older motherboard replacement

  • Thread starter Thread starter jinxy
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jinxy

Hi, I am fairly new to pc hardware repair or replacement.
I am running an older system. Its a p4 1.6gz socket 478. The mobo is
an Abit
th711 raid. The main reason that I would like to change the board is
because of the memory, its rdram (Rambus). I only have 256 and to add
more is quite costly as it must be installed in pairs.
The average cost is about $130. per 256mb.
Thats 260. +tx, for about 40.00 more I can get a new board and change
to DDR (average cost 120.00per 1024mb)
the system runs fine and is stable, but with 3 kids that are using the
pc for school and social activities, I am trying to stay ahead of their
demand for a faster computer, while keeping the
costs down. Patience may be a virtue, but try telling that to 3
teenagers! So the question is, if I buy a new board and use all of my
current drives, pci cards,agp
card etc. is it just a matter of moving things over and starting up?
Thanks for any input you may have.
 
You will have a very limited choice of quality motherboards to choose from
that will use your old components. For instance, most motherboards now use
PCI-E instead of AGP sockets. Also, if you change the motherboard then you
MUST reformat the harddrive and do a fresh install of the OS and
applications. Otherwise you can look forward to ongoing Registry errors and
data corruption.
 
jinxy said:
Hi, I am fairly new to pc hardware repair or replacement.
I am running an older system. Its a p4 1.6gz socket 478. The mobo is
an Abit
th711 raid. The main reason that I would like to change the board is
because of the memory, its rdram (Rambus). I only have 256 and to add
more is quite costly as it must be installed in pairs.
The average cost is about $130. per 256mb.
Thats 260. +tx, for about 40.00 more I can get a new board and change
to DDR (average cost 120.00per 1024mb)
the system runs fine and is stable, but with 3 kids that are using the
pc for school and social activities, I am trying to stay ahead of their
demand for a faster computer, while keeping the
costs down. Patience may be a virtue, but try telling that to 3
teenagers! So the question is, if I buy a new board and use all of my
current drives, pci cards,agp
card etc. is it just a matter of moving things over and starting up?
Thanks for any input you may have.
jinxy,

As DaveW said, you'll have a difficult time finding a good Socket 478 board
these days. If you need/want to find such a board, check out this link:

http://www.epoxstore.com/Product_Detail.asp?Product_ID=1057

This board will accommodate your 400MHz FSB Pentium 4 1.6, and use
your existing components. All you'll need to do is get some PC3200
DDR SDRAM. I'm running this board, and have run it previously, and while
it's $100, it's a good board and will get you where you need to go.

That said, you'll have to decide if $100 for this board, and $105 (av.) for
1GB of PC3200 is worth it, or if you're better off investing in a newer
system. If you go the 478 route w/ the EPoX board, don't go cheap on the
RAM.

Jeff
 
Jeff said:
jinxy,

As DaveW said, you'll have a difficult time finding a good Socket 478 board
these days. If you need/want to find such a board, check out this link:

http://www.epoxstore.com/Product_Detail.asp?Product_ID=1057

This board will accommodate your 400MHz FSB Pentium 4 1.6, and use
your existing components. All you'll need to do is get some PC3200
DDR SDRAM. I'm running this board, and have run it previously, and while
it's $100, it's a good board and will get you where you need to go.

That said, you'll have to decide if $100 for this board, and $105 (av.) for
1GB of PC3200 is worth it, or if you're better off investing in a newer
system. If you go the 478 route w/ the EPoX board, don't go cheap on the
RAM.

Jeff

After reading the replies to my post, I will just move this system to
the basement and invest in a new system.
I am just starting to learn about computers and what makes them tick.
The members of this group are always more than willing to share their
knowledge and skills.Thanks again for your patience and input.
Jinxy
 
Jeff said:
jinxy,

As DaveW said, you'll have a difficult time finding a good Socket 478 board
these days. If you need/want to find such a board, check out this link:

http://www.epoxstore.com/Product_Detail.asp?Product_ID=1057

This board will accommodate your 400MHz FSB Pentium 4 1.6, and use
your existing components. All you'll need to do is get some PC3200
DDR SDRAM. I'm running this board, and have run it previously, and while
it's $100, it's a good board and will get you where you need to go.

That said, you'll have to decide if $100 for this board, and $105 (av.) for
1GB of PC3200 is worth it, or if you're better off investing in a newer
system. If you go the 478 route w/ the EPoX board, don't go cheap on the
RAM.

Jeff

After reading the replies to my post, I will just move this system to
the basement and invest in a new system.
I am just starting to learn about computers and what makes them tick.
The members of this group are always more than willing to share their
knowledge and skills.Thanks again for your patience and input.
Jinxy
 
Jeff said:
jinxy,

As DaveW said, you'll have a difficult time finding a good Socket 478 board
these days. If you need/want to find such a board, check out this link:

http://www.epoxstore.com/Product_Detail.asp?Product_ID=1057

This board will accommodate your 400MHz FSB Pentium 4 1.6, and use
your existing components. All you'll need to do is get some PC3200
DDR SDRAM. I'm running this board, and have run it previously, and while
it's $100, it's a good board and will get you where you need to go.

That said, you'll have to decide if $100 for this board, and $105 (av.) for
1GB of PC3200 is worth it, or if you're better off investing in a newer
system. If you go the 478 route w/ the EPoX board, don't go cheap on the
RAM.

Jeff

After reading the replies to my post, I will just move this system to
the basement and invest in a new system.
I am just starting to learn about computers and what makes them tick.
The members of this group are always more than willing to share their
knowledge and skills.Thanks again for your patience and input.
Jinxy
 
DaveW said:
You will have a very limited choice of quality motherboards to choose from that will use your old
components. For instance, most motherboards now use PCI-E instead of AGP sockets.
Also, if you change the motherboard then you MUST reformat the harddrive and do a fresh install of
the OS and applications. Otherwise you can look
forward to ongoing Registry errors and data corruption.

Wrong, as always. The repair install is there for a reason.
 
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