Purchase new MOBO

I`ve been reading a lot of good information on a search but I never did pinpoint exactly the information I need.
I have an ECS M925 AlU that is no good,(If it ever was). It`s in a fairly new generic computer purchased maybe a couple of years ago by a buddy. He got rid of his wife and the computer at the same time. The wife`s still single, I got the computer.
I want to get a new MOBO and use all of the rest of the installed equipment that I can.
It`s got a 300W ATX power supply, I have a spare 400 W if needed.
120 GB Samsung Spinpoint SP8004H Hard drive.
Intel Pentium 4 CPU How do I tell what socket? I can`t find any Board manual that I can use.
RAM 1 stick 32X84 DDR 266.
Modem blaster D15630
On board sound and Video.
I`m not a gamer.
This computer I`m using now seems to do a fairly suitable job( see signature) but I`m sure it could use some improvement. If I can assemble one a little better and stay within my $100-$150 budget that`d be great. (Dreamer?) My plan is to run `98 on this and later on buy another XP OS for it. I do some live recording, strictly non pro, and burn quite a few CD`s.
It would be nice if the Ram I have would work on my new board.I`ll have to buy more when I go to XP anyway.
I hope that`s enough information to get some of usual good assistance.
Thanks
Moore

 

Pete,
Really know how to hurt a guy don`tcha! I`ve spent time off and on several different times looking for the same board , I found many PCChips numbers that were close. but a little different. I`m reasonably certain after reading all those BBS posts I found on search that it`s a bad board. Thanks a lot anyway, I may download the manual and see what it tells me. My heart won`t be in it if I can get it to boot up!
Moore

 

I got it downloaded. It isn`t precisely like my board but looks like all the stuff I need to know is there. Ireally appreciate the help. How is it I searched Google and PSCHIPS it couldn`t come up with that manual? Must be some magic I don`t know about, somewhere! I`ll try to light it off again tomorrow just to see if I can get it to boot up all the way. I still think I`ll get a new MOBO.
I`ll be back.
Moore

 

Well at least I now know my Intel Pentium 4 CPU is a Socket 478.
This board is dead. I`m back to wondering what to order.

I want to get a new MOBO and use all of the rest of the installed equipment that I can.
It`s got a 300W ATX power supply, I have a spare 400 W if needed.
120 GB Samsung Spinpoint SP8004H Hard drive.
Intel Pentium 4 CPU How do I tell what socket? I can`t find any Board manual that I can use.
RAM 1 stick 32X84 DDR 266.
Modem blaster D15630
On board sound and Video.
I`m not a gamer.

As per my First Post


If I can assemble one and stay within my $100-$150 budget that`d be great. (Dreamer?) My plan is to run `98 on this and later on buy another XP OS for it. I do some live recording, strictly non pro, and burn quite a few CD`s.
It would be nice if the Ram I have would work on my new board.I`ll have to buy more when I go to XP anyway.
I hope that`s enough information to get some of usual good assistance.

Moore

 

Thank you Kindly, Pete
Moore

 

The calvary has arived!!!

Below you will find some boards that might fit the bill for what you want.

Asus P4S800

This board looks nice but I don't really like only 3 PCI slots but if thats all ya need...
Abit IS-10

Stopping here on the mother boards but there are more on the same site. I suggest looking for Asus or Abit.

I stopped listing because of price. Here are some video cards you could put on the above boards and still be in budget.

Asus GeForce MX 4000

Asus Radeon 9250

XFX GeForce FX 5550

Hope some of this helps. I have delt with the company the links go to (Tiger Direct) for some time now and have not been disapointed even when I had to return one item they even refunded my shipping.

 

By the discription of the boards the memory should be fine. Also it will leave the possibility of later upgrade as both will handle up to PC-3200.

 

Hoo Boy!
Ask and ye shall recieve! Thanks Jaylach, I can digest all that information and surely come up with something. Glad to see there`s no PCCHIPS or ECS labels in those links, I`m completely disenchanted with them! And
thanks for looking out for this redneck yank, Pete.I`ll report back.
Thanks, again!
Moore

 

Hope I don't get yelled at for this post as it dosen't concern the topic but....

And remember it's a joke but ya know your a redneck if your house has wheels and you cars don't!

And I'm a yank too. In Florida now but from N.E. Ohio.

