Today I took it into work to have a look at all the components. 3 beeps with stripped down motherboard, no beeps and a clean boot with memory installed. Nothing once I plugged in the GTX260. As I had feared, the 260 has given up. I've just ordered a new motherboard, CPU and memory, but wanted to keep the GTX260 for at least another year.
So what to do? Pick up a 5850 for ~$400 and try to get it delivered on the same order? Pick up a cheap card locally and wait for some new tech to drop?
The difference from the 260 to a 5850 wouldn't have been significant, and it would mean dropping another $400 only a year after the 260. nVidia are lining up with an announcement lter this month, so potentially there's a new line on the way.
Luckily at the moment I don't need anything special in graphics. Footy Manager could easily go another 200 hours and take me to July, and there's HEAPS of backlog games I could get through, but I don't like being constrained in my choice of what to play. Last night I turned on the PS3 to see ifthere's anything of interest on there while my box was dead, and even though there lots I have been meaning to play, none suited my mood.
In the end I trekked around to
2nd time a component has failed after I've ordered another. I smell a conspiracy!
