good cheap motherboard

[starling]

My generic VIA crapola motherboard decided to crapola right out today, so sorry for being a bother but I hope I can get a response here as well as reading through the sticky recommendations.

I have a video card and a sound card, a hard disk, and a gigabyte of RAM that are all working just fine, but only the onboard network card, which is obviously toast along with the rest of the mobo. Mostly just looking for a good cheap motherboard and a compatible CPU to go with it. (Can't tell which failed, but both on my system are crappy and need replacing.) I'm poor as beans, but this is a pretty rare purchase so... my budget is around $100-$200 for the motherboard and CPU combined.

I'll buy an external network card if I have to. No Winmodems please though (or other hardware, I'm looking at you Broadcom) as I'll be running a Linux distribution on this machine.

Summary:
I have hard disk (IDE) memory video card (ISA) sound card
I need motherboard (a decent FSB would be nice...) CPU network card (wired)
My budget: US$100-$200

Mostly I use this computer to run a number of server programs with about 20K/s of traffic. I also use it as my desktop machine, since I can't afford a separate server machine. I run a GUI on it, websites and such, very rarely run some low budget (http://miraigamer.net/cavestory/) games. Anything other information that'd help give an idea what I should buy, I'll be happy to provide.

[starling]

...also I doubt it would be cheaper, but should I buy a laptop to use as a 'desktop' with GUI and websites and such, and buy a low end motherboard on my desktop just for the server stuff? It is admittedly rather stupid to be running both a server and a desktop on the same machine. Would it be cheaper to divide that up in half according to each one's needs?

[mjc]

Umm...an ISA video card, really?

What processor?

What RAM?

What is the level of technology that it was? PIII, Pentium 4, something else?

[Erik]

You have a $200 max budget and are thinking that you can find a desktop motherboard/CPU and a laptop? If you can do that let me know because even an older used laptop would start around $200.

And an ISA video card? What are you replacing, a PII? You might need to buy new RAM too.

[Budfred]

Micro Center is offering 2 bundles with mobo, CPU and RAM for less that $100... Neither bundle has ISA video, but the built in video is probably better than that...

Is there any particular reason you needed to post a link to a game site??

[George Hallam]

With a $200 budget you can buy a new MOBO, CPU, RAM, Video card and PSU (cheap ones though) and compared to your old system they will be very pleasing

Is there any particular reason you needed to post a link to a game site??

He isnt spamming i just think he is showing what sort of games thats all

[starling]

Sorry, wasn't spamming, just wanted to imply that Crysis just isn't the game for me. :p free games (http://bub-n-bros.sourceforge.net/) can't exactly pay me for advertising so I think your board is safe from finding me spamming it.

I was looking at laptops, and yes they're right out. I ain't got $500 for a cheap laptop and another $100 for a cheaper server motherboard.

I'm pretty sure this video card is ISA... ISA is the little yellow one that has a slide slot to latch? Maybe it's not. I have a hard time keeping track of all those different kinds of outlets. :( The video card I have is one of these (http://www.nvidia.com/page/geforce2.html) but they don't say there what type of slot the cards use.

The RAM is a gigabyte of DDR2, in 2 512MB sticks, pretty standard stuff.

The processor is uh... whatever comes before Celeron. Okay it's this thing (http://www.outletpc.com/c3529.html) I'm not ashamed really!! *hides face* I am going to replace both the motherboard and the processor though. It's easier to do those together anyway, because of all the compatibility issues when trying to fit an old processor into a new board or vice versa.

Hmm... looking at Microcenter the bundles don't look like that great of deals since they're lower performance, but combining a Gigabyte motherboard (http://www.microcenter.com/single_product_results.phtml?product_id=0261529) with an AMD 5600+ processor (http://www.microcenter.com/single_product_results.phtml?product_id=0281711) might work good? Maybe the AMD 4400+ processor (http://www.microcenter.com/single_product_results.phtml?product_id=0266346) actually... I don't know if getting the 5600+ CPU would help at all with that same motherboard.

My PSU should be fine, got it with this nice case I'm using, and it's 400 watts, like 200 watts more than I need. And I do have a gigabyte of perfectly usable RAM. The only thing that crapped out was my motherboard. Or another way of putting it is, my motherboard/CPU was the last thing in that box that needed to be replaced.

[Budfred]

Your video card is probably AGP... ISA has been a dead format for a while now... The combos you noted are much faster than the bundle Micro Center offers... However, none of them will accommodate an AGP video card... You actually will not find many motherboards these days that will accommodate AGP unless you step back considerably from the kind of speed that CPU offers... Actually, the system you have now is about where you will end up... The onboard video on that mobo may be about as good as that video card anyway though...

[starling]

I did notice that the onboard video was better than the card I have. x_x My poor video card may have to go to the pound, then.

[mjc]

I did notice that the onboard video was better than the card I have. x_x My poor video card may have to go to the pound, then.