 

Hi,

I will let jaylach be in charge of the shopping cart

If the CPU is the brains of a computer, the motherboard is the heart. Think about your choice carefully, the better the decision you make now, the longer the system will keep it's value to you.

I would throw in another worthwhile brand or two which are MSI and EPOX. From what I saw MSI has quite a good support website and although EPOX is at the top of the market I hear it's support information may not be as good as the others. I put a lot of store by support websites, sooner or later you will need to add/upgrade your hardware or may have problems. I think you know what I mean by your searches for information on current motherboard.

Try to think of what features you may need in the future. Check if "dual" RAM is supported and how you need to configure it (since you are looking at upgrading). I have not looked at Jay's suggestions, but having a PCI Express graphics slot would be handy for the future if you do not have an AGP graphics card to bring over. Think about having SATA available to upgrade to.

If an extra 10 or 20 dollars may get you the best, I don't think you will regret it later

Matt
Edit: If you like the look of a motherboard, do a Google search for the model number and "review ", you should find some good and bad points...and how they may effect you.
Do a search on the model number and see if there are a lot of problem questions being asked at forums...although if it is a big selling motherboard, it will have a lot of questions being asked anyway. Just watch out for a "lemon ".
Support websites: go to the motherboard's home website and see what information is supplied about it...specifications, downloads, FAQs, if it easy to access, etc.

 

Thanks for all of the good advice. I`m one of those Fixed Income, Senior Citizens, that`s found a whole new world out here and love it all. This will be my first brand new, untouched by anyone else, mother board. I know I`d buy a lot more elaborate set up if the money was here but considering the stuff I`ve gradually accumulated and put together to get to the one I`m writing on now. It`ll be fun to start out with new stuff. What I need and what I want never have seemed to be in balance in all my 76 years!
Jaylach, and Pete C, and you too, Mattman, I`ve got stuff ordered, waiting like a kid for Christmas to put it together.It will no doubt be a grand adventure.
This BB has to be one of the greatest Help sites,for people like me on the WWW. I do a lot of lurking and reading here. Thanks for helping and keeping me in budget.
I`ll report back when I get it up and running, or before, if I run into problems!
Moore

 

More than happy to be of assistance, Moore!

One thing I would recommend is to do a reinstall of windows after putting it together. If you don't have install CDs for all your hardware make sure you find and download first... Give ya something to do while waiting...

What did ya end up ordering?

And Mattman, You have had luck with Epox? I ran two of them before I got my Asus board and both failed in less than 2 years on the IDE channels. Mayhaps just bad luck on my part. I will say that I did like my Epox boards until they failed... And I agree that for not too much more money could have found stronger stuff but was trying to stay within a budget.

 

Here`s my plans jaylach, the same as which oft times go wrong,
I ordered the Asus P4S800 MOBO and the Asus GeForce MX4000 video card.
This hard drive I`ll use is a Samsung SP8004H Spinpoint 120 GB with ME installed. I want to format it and divide it into three partitions and install my WIN `98 OS. That`ll be a step backward from my XP but I count this as a learning experience, and if everything works good,later on as finances allow, I`ll get another XP disk and install it,for the OS. I`m going to get by (hopefully) with this one bar of 259 MB of RAM until then.
I`m using an EPOX HD on this computer, bought it used from Ebay and it seems to do a good job.
Good Luck to me!!
Moore

 

Moore, I think you will be happy. The first computer I built was an ASUS and they have good instructions and support information.
Just a note. If you remove the heatsink from the CPU, you will need to replace the "thermal compound" that transfers heat. It is not hard, but you should be careful. If you can transfer the CPU without taking off the heatsink all will be fine. If you need to remove the heatsink to take the CPU out of the socket that's when you will need to replace the thermal compound. They will not mention this in the motherboard instructions, because it is not "part of the motherboard ", they will only show you how to put the CPU into the socket.

Jay,

Saw a poll at a motherboard forum about which is the best motherboard...Abit and Epox came out on top. I queried which had the best support site: Abit good, Epox not so good. That is pretty much my reference.

Trying to stay in budget...
I was not really suggesting to "blow" the budget, but if $20 was the difference between "good" and "maybe" I think it would spend it .

Cheers
Matt

 

Thanks for the tip on the heatsink paste. I happened to have already read about that somewhere and picked up a tube yesterday. It`s little tricks like that that can ruin your whole day if you don`t know about them. Send them along if you come up with anything else!
Moore