Mom's PC needs a new MB, what and where should I buy?

[Thegonagle]

Where should I shop for a MB/CPU/RAM that will do Next Day shipping for a reasonable cost? What should I buy? Here?s the situation:

I need a little help. I haven?t been component shopping for a long time. My mom/stepdad?s Quantex PC (I know, read on) . . . has been struck by lightning. . . Twice! In both cases it came in through the phone line. The first time killed the modem and the sound card, the second killed the new modem. They didn?t bother buying a new sound card, but the modem was replaced by me both times. After the second time, which was about 9-11 months ago, there was an intermittent problem: while booting, the bios would report a floppy drive failure, but they?d hit reset and it would work fine.

The problem is no longer intermittent, and now it?s more complex. The message is the same: Floppy disk failure, press F2 to continue or DEL to setup. The keyboard won?t respond. I?ve tried two different keyboards. I think the motherboard is fried. (It just occurred to me today that I should check the MB with a different PS, but they live 50 miles away.)

They have a slot 1 Celeron 400. While I?m replacing the MB, I think I should upgrade the CPU. My mom thinks that's a good idea. They also have 96 MB of PC100 RAM. I see that 256 MB of PC 133 is only $35 at newegg, but you need to understand what a cheapass my stepfather is. He?ll want to be able to use the old RAM, but that means another celeron. As much as I root for AMD, I used to recommend Intel to friends and family just for compatibility and reliability.

What and where should I buy with their money? AMD Duron, Intel Celeron, or Intel P3. I don?t know the rating of their PS. Which MB? What?s good these days? I mentioned RAID to them in mirrored mode, and they seem to like the idea, but they won?t if the MB?s too expensive.

This post got longer than average. Thanks to everyone who can help,

Joe.

 

[NaughtyusMaximus]

I would suggest that you buy something integrated (like the following), keep the RAM you have, and add more if he decides to spend the money.

ECS K7SEM SIS730S SOCKET A UPTO 1.5GHZ ATA100 W/VID/SND/LAN/56K

The board should be decently priced, and should give support for your current RAM and any Duron/Athlon you want to put in it.

 

[Thyme]

Is that mobo better than the Biostar M7VKL?

 

[Thegonagle]

They don't need an integrated solution. They already have a Matrox G200 AGP that I handed down to them, and my mom likes the video quality of that compared to the old card that Quantex originally supplied, so we can't take any steps backward.

 

[Athlon4all]

Well, a Duron still could use PC100, it runs at 100MHz fsb. The mobo, if you want a inexpensive, RAID mobo, then Your best bet will be IWill's KK266-R, but for $100, when you can get a mobo/CPU combo at www.1stclasstech.com that features an ECS K7VZA rev. 1 (Note: this Mobo uses KT133 chipset meaning that it is incompatible with Athlon-C's, they are selling K7VZA rev.3 which has KT133A but it much more expensive and only comes with 1.1GHz Athlons or higher so make sure it's the rev. 1) and a Duron 800w/fan for $114. i did do a quick search on this board, and read a review done by Active-Hardware here and they gave it a very good rating, the only cons being that no ocing options which shouldn't be a problem in your situation. So this is your best bet, there really are no cheap RAID options so. And I can say that I in my first D-I-Y PC used a ECS K7VMA (KM133 not KT133, I needed the on-board Video, and it was cheap) and it has been wonderful, no stability problems, only one problem in that it refuses to recignoize the ATA/100 cable and makes the Hd run at ATA/33 but otherwise has been great, again laking in ocing options (Only fsb settings upto 112MHz, no PCI dividers, but still I have managed to oc my Duron 800 to 872MHz by setting it to 109x8.0) so you should be good with this ECS mobo. Oh and make sure you have a good quality 300w ps, Duron's eat up alot of power.

P.S This mobo can use PC133, but also can use PC100 with this duron, good luck

 

[NaughtyusMaximus]

Athlon4all gave very good suggestions. The reason I suggested integrated was just so that you wouldn't have to buy a new sound card and modem. Regardless, on the integrated board there is still an APG slot as well as PCI, so you would still be able to use your G200.

 

[Thegonagle]

Thanks A4A and NMax. I've got to order this stuff tomorrow to have it on Wednesday.

Anyone else have any thoughts tonight?

Let me know, Thanks,

Joe.

 

[SXMP]

Thoughts by SXMP:

If you can last a while, hold off and just rebuild the system for about the same amount of money you are gonna spend now. What I mean is wait for Nforce if you can =)

 

[Thegonagle]

Yeah, but I can't hold off. They need their computer. It currently doesn't work at all.

I doubt they have an AMD capable (300 W) PS, so I'm thinking about a P3 or Celeron 2 and a 256 MB stick of PC133 as the easiest solution, but I still need to decide on a good, reliable MB, and a vendor. I won't be overclocking their system.

Who are some of your favorite, most reliable vendors? It would be nice if they have OK MB/CPU/RAM package deals, and don't rip you too bad on next day shipping.

Thanks again,

Joe

 

[John P]

Where do you live? Maybe someone can recommend a local computer shop for you if you need it that fast. Overnight shipping is going to cost you almost half the cost of the motherboard, depending on where you buy it. Otherwise look at something like the MSI KM133 for a cheap all in one solution, it has an AGP slot and you can bypass the onboard video if need be.

 

[amoralist]

Forget about the raid; you'll have to have a second HD.

I'd get an IWILL KK266 or Asus A7V133 (both have sound as an option).

Couple that with an OEM Athlon (I've tried Durons, and I'm not impressed) 1Ghz+ 266 from www.newegg.com and an $8 Thermaltake Volcan II.

You can run the fsb at 133, and the ram at 100.

Jason

 

[Thegonagle]

I live in Minneapolis. I'd be happy buy locally.

I don't want to replace the PS for an AMD. Too much work for me, and they won't want the extra expense.

EDIT, Oh, and I know that RAID requires 2 drives by definition, but they think it's a good idea, since they don't bother backing stuff up very often. They know they need to upgrade the HD soon since it's a 5-6 gigger and nearly full, and they will need to budget for two of them instead of one. They just don't want to spend much money right now since this MB failure is an unexpected expense.

 

[John P]

Too bad Tekram doesn't have any of their LX chipset slot 1 mb's on sale for $29.95 anymore, coulda sworn I saw one for sale there (tekramusa.com) a week ago. That would be a good, cheap, quick solution for now. I have my kids computer running on one now, and I can upgrade the CPU to a Celeron 766 FCPGA according to their web site.

I live in Lynnwood, WA so I can't help you on a local place. Any Anandtecher's in Minneapolis know a local computer shop with good prices?