Good Intel Micro ATX board for college student?

[Sabin]

Hello,

My friend is a poor college student who received an emachines as a gift. Well, he is a civil engineering major and the interal video just won't cut it.
He's looking for a good, cheap motherboard that will support his 2.2 ghz celeron and PC2100 Ram. Are there any specific models or companys that I should look at to help him find a new mobo. He already has a new vid card (he didn't know there wasn't an agp slot) and just needs something for a little gaming and maybe some autocad down the line.

Thanks all in advance !!!

 

[mechBgon]

An Abit IS-10 might be just the ticket. It supports all current Socket478 CPUs as far as I know, and has dual-channel capability (needs either one or two pairs of essentially-identical modules for DC). Besides onboard Intel "Extreme Graphics," it has an AGP 4x/8x slot.

I'm reluctant to suggest doing that without upgrading the EMachines into a new case with a high-quality industry-standard ATX power supply, however... particularly if he's going to get a reasonably-good video card (many of the new ones draw enough juice to need an auxiliary power plug from the PSU). My suggestion would be an Antec Sonata, with the nice and very-quiet TruePower380 PSU and a 120mm fan included. The SLK3700AMB, SLK3700BLK and SX635II are some others worth a look at a lower price too.

Hope that helps a bit Welcome to the Forums, by the way.