Softwareandstuff in California is selling a Daewoo CB650M-BX Motherboard for $39.95. It only has 2 DIMM slots, 1 AGP, 2 dedicated PCI and one shared PCI/ISA slot, but it comes with onboard sound (which is fine to tell you "You've got mail!"😉 The is Slot 1 and can supposedly handle up to a PIII 500 CPU. It comes with a whopping 90 day warranty. Of course you can buy the Intel MP440BX from Overstock.com for $39 and not pay for shipping or CA sales tax, but that board is OEM and refurbished. I was one of the unlucky ones who couldn't get that board to even POST.
They are also hawking a new AT Socket 370 PC Chips (sign of the beast!) M726MRT mobo for $49 that apparently can host a PIII 600 and has 3 DIMM slots, 3 PCI slots, an ISA slot and boasts built in 56K modem & sound. This has an ALI chipset and PC Chips is famous for the shoddy quality of its product. Still, with memory and hard drive prices so low you could upgrade your cousin's 14.4/486 to a Celeron 500 with 128 MB of RAM, a cheap video card and a 15 gig hard drive for about $280. If you're lucky it'll get him off your back for another few years.
A possibly better upgrade option would be to buy a Tekram S381-M+ 810 chipset motherboard for $50 from the manufacturer's online store. You wouldn't have to shell out for a video card and Tekram has a better reputation than PC Chips. But you'd have to spend the money you saved on the video card on an ATX case, the mobo only has 3 PCI slots and no ISA slots, and you'd have to scrounge up a PCI winmodem.
Of course both you and your hypothetical cousin would probably be much happier dropping an extra $75 and springing for a cheap ATX case, a Duron, a winmodem & an inexpensive Socket A motherboard.
Another cost-effective AT upgrade option for those near a Fry's is to wait for them to put the FIC VA503+ and K6-III 333 (yes, I know, there isn't supposed to be any such a beast) for $74. I've seen this combo on sale a couple of times in the last month. The motherboard even has 4 DIMM slots so you can use your 64 MB of EDO RAM. I built a system around these components and the K6-III 333 FEELS as snappy as a K6-2 500, even though it doesn't benchmark quite as well (except for memory scores, which are better than the K6-2's). Not a system for gamers, but just fine for office applications and surfing the net.
They are also hawking a new AT Socket 370 PC Chips (sign of the beast!) M726MRT mobo for $49 that apparently can host a PIII 600 and has 3 DIMM slots, 3 PCI slots, an ISA slot and boasts built in 56K modem & sound. This has an ALI chipset and PC Chips is famous for the shoddy quality of its product. Still, with memory and hard drive prices so low you could upgrade your cousin's 14.4/486 to a Celeron 500 with 128 MB of RAM, a cheap video card and a 15 gig hard drive for about $280. If you're lucky it'll get him off your back for another few years.
A possibly better upgrade option would be to buy a Tekram S381-M+ 810 chipset motherboard for $50 from the manufacturer's online store. You wouldn't have to shell out for a video card and Tekram has a better reputation than PC Chips. But you'd have to spend the money you saved on the video card on an ATX case, the mobo only has 3 PCI slots and no ISA slots, and you'd have to scrounge up a PCI winmodem.
Of course both you and your hypothetical cousin would probably be much happier dropping an extra $75 and springing for a cheap ATX case, a Duron, a winmodem & an inexpensive Socket A motherboard.
Another cost-effective AT upgrade option for those near a Fry's is to wait for them to put the FIC VA503+ and K6-III 333 (yes, I know, there isn't supposed to be any such a beast) for $74. I've seen this combo on sale a couple of times in the last month. The motherboard even has 4 DIMM slots so you can use your 64 MB of EDO RAM. I built a system around these components and the K6-III 333 FEELS as snappy as a K6-2 500, even though it doesn't benchmark quite as well (except for memory scores, which are better than the K6-2's). Not a system for gamers, but just fine for office applications and surfing the net.
