My rig died a few days ago. Whenever I try to power it on it stays on for a second, then shuts off for a second, then turns on, etc. I cleaned out the inside from all the dust, reset the CMOS and troubleshooted the RAM. I don't have a spare motherboard or PSU to troubleshoot, but I'm pretty sure it's either of those two that's bad (more so the motherboard). FYI, I have an ASUS P5E in case any of you have experienced similar symptoms.

So if it is indeed the motherboard I'm just going to upgrade and switch over to AMD. I didn't really want to do a rebuild this soon (it's been almost two years since I last rebuilt my rig), so I just plan on swapping the mobo, RAM, and CPU.

What would you guys recommend? I have this setup picked out right now.

Mobo - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6813131402
CPU - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6819103727
RAM - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6820231303

Honestly that sounds like a bad PSU more than anything. Call a Best Buy that is close and see if they have a PSU tester that they could hook up to it for free (our BB would do it for free in the past). If not you could:

1) Buy a cheap power supply that is the same wattage or close to yours and return it if you still have the same prob

2) Buy a PSU tester (they are rather cheap and good to have on hand anyway). http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductLi ... er&x=0&y=0

If it is your mobo, chances are good your caps are blown. Here is a pic of what one looks like when its blown. Check the caps around the CPU first as those are the most likely to blow but definitely check them all. A good cap should feel flat...a blown or distended cap will feel curve on top.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Vp6_b ... acitor.jpg

Google "blown capacitors" and there is a great pic that comes up in the images list showing 3 green caps. The left one is distended, the middle one looks fine, and the right one is blown which shows the whole range.

You're right, I think it is the PSU that's busted. I brought my computer to work today to troubleshoot. I couldn't find any spare power supplies with a 24 pin connector so I just hooked up my PSU to a computer that is in working order. I didn't even press the power button on the tower and the PSU powered up by itself but never really got to full power. It just sputtered like a bad 2-stroke engine. So I'm assuming somehow it went bad. I've had it for almost three years and ran the shit out of it (in some hot weather too) so I guess I can't be too surprised. I just thought if a PSU went bad it wouldn't get any power going at all and just be dead like a battery.

So any suggestions for a new PSU?

I like this one.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6817139009

Oh boy. I was just reading some of the reviews on my current PSU on Newegg and I see a lot of people had this happen to them. I just hope it didn't ruin any other parts like they said happened to them.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... -_-Product

Nah you should be fine unless you were hit with a power surge from a recent thunder storm. Three years isn't bad on a high voltage, always running machine. However, sometimes it is caused by the power of your home/apartment. If you get bad power and it has smaller spikes throughout the day, that puts a lot of strain on your PSU. I lived in some apartments about 7 years ago that had really shitty power and went through two PSUs in a year. If I looked hard enough at light bulbs I could see them dim occasionally. If this sounds like you might have the same problem, invest in a really good battery backup that has automatic voltage regulation that cleans up the power before it hits your PC. The battery backup part is nice too but I bought mine for the AVR.

I also have a battery backup for my machine. Living in an apartment on campus it's hard to tell what the power will be like, so I also use it as an AVR. Definitely recommend one for the price of admission.

That Corsair PSU is fine. Just get something by PC Power & Cooling or Corsair and you'll be fine.