Umm...if it is an AGP card, then it will be a 2x card, at best, which is several generations out of date. If it is a PCI card then it is still several generations out of date, but it can be one or so more recent than its AGP counter part. What it isn't is very current...

In fact, nVidia has dropped almost all support for that vintage card. The most recent drivers available for it are several years old. It probably isn't even fully DX8 compliant. So, in the short of things, it should have been put out to pasture a while ago.

What you are ultimately looking at, unless all you want to do is up the memory on your current machine, is not an upgrade, but a new system...the upgrade path for your current setup is pretty much limited.

[starling]

It probably isn't even fully DX8 compliant. So, in the short of things, it should have been put out to pasture a while ago.Ain't got another $200 for Microsoft either. I'll be running Linux on this computer anyway, but that shouldn't be a problem since the on-board graphics is nVidia. *checks* Yeah, it'd probably work. A review (http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=article&item=457&num=1) showed the 6600 is noticeably higher performance on Linux than the 6100, but as I said my gaming needs are modest. It doesn't look like there's any onboard 6600 cards anyway, and the motherboard without any video at all is $40 more expensive at that store. :confused:

What you are ultimately looking at, unless all you want to do is up the memory on your current machine, is not an upgrade, but a new system...Sure, except I already have a case, a hard disk, a DVD burner, memory, power supply, speakers, keyboard, software, mouse and a nice monitor. What I want to do is replace the motherboard and CPU, and apparently the video card too.

[mjc]

Case is probably not going to cut it for a modern motherboard/chipset...cooling issues.

Hard disk over three years old is living on borrowed time.

DVD burner...three year factor.

Memory...dated and tied to older tech. The newest is DDR3, but that is still too expensive. DDR2 is 'mainstream'.

Power supply, like case...inadequate for today's components.

OS...maybe. If you are running a retail version of XP, then you should be able to transfer it to a new build. Otherwise, Linux is low cost.

Peripherals...yeah, keep 'em.

What you don't want to do is go laterally...replace what you have with same dated/dead end gear you are currently running with more of the same, but a different brand. If you are going to spend any money on this, then make it worth it. What you are trying to do right now is swap from Fruit of the Loom to Hanes...

[starling]

Case is probably not going to cut it for a modern motherboard/chipset...cooling issues.Case is only a year old, and cools just fine as long as nothing's wrong with the CPU fan. Unless you need nitrogen cooling these days? :p

Hard disk over three years old is living on borrowed time.Less than one year old, got it last August.

DVD burner...three year factor.Degrades with use, not as much with time. But again I bought it with the case.

Memory...dated and tied to older tech. The newest is DDR3, but that is still too expensive. DDR2 is 'mainstream'.Yes, I stated it was DDR2 memory. If it isn't obviously I'll be up a creek, but I'm fairly sure it is. Had to upgrade memory to handle java, so just went with DDR2.

Power supply, like case...inadequate for today's components.The biggest sinks are the hard disk and the video card, and the processor of course. I'd say 400 watts isn't terribly low, would you?

OS...maybe. If you are running a retail version of XP, then you should be able to transfer it to a new build. Otherwise, Linux is low cost.Yeah, I've been running Linux since 2000, and every time a new version of Windows comes out it feels like 200 more dollars in the bank.

What you don't want to do is go laterally...replace what you have with same dated/dead end gear you are currently running with more of the same, but a different brand.Right, which is why I'm not buying generic VIA crap 333mHz stuff. I don't even think they sell motherboards that are that dated. It's frustrating really, if they didn't stop manufacturing old versions we could make a $50 computer. But my hope is to restore my system to a decent performance, and I don't have to buy another case in order to do so. All those prefab package deals always have crap hardware, except the few components they advertise.

I'd wait another 2 years to get enough money to "get a new system" but my current one I can't even get a POST beep code error. It's a lot easier on the wallet to just get the parts I need, instead of assuming that everything needs to be new and wasting valuable part life.

[mjc]

The good news is that if you are really set on doing this, and the drives and stuff aren't as old as I thought, then yeah go ahead and do the lateral swap...the hardware requirements for Linux are a bit more 'forgiving' than those for Windows. Since you probably won't be getting a top end video card and wanting to do SLI or Crossfire, you can probably get away with something like this...

What exactly is your current processor and what is the exact problem with the current board, other than no POST?

A decent Linux compatible network card should run around $20. Some boards do have onboard solutions that will work, what distro are you looking at running?

[starling]

No problem other than no POST. It doesn't boot up, no BIOS, no monitor signal, no keyboard LEDs. All that stuff comes after POST. No beep codes either.

I'm not keeping my current processor. It's a Duron, and it may as well be kaput too. I'm looking at running Debian Testing, which is what usually has the best balance of features to stability for me.

[starling]

Well, I'm tired of having no computer. My email has been bouncing for 5 days now so it's a real mess. I'm just going to buy that Gigabyte one, hopefully it'll be here before the end of the week.