Soyo motherboard, model unknown

Why didn't I make an entry last week? Well, it's because of the subject of this entry.



Up until last Friday, this was the heart of my computer. I had been using it for at least three and a half years, with essentially no issues until about six or so months ago. Sometimes it wouldn't boot up on the first try or just shut itself off in the middle of me using it. Presumably, the latter problem was due to overheating, and it was saving itself from burning out. This time, it didn't save itself and the processor burned out, taking out the motherboard with it. This pissed me off because I was looking at buying an all new computer in a few months. But then this one had to go and get shot three days before retirement, to borrow a movie cliche. I don't have the scratch right now to move the purchase up, so I had to buy a new board and processor (the cheapest one they had) so I can keep working.


When I say burned out, I mean it in the most literal sense. That brown crap is what's left of the thermal putty.


I keep parts of pretty much everything I disassemble, and usually refer to them as trophies, and I guess the term is vaguely accurate, though most of what I take apart has no value to me, senitmental or otherwise, and I just want the parts for art projects that may or may not ever happen. However, when I take apart something I owned, the trophy is as much of a reminder as it is a piece of something I plan to make. Not that I have much attachment to this motherboard, but I'll probably remember that these parts did indeed come out of something of mine.

If this was in a junkpile, I wouldn't have even bothered to take it home. The parts haul is rather small, though bigger than several sewing machine teardowns. However, I like those clips fro holding the RAM in place, and I especially like multiple identical parts, so I may actually grap CPUs when I see them.