Good Motherboard?

Blinkme323

Senior member
Feb 4, 2005
431
0
76
My dad has a P4 2.0ghz 400 bus Compaq machine with 512mb pc 2100. He has an oppurtunity to trade it straight up for a P4 2.8/533 and 512mb of pc3200. The problem is the motherboard supports neither of them. It is a crap motherboard anyway, so he wants to replace it with one that supports the new parts. I would prefer something that supports 8x AGP, 533 bus, and pc3200 memory. It would also be nice if it let me overclock a little bit. He doesn't want to spend more than $30. Are there any cheap budget boards like that. I found this on New Egg:

http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDe...scription=13-139-134R&type=Refurbished

He doesn't need it to be anything great. As long as it gets the job done. Any suggestions?There were a bunch of other brands with similar specs for the same price in New Egg's refurbished section. I didn't really know any of the other brands so I posted the Soyo. Any suggestions? Also, will I have to reload the OS? It came with a Win XP disk that works in non Compaq machines. The power supply it came with is a TERRIBLE 230 watter. Do I have to replace that too and what is a decent cheap one. It has 2 HDs, 2 CDs, a floppy, and a Radeon 9100. Right now whenever it gets under load the fans start going crazy.
 

o1die

Diamond Member
Jul 8, 2001
4,785
0
71
Check your compaq case for a proprietary connector for the power switch, and hardrive or power led's. You might have to splice some wires. Or you can check ebay for another compaq board. A micro-atx board might fit.
 

Blinkme323

Senior member
Feb 4, 2005
431
0
76
Could you explain a little bit more about this dual channel chipset. I have 2 sticks of 256mb pc3200. Do I need the Albatron to run them in dual channel? Newegg has the Albatron for $37 shipped and it looks really nice. I might persuade him to go with that. How well would the cheaper one overclock?