Motherboard questions.

[Jayce]

Thinking of upgrading the motherboard. It's given me some trouble recently and it's age of 5 years is telling me "just upgrade it and get it done with!"

I'm not really sure what to do. I know there's a lot of compatibility issues that I have to be sure I have nailed down before I make the purchase. To make matters worse, I'm not sure what brands most folks give thumbs up to and what brands most folks frown upon. Anyway, here goes...

I've got a 1.1 ghz AMD Athlon Gateway computer. The entire thing except the ram (soon to be upgraded again anyway) and hard drive are original, so everything besides those 2 pieces of hardware is 5 years old.

What else is there when looking for a motherboard? I found on newegg some, I was looking at compatible CPU systems. Athlon, Athlon 64, Athlon FX, wtf? I assume I'm just a regular Athlon?

FSB - WTF?

DDR slots - again, WTF?

PATA - WTMF?

Haha, sorry... Just trying to learn here. It's frustrating when you don't know something!!

Can anyone add some input?

Also... What would a new motherboard upgrade me essentially upgrade me too? Is it entirely worth it? For example, when you upgrade ram you generally gain speed, what would I gain with a new motherboard?

Note - If the information I posted is enough to find a compatible motherboard and would like to make a suggestion, try to keep suggestions at or under 100 dollars. I'm not out there to break records, I just want something that's insanely reliable and better than what I have.

 

[PZEROFGH]

im telling you, why are you upgarding, you might as well do a extreme computer makeover. cause thats just junk.

 

[Jayce]

im telling you, why are you upgarding, you might as well do a extreme computer makeover. cause thats just junk.

Mind clarifying exactly what you said?

What is junk?

Why are you questioning why I'm upgrading?

Why do an extreme computer makeover? I was planning on just upgrading piece by piece over the course of the next 3-5 months. It's kind of hard when you're in college full time to whip up a couple hundred bucks for a PC...

edit - I just read your PM... My apologies.

This system was given to me. Yes, free. It used to be the family computer. I used it for school assignments and whatnot after my parents got a new computer for upstairs. Now that I'm getting more and more through college in the computer field and that my computer is getting older I figured it would be nice to upgrade a few parts.

I'm NOT looking to break records. I'm absolutely not looking for the absolute best PC on the market. I just figured I could upgrade slowly, piece by piece. I mean some of the parts of my Gateway I don't see why I need to upgrade, such as the CD player or CD burner. Why upgrade those? They do the job for me, I see absolutely no reason to. Video card? Same deal. Sound card? Same deal.

I just don't see what the harm is in upgrading the motherboard. You say my system is junk, that's fine, I understand you're trying to help but that opinion doesn't help me a single bit. I just don't see why I can't upgrade piece by piece, starting with the motherboard. Hmmmm?

 

[macdude425]

The Gateway is mostly proprietary. IIRC, a standard ATX mobo won't fit in it, so you have to gut the case. The PSU is proprietary, so you need a new one.

It would just be easier to get a new one.

 

[Jayce]

The Gateway is mostly proprietary. IIRC, a standard ATX mobo won't fit in it, so you have to gut the case. The PSU is proprietary, so you need a new one.

It would just be easier to get a new one.

New what, new case or new setup all together?

 

[macdude425]

New setup alltogether. By the time you get everything, it will be like a new build. And, you can use the old HD and other parts like CD drives and floppy drives from the old PC.

 

[Jayce]

Edited the whole post.

How about this, as far as a "new setup" what could you suggest me?

I'm assuming my video card and sound card from my original Gateway would transfer over to the new setup, along with the floppy drive, CD drives, and hard drives...

So, what's left? Ummm... case, processor, motherboard, ram... right? As far as case, I kinda liked this one, plus it's damn cheap.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16811209008

So, say we have the case covered. We need motherboard, processor, and ram yet. How much do you think I'd have to spend for those decent parts? Might you folks suggest anything? I have no clue what is good and what is bad as far as computer building products go...

 

[PZEROFGH]

...

ok that case is nice

need new psu

MSI K8N NEO4-F
eVGA 6600GT
seagate barracuda 80GB sata150 hdd
Corsari valueselect 1GB
amd athlon 64 3000+ venice

 

[GX1_Man]

Before you decide on the "upgrade piece by piece" scenario lets see what we have. Floppy can be used. Video if not part of the motherboard can be used but will slow the system down if you are getting a new generations processor. Hard drive can be used but will sure slow things down if it is a 5400 RPM model. You might want to check. CD drive can be used without incident, but if it is a 24X and you want a 52X... See my point?

Unless you're just wanting to throw the old box out, you might want to keep it as is, reload the OS and sell it, making a downpayment, however small, on your new system.

No sense in looking for bottlenecks if you're upgrading to improve things.

 

[Jayce]

Before you decide on the "upgrade piece by piece" scenario lets see what we have. Floppy can be used. Video if not part of the motherboard can be used but will slow the system down if you are getting a new generations processor. Hard drive can be used but will sure slow things down if it is a 5400 RPM model. You might want to check. CD drive can be used without incident, but if it is a 24X and you want a 52X... See my point?

Unless you're just wanting to throw the old box out, you might want to keep it as is, reload the OS and sell it, making a downpayment, however small, on your new system.

No sense in looking for bottlenecks if you're upgrading to improve things.

Thanks for the advice, but after talking with my parents we decided to do just that. We are going to keep the computer as is and put it in another room where my brothers can mess around on it. I'm keeping the monitor cause it's a gorgeous 70 pound 19 inch viewable monitor. Here at work at the swap shop I noticed a 17 inch viewable CRT monitor, so tomorrow I'm going to call those folks and see about getting that monitor for our now "third" computer.

I'm starting from nothing with the computer. I already made my decision on the parts, they go as follows... I'm recalling this completely from memory cause I'm at work right now.

AMD Athlon 64 Venice 3000+ processor
MSI NEO4F blah blah mobo
Some video card that costs 102 dollars, PZERO and I spoke about it via IM, I forget the name though.
Corsair valueselect 1 gb ram
Maxtor 200gig hard drive (already have)
Sony DVD-rom (22 bucks, not bad)
Sony CD-Burner rom (21 bucks, again not bad)
And some cool looking cheapo 20 dollar case that has a mercedes grill and front headlights on it. HAhaha. :/

Do you think the extra 50 dollars justifies getting the AMD Athlon 64 3200?

Also, if I go with this processor and later for WHATEVER reason want to go with a faster processor, could I get like a 3800 san diego processor? Would it be compatible with all of the products I'm getting now? This is just a theoritical question so I understand compatibility more, I'm not really considering this.