Wanted: Newbie Guide to Purchasing and Installing a Motherboard, plus your advice

[WannaBeGeek]

I'm interested in upgrading the motherboard of an older computer; partly to get good value for my dollar, partly to learn more about how computers work. This brings to mind the following questions:

1) Is there any guide on the 'net that would be helpful to someone who has never touched the inside of a computer? Something that explains what all those acronyms mean (especially when it comes to selecting among technologies that affect performance) would be tremendously helpful.

2)If I want to install on my own, what special tools (if any) are needed? I've seen at least one website offer a special toolkit; are these tools needed for installation or troubleshooting? Is it worth it to lay out the extra expense and have them, or should I just take the MacGuyver approach?

3) Can anyone make a recommendation for a budget system (board and CPU combo)? I'd like to keep the total cost under $400 if possible; I'm willing to pay more for performance, but really want to hit the price-to-performance "sweet spot". From what I've gleaned off websites so far, I'm leaning toward an ABIT board with an AMD chip (can't decide between Athlon or Thunderbird). I'll be running mostly office apps and possible some web-design programs; if this experiment works, I'd like to upgrade to a killer multi-media system at a later date.

 

[BlueScreenVW]

1. Generally, the best thing is to look in the mobo manual. Of course there are guides out there, but simply mounting the mobo in the case is a piece of cake (because of the standardized ATX format). What might possibly cause trouble is:
- Forgetting to add proper amount of heat conductive grease to CPU.
- Mounting the CPU heatsink wrong (be careful with AMD:S - might break if heatsink is misaligned).
- Forgetting to connect the CPU fan to the correct header.
- Adding all power cables and IDE connectors right. Here it's definitely better to check your specific mobo manual, since placing often varies.
- Trying to mount RAM the wrong way...
- Etcetera (that is, some simple stuff that can go wrong, but very trivial in general).

2. A screwdriver should be more than enough.

3. I'd recommend an Abit KT7, Abit KT7 RAID or MSI K7T Pro2 if you want it immediately (with 266 MHz FSB chipsets soon arriving, that is). A Duron 700-800 MHz would be a very good choice (possibly higher if you won't overclock). The Duron is an excellent budget CPU. Or maybe a T-Bird 8-900 MHz... Also, make sure you get some good PC133 RAM - even cas2 RAM shouldn't be too expensive right now. If you choose a Duron, you should be able to get a price for CPU + Board + 256 MB PC133 well under $400, I think.


Good luck!

 

[Jamey]

Ditto, but I would add 2 nut drivers into the mix. One for the case screws (very handy and fast), and a less needed one for the MB mounting spacers (pliers would suffice). MAKE SURE to ground yourself before touching parts, and keep touching to a minimum. Static can kill. Also, installing the case wires for LED lights can be hard to figure out, but if you get them wrong, reverse them. As Emerill says..."we're not talking rocket science here".


MSI K7t Pro 2-a $130...Stable, well liked board, and cheaper than competition.
Duron 700 retail $ 70...Fast for the money, O/C to 850 fairly easily with stock cooling
128 pc133 crucial or Muskin $ 73...128 megs is enough with DDR memory and boards around the corner

less than $300 shipped. $100 more will get you a Thunderbird. Not worth it for a "budget" system IMHO of course.

 

[jbird]

You might give this site on building an ATX form factor system a look.

http://www.daileyint.com/build/

I gave the motherboard manual a through reading. Building a PC for dummies was of some help (in general, I hate the dummie titles). Upgrading and Repairing PCs, by Mueller is helpful. Read the manual first and look at the other resources if you get stuck.

I like to purchase my Mb from a vendor that installs the cpu and memory and tests the board before shipping. I used TC Computers in the past, but they have changed ownership and I can't recommend them (read the mb ratings for some idea of how happy people are with the mb). I like a mb,cpu combo with a 2 or 3 year warranty from the vendor (the warranty is only as good as the vendor).

Keep yourself grounded at all times with a wrist stap and a grounding pad. Have all your parts lined up and ready to go. Try to do the whole system in one day (first time took me 5 hours). Expect problems with sound cards.

I did my first Win98 box by installing everything and then working on the problem adapters / irq conflicts. If I do it again, I plan to install just the basics: cpu, memory, graphics card to get the system up and going and then add other components one at a time resolving any conflicts.

I plan to do a Linux box next. My plan this time around will be to install everything and let the vendors OS install progam sort everything out.

Experience is the best teacher. Read up as much as possible and then dig in (with a grounding strap attached, of course).

Buy the best parts you can afford. A processor that is down 2 or 3 notches from the top will do just fine if you spend a little more on additional memory.

Good luck.

 

[jbird]

You might give this web site a look to check out user ratings of reseller http://www.resellerratings.com/index.html

 

[fergus]

bump. Because I want to know as well. Looking for free guides on the net.
Try http://www.pcmech.com/byopc/index.htm, and Sharkyextreme.com has some guides including one for installing/upgrading the mobo.