1st replacement motherboard.

CaSCaDe711

Hi there, need some advice on buying a new motherboard. My 7 year old desktop (eMachines 770) finally packed up, and now I'm looking to get a board to put inside the original case. Apart from surfing the net, watching videos, ripping the odd cd & dvd, and playing MAME games, the AGP card that came with the machine (GeForce 4 MX440) (plus drives & ethernet card) should be good enough, so not looking to but any new cards or peripherals, will only upgrade with more RAM, and a new bigger IDE HDD. The eMachines 770 has a Trigem Imperial-G board, and Pentium 4 2.4Ghz, max RAM 2GB.

Any recommendations what would be the best store / website to purchase a suitable replacement..?

Thanks in advance.
CaSCaDe711

Solitaire

I'm tempted to say "New Build Time" :P

You're looking for an mPGA478 mobo. They're old. Very old. Its successor has been around seemingly forever and even it is being succeeded at this point

While its tempting to simply get a modern budget mobo this would force you to not only replace the CPU but also the memory (curse you, DDR!) because they're obsolete too. A good (cheap) modern mobo would have integrated graphics that would put a GF4MX to shame so the lack of AGP isn't an issue. And such a mobo would have better networking than your current PCI network card (unless you're talking about wifi)

So... a second-hand/dodgy eBay number will set you back €30-50. The single new one lurking on HWVS is €50, or €80 when you add the shipping On the other hand modernising your system will easily set you back over €100 before shipping Up to you.

CaSCaDe711

Thanks for the reply Solitaire. Yes, a modern board seems the best option, and as I'd be buying new RAM, wouldn't be too bothered ditching the older DIMMS (sniff, sniff) Can give those to my brother Apart from MAME, ain't big into gaming on a pc, so happy to know a modern board would easily cope (see, I'm well behind on where things are at in this area :rolleyes:). Was wondering, do all boards accept IDE harddrives, and if not, can they be connected via use of an adapter or something..? Reason I ask, am getting a large IDE from a mate, would save me shelling out on a SATA or whatever.

CaSCaDe711.

CaSCaDe711

Found this on Play.com. Is MicroATX, but read it should fit nicely into an ATX case Considering what I'd use it for as mentioned in my previous posts, any thoughts on this board..? Would the onboard graphics be any use (compared to the GeForce 4 MX440)..?

Thanks in advance.
CaSCaDe711

Solitaire

The onboard graphics are vile, but that's been a theme for Intel chipsets for the past 10 years or more :P They ain't a patch on the 440MX (that was my first graphics card ever! ) but if you keep the max monitor resolution down it shouldn't be too big an issue as MAME and many other emulators render in software so all the GMA950 has to do is output to the screen and they've been doing that for years

swirlser

This may not really be what you were looking for, but would the possibility of getting a laptop be appealing? Given your needs are minimal and you obviously want to keep things simple and cheap, this might not be a bad idea. A low priced laptop would be an upgrade even.

If you are set on reviving ur old desktop do be sure to research your parts well, as you might end up replacing more bits than you expect

CaSCaDe711

Am actually typing these on a laptop A small Acer (2920Z), again, onboard graphics, not the fastest machine (even starts up slower now after the latest updates 3 days ago, thanks Vista), so seldom use it to game. Unless I'm surfing via wifi, will use a desktop pc for everything when at home.

CaSCaDe711

Hi there. In the end I purchased an ASRock P4i65G, along with a new PSU. Smaller board than the previous one, leaving plenty of room for things to cool, or cook RAM and GeForce remain the same, and am surprised how quick things are with the new install of XP Pro on a new IDE drive, the old drive was crawling along, even after defragging and removing unnecessary software. All I need to do now is attach the front USB / Audio block, and figure out how to stop the fans when the pc is in standby.

CaSCaDe711