will do with the machine. Will you use hyper threading(which can actually slow down some programs)? Is a higher clock speed important? AES?(don't get amd in this case) Price scales exponentially, more or less, compared to power. If you don't plan on doing anything fancy, shoot for an i3 or i5 that fits your budget. Tom's Hardware is an infinitely better resource this is website. Their forums are excellent as well. "go to newegg, select desired features and then sort by reviews." - If you spend any amount of time reading newegg reviews, you will quickly find that most of them are complete crap e.g made up by the companies or users that have no idea what they are talking about. This, of course, neglects to take into account Non-response bias as well. "The machine's a Dell, but luckily enough the case looks like it'll fit a standard micro ATX replacement motherboard just fine." - Don't be so sure of this. Dell's are notorious for being completely incompatible with other hardware, right down to the motherboard stand offs. Given the age, condition and the fact its a Dell, I wouldn't count on being able to reusing any existing parts. The exception being except the hard drive(s) and/or optical drive. My recommendation: Build a new machine. Find some parts that you think you like. Look up how they fair on Tom's Hardware, or a number of other more or less professional hardware review sites. General recommendations: avoid AMD, ATI and ASrock. Go for Asus, Intel, Nvidia, MSI, Corsair and Gigabyte. Other people may have some hardware favorites, but I'm pretty firm, for many reasons, about avoiding AMD and ATI. You're also more than welcome to e-mail me directly about any specific hardware you may find. On Tue, Oct 23, 2012 at 6:52 PM, David Hilton <[email protected]>wrote: > When picking a CPU, I usually start by looking at > http://www.cpubenchmark.net/ Clicking on the price brings you to a page > that will give you a link to amazon or newegg for that specific product. > Intel motherboards are usually a tad more expensive, so keep that in mind. > > For motherboards I go to newegg, select desired features and then sort by > reviews. > > David > > On Tue, Oct 23, 2012 at 6:33 PM, Matthew Gardner <[email protected]> wrote: > >> On Tue, Oct 23, 2012 at 8:06 PM, Jacob Adams <[email protected]> wrote: >> >>> Go to your nearest apothecary and tell them you need some magic blue >>> smoke. >>> >> >> =) >> >> >>> Unplug it, make sure it's dry before you turn anything back on, and >>> investigate for burnt chips. If a chip is burnt, don't plug it into >>> anything else (I lost a mobo when I tried to plug my mom's fried hard drive >>> in, not noticing the burn marks on the circuit board on the bottom of the >>> drive). Chances are something needs a replacement. >> >> >> Well, I've looked at it, and I think it was just a very small amount of >> water that actually got into the machine, but it went straight to the CPU >> (also the hottest place, which would explain a smokey smell...). I'm >> pretty sure the CPU is just toast. I was perhaps a little foolhardy and >> decided to try turning it on, because I couldn't see any signs of any kind >> of moisture on the machine. When I press the power button, there is a beep >> (from the motherboard?) and the CPU fan starts, but immediately shuts off >> and nothing else happens. The power supply has a green light on; I >> connected the hard drive to another machine and verified that it was just >> fine; I don't see any reason to think that the RAM went bad. >> >> Is there a way that I can tell which of the CPU and motherboard are bad >> (or both)? I guess if it's just the CPU, I could just replace that. But >> practically speaking, the machine is old enough that I'd have a hard time >> replacing just the CPU anyway (I'm pretty sure the CPU is a Core 2 Quad, >> and those are pretty pricey, if you can even find them). So does anyone >> have any good recommendations for how to decide on a new motherboard and >> CPU? The machine's a Dell, but luckily enough the case looks like it'll >> fit a standard micro ATX replacement motherboard just fine. >> >> -------------------- >> BYU Unix Users Group >> http://uug.byu.edu/ >> >> The opinions expressed in this message are the responsibility of their >> author. They are not endorsed by BYU, the BYU CS Department or BYU-UUG. >> ___________________________________________________________________ >> List Info (unsubscribe here): >> http://uug.byu.edu/mailman/listinfo/uug-list >> > > > -------------------- > BYU Unix Users Group > http://uug.byu.edu/ > > The opinions expressed in this message are the responsibility of their > author. They are not endorsed by BYU, the BYU CS Department or BYU-UUG. > ___________________________________________________________________ > List Info (unsubscribe here): http://uug.byu.edu/mailman/listinfo/uug-list >
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