non-genius needs help choosing new Motherboard/processor

[LubeDog]

I currently have a Gateway PC with 500Mhz P3 processor. My current motheroard has an Nvidia GeForce2 MX 200 video card and your basic sound card. I've got 320MB Ram, but the board limits me to 384MB RAM so that is the main reason for my upgrade. Here are my requirements:

1.4-1.6GHZ processor
support for up to 2GB RAM

utilize my two current HD's
-IBM factory installed 20gb drive...no info known
-Maxtor Ultra ATA/133 7200rpm 60gb drive
utilize my dvd-rom (pioneer) and cdr/w (Sony)
Decent video and sound cards...not a gamer or Audiophile. OK with me if I can reuse what I have.
utilize my NIC card

I've been looking at Tigerdirect.com at their motherboard/processor bundles, but I can't tell what I need. It looks like some of their bundles could be OK at around $95 but I don't know. Can anyone make a recommendation? I'd like to keep the price down as low as I can while meeting my needs.

 

[LubeDog]

forgot to mention, since my budget is small, I am leaning towards an AMD processor rather than an overpriced Pentium processor. If I can do this under $100 that would be awesome.

 

[o1die]

If your case is proprietary, you may have do some modifications to get it to work with any standard atx mobo. The best deal I've found is at Fry's electronics. I just got an ecs k7vta3 mobo with xp1800 retail boxed cpu for $60. You'll need some pc2100 or pc2700 memory, which would put you over the $100 mark for 256 megs. You'll probably also need an agp 4x video card. Your old card may not work with the newer boards. A second upgrade might be possible with a newegg.com refurb mobo and cpu. The cpus sell out in seconds. The 1700xp goes for $30 when available. They also had a leadtek nforce2 board with built in video for $50 shipped. But most of their refurb boards have no cables, manual, backplate, or driver cd. You can download the drivers off the manufacturer's website. I always have a few extra cables. Maybe you can get those from a friend. Backplates are available only from abit, and possibly aopen. I try to choose a mobo with a standard port configuration, the same as the standard atx setup you get with any case, so I won't need a special backplate. I almost forgot the power supply. If yours if less than 300 watts, you'll need a new one. Newegg has a generic refurb one for $7 shipped, if you can find it.

 

[Peter]

(nevermind, wrong thread)

 

[will889]

I would stay away from refurbished. In your case I would get a retail XP2100 ($68.00) and Gigabyte GA-7N400-L nforce2 Ultra board (has four dimm slots for 2G ram and is $80.00)

*these prices are at Newegg.