MB upgrade suggestions wanted

[Muse]

My current main system motherboard is an MSI KT3 Ultra2 (Beauty in my sig).

Right now the system is like this:

MSI KT3 Ultra2 mainboard
AMD Athlon XP 1700+ CPU (not overclocked)
BFG geforce 6600 GT OC AGP video card (dual DVI)
2 sticks of DDR - Samsung Original PC2700 512 MB for 1 GB total

5 PCI slots:
Kingston EtheRx PCI Fast Ethernet Adapter (DS21143, based on Intel 21143) PCI
USR Model 2977 PCI hardware modem
Hercules GTXP soundcard PCI
MyHD HDTV 120 HDTV PCI
MyHD HDTV 120 HDTV daughterboard PCI

4 IDE devices:
Seagate Barracuda IDE HD's: 120, 160, 200 GB
NEC ND-2510a DVD/RW burner/player

Logitech MX510 optical mouse, corded
Teac 1.4 MB floppy drive
I just bought a 500 GB external USB 2.0 HD, that should come next week.

I'm using both serial ports because the HDTV card uses a serial port for it's infrared remote control sensor, and my universal remote control (Home Theater Master MX-700) is programmed via a serial port connected cable. So, I pretty much need two serial ports.

The mainboards I've seen lately have just one serial port. Newegg's search engine apparently won't let me specify number of serial ports. Suggestions appreciated.

 

[Muse]

Looks like this might be a candidate:

EPoX 8HDA3+

 

[o1die]

The epox store sells several refurbished boards as low as $25 on their website.

 

[Muse]

Originally posted by: o1die
The epox store sells several refurbished boards as low as $25 on their website.

Thanks for the tip. I'll definitely check that out. It's been 4½ years since I built my last system. Income has dwindled lately, so I can't justify building an entirely new system, but this MB and a Sempron would be a fine tuneup and maybe < $100! I found one on eBay but the seller's in the UK and he wants £20 to ship it!

 

[Fallen Kell]

You can also consider getting a Serial->USB adapter/converter. I know I have one. I used it on a laptop I have that doesn't have a serial port to upload programming code to a robot during college (for my AI courses). Made life easy since I could take the laptop to wherever the robot was and stay connected to get output from the robot and send it new data on the fly as well.

Anyway, as I said they exist. I don't think I ever tried to see if my MX800's software would properly use the device or not though, as the computer I use for that remote has a free serial port. You might also be able to use a different IR sensor. I use the USB-UIRT sender/receiver to control my computer's video capturing as well as let the computer's video capturing software control my cable set top box.

 

[Muse]

Thanks Fallen Kell. I actually have a USB --> Serial cable device. I bought one at a computer show and must have spent around 2 days ( ! ) trying to get it to work, and finally gave up and brought it back to the next show a few weeks later. It had cost me about $15, and they wouldn't refund me, so I upgraded to one they were selling for $2 more. I had much better luck with that one. I got it working with my external modem, but I found that keeping it working was another matter. I installed/uninstalled/reinstalled that device many many times and finally simply gave up and decided to remove one of my PCI cards and reinstall my PCI USR hardware modem for my occasional faxing duties.

I haven't tried that cable for my other serial devices yet, but I have it handy.

Your suggestion of a USB IR sensor is a possibility. I posted and found out that my HDTV card distributers do have an alternative remote available for it that uses USB. $19, plus shipping. So, yeah, I have ways around the "problem." I figure I can live with one serial port, but two would be better. I've just recently started actually researching upgrade possibilities. I just wonder how much benefit I would get out of the upgrade I'm contemplating. Frankly, I totally don't know. When I upgraded from a P166+ to an Athlon 1.2, the increase in speed was dramatic. The next upgrade was nothing to speak of, except that I did have USB 2.0. USB 2.0 is pretty essential these days, I figure, but my main desktop already has that. I'm wondering if getting a CPU faster than my Athlon 1700+ is going to be a significant upgrade.