good pIII mobo?

[Grimace]

hi, my friend has a 1 year old hewlett packard 1 gig pIII system. he wants to upgrade his computer with a motherboard that has an agp slot. could you guys recommend a good pIII motherboard that he could use all his old parts, like ram, psu etc...(just swap out the old mobo for the new) also his current system has onboard sound, should he stick with that setup on the new motherboard, or maybe buy a new soundcard when he gets the new mobo? thanks

 

[moosey]

I'd go with a new soundcard. the onboard is probably AC97 crap. get a turtle beach santa cruz. As far as the mobo, go Asus. CUSL2 has sound if you decide to go that way, and CUSL2-C has nothing integrated. Both have AGP. I have had a CUSL2-C for a year and it overclocks great and I've had no trouble. Or you could go TUSL2-C to give options for the new celerons late on if you wanted.

http://www.lostcircuits.com/motherboard/asus_cusl2/

 

[birddog]

The PIII board I used the most (and the most stable board I have ever worked with) is the Tyan S1854 Trinity 400. Not much of an overclocker, but very stable. This board has no on-board sound, so a soundcard would be needed.

Something you have to look at though is his current case. Most OEM's use a propriarity case & power supply. You have to make sure it is a regulation ATX case & power supply. If not, a new case & power supply will be needed. OEM's that do use a standard design usually will use a microATX design. A full size ATX board will not fit in a micro ATX case.

I have seen a few Tyan Trinity 400 boards for sale in the FS/FT forums lately - that may be a good place to start looking.

 

[Grimace]

thanks for the help guys. ill have to go take a look at his case, i didnt think of that. so most likely he'll be wanting to buy a sound card for better quality. thanks!

 

[GonzoDaGr8]

I will have to agree with both Moosey and birddog..I have/ have had both of the afformentioned boards and can attest to their stability/reliability. I would however, lean more towards the TUSL2-C for the most up to date features and compatibility with the newest Tualitin-cored cely's and PIII's. Your friend will more than likely have to get an ATX approved case. I can almost guarantee non-usability with the HP's Proprietary case/powersupply.

EDIT: As far as a sound card goes, SB Live! Values can be had for pretty cheap these days.

 

[pcmax]

1 year old HP, the only thing he can salvage out of that would be the hard drive, ram, cpu, cdrom, and anything that might be in the pci slots (nic, modem). He is looking at a new case and floppy drive along with the new board. Also third that motion on the two aformentioned boards, have had both, still do.

P.S. There are microATX boards out there that may fit this case with an AGP slot but consensus is that a new case with a decent power supply (250+) and much more capability\upgradability will serve him better in the long run.