Hardware Has anyone used these Motherboard Testers?

[Subtle Demise]

I was browsing newegg for a speaker for my motherboard so i could try to find out why my pc won't boot anymore, and I ran across this: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=2A7-00AR-00002

Has anyone used one of these? Do they work well? Is there any recommendations as to a certain brand or model that works the best? They all seem pretty inexpensive, and that has me worried, but anything to save me hundreds of dollars buying parts one at a time until my computer boots again would be wonderful.

 

[FAST6191]

They work, they do the exact same job as the beep code/error lights on the motherboard, save perhaps they will give you a booklet to look a number up in rather than counting beeps and they might have a LED that indicates various power rails are working as well (if you have a multimeter then use one if you really care.

The only reason I have one is because I fancied a toy off deal extreme one day. I would say the only reason to have one is if you must look flash in front of certain clients (think undeleting with the command line rather than clicking in recuva or something).

If you are faced with randomly picking parts then it might be time to drag it to some form of computer shop -- if they have enough parts in stock/a working machine they can tear down to test your parts individually then just pay them the money instead. Alternatively you can probably get a basic power supply, motherboard and RAM of whatever type you need for what they might charge hourly. It will be awful if you are used to higher end gear and want to use it afterwards but DDR? is DDR? and CPU socket # is CPU socket # (assuming the BIOS handles it)

 

[Subtle Demise]

So it really is just a glorified speaker then, it may be worth the few extra dollars not to look up the beep codes, though. I really wish I didn't accidentally send my case speaker back when I RMA'd my DOA motherboard, then I wouldn't have to worry about this at all.

 

[Joe88]

It depends, instead of counting beep codes and looking them up you are reading an LED display and looking up what the code means.
I probably woudn't leave that tester in 24/7, it also uses one pci slot and is fairly big, where as the speaker is not and just usually installed in the bottom corner of the board out of the way of everything.
So its up to you if the extra $7 or so dollars is worth it.