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How to get functional motherboards for dirt cheap.

Sam Z Man
By Sam Z Man
in Guides and Tutorials
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Posted

New and revised version now with "supporting text" and in guides and tutorials.

 

So here is a vlog style video I created documenting my strategy on how to get functional motherboards for next to nothing.

You can watch the 5 minute video I made on the topic describing the strategy, or read my detailed guide below.

That is a MSI Z87A-G45 I payed only 50$CAD (36$ US) for on Ebay for.

I will now explain why I got such a good deal and how you can to.

 

post-222431-0-01430700-1449982936_thumb.

Now most people perceive this as a lost cause destined for someone who has the balls to bend them back or replace the socket with a 2000$ BGA rework station. But if you have accesses to pinout maps you can discover what the pins do and therefore troubleshoot what could be wrong with it.

 

I asked a seller what pins were bent and he provided me with this picture of the socket:

post-222431-0-43956300-1449984511_thumb.

 

Using this and the included pinout maps and data sheets its possible to determine whether or not the board will be alive or dead. If the pins are related to power and ground your okay most of the time its handy to double check though. If its anything besides power and ground its screwed don't buy unless you like bending pins back (actually not that hard unless they really got fucked).

 

On the board I bought one of the damaged pins was related to the igpu but I'm not using that so its okay, the other was a basic power delivery pin.

 

 

1156: Page 75 http://www.intel.com/content/dam/www/public/us/en/documents/datasheets/core-i7-800-i5-700-desktop-datasheet-vol-1.pdf

http://www.abload.de/img/pins_clark4mfk.png

 

1155: Page 94 http://www.intel.com/content/dam/www/public/us/en/documents/datasheets/3rd-gen-core-desktop-vol-1-datasheet.pdf

http://www.abload.de/img/pins_sandyamb4.png

 

1150: Page 112 http://www.intel.com/content/dam/www/public/us/en/documents/datasheets/4th-gen-core-family-desktop-vol-1-datasheet.pdf

 

2011: Pae 72 http://www.intel.ca/content/dam/www/public/us/en/documents/datasheets/4th-gen-core-i7-lga2011-datasheet-vol-1.pdf

 

2011-3: Page 63 http://www.intel.com/content/dam/www/public/us/en/documents/datasheets/core-i7-lga2011-3-datasheet-vol-1.pdf

 

1151: Coming soon once someone discovers it.

 

Hope this information helped you in a quest for amazing deals.

 

 

Not everyone on eBay is a honest person, buy motherboards at your own risk, do your research because I claim no damn responsibility if you fuck right up. If it feels at all sketchy back out, I always recommend talking to the seller first about the board.

 

Oh yea this doesn't work with AMD motherboards because.... reasons.

http://linustechtips.com/main/topic/451339-help-me-find-him/
 
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Good luck, Sam.

 

@Mods He's just trying to help others.

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Great post well laid out

 

Hopefully it doesn't get deleted like the last one... *cough*

Intel Core i7-6700K | Corsair H105 | Asus Z170I PRO GAMING | G.Skill TridentZ Series 16GB | 950 PRO 512GB M.2

 

Asus GeForce GTX 980 Ti 6GB STRIX OC | BitFenix Prodigy (Black/Red) | XFX PRO Black Edition 850W

 

 

My Build | PCPartPicker | CoC

 

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Gonna try this.

Update 30 seconds later - lol already found a good one http://www.ebay.com/itm/Broken-ASUS-MAXIMUS-VII-HERO-LGA-1150-Intel-Z97-HDMI-ATX-Intel-Motherboard-/231781911164?hash=item35f7474a7c:g:g6YAAOSwcOFWbHxh

 

TWO broken pins lmao

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Imagination? Its free! But does not work well in real life situation

AHEM it does not work at all

Wow this was old as heck, Need to update this signature!
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Oh reminds me, I also know how to change out PCI-E retaining clips maybe should do a guide on that.

 

But I have no idea on where to buy replacements, I just took mine off another board.

http://linustechtips.com/main/topic/451339-help-me-find-him/
 
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I snagged my MSI Xpower for $80 USD on Ebay and it had two bent pins, Easy fix though thanks to everyone on LTT. 

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Oh reminds me, I also know how to change out PCI-E retaining clips maybe should do a guide on that.

 

But I have no idea on where to buy replacements, I just took mine off another board.

 

Do a guide for it, there are motherboards to be bought for like $5 and you can just salvage them from those.

Im assuming all PCI clips are the same, it seems like one of those universal parts, though I could be wrong I suppose.

4690K // 212 EVO // Z97-PRO // Vengeance 16GB // GTX 770 GTX 970 // MX100 128GB // Toshiba 1TB // Air 540 // HX650

Logitech G502 RGB // Corsair K65 RGB (MX Red)

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PCI has no clips.

Well whatever you were just talking about, those  <_<

4690K // 212 EVO // Z97-PRO // Vengeance 16GB // GTX 770 GTX 970 // MX100 128GB // Toshiba 1TB // Air 540 // HX650

Logitech G502 RGB // Corsair K65 RGB (MX Red)

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Also going to have to make a custom io shield for this thing.

MSI will probs send you one

Thats that. If you need to get in touch chances are you can find someone that knows me that can get in touch.

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But that ruins a fun weekend project.

You think you can get the lip just right?

Thats that. If you need to get in touch chances are you can find someone that knows me that can get in touch.

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Maybe a title like "why motherboards with bent pins may sometimes still work" would have been more appropriate, but nice post for those who didn't know this!

Don't ask to ask, just ask... please 🤨

sudo chmod -R 000 /*

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You won't find the 1151 one I tried looking through the about 1600 pages a few times with no luck.

And 2011 and 2011-3 have no map that tells you what pin is what, but tells you what it does what if you have it's coordinate.

http://linustechtips.com/main/topic/451339-help-me-find-him/
 
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