Emachines motherboard is toast. What to replace it with?

[aloevera]

Wish I'd read the post about the power supply. It destroyed my son's motherboard. It's a T4697. Emachines told me to replace it with their FIC VG33 which is a socket 478 Pentium 4 based on chipset Intel 845GE, FSB 400/533 MHz. Since my son has not backed up his music files, he could just replace it with the VG33 and everything should work.

My question is, do I have to do that? There are some Intel boards that look like they might be better but I'm a real novice. This is an old machine and I don't want to spend a fortune. Do I get a new motherboard/CPU or can I just buy a new motherboard and use the old CPU.

There's an Intel D845GEBV2 S478 533FSB DDR ATX A/V WB Intel Pentium 4 processor in a PGA478 socket with a 400/533 MHz system bus.

It's only $59 from Hyper Microsystems.

Is it okay or should I go for a better model. My son is a musician and his girlfriend does lots of graphics. Any recommendations would be appreciated. Eventually, we'll just have to upgrade to a better machine but for now I just want the thing to work.

 

[kpo6969]

I would just get a new system that is upgradable at a later time. I don't want to be biased since I own a Dell but you could go to Walmart and buy a whole new system that can be upgraded a component at a time at a later date. I bought mine from Dell before they were available retail. Just a suggestion:

http://www.walmart.com/search/searc...query=dell&ic=24_0&Continue.x=27&Continue.y=5

 

[Tedster]

https://www.techspot.com/vb/topic62782.html

 

[aloevera]

Had I only read this sooner.

https://www.techspot.com/vb/topic62782.html

I read this the other day, after the motherboard was toast. We already replaced the power supply but it was too late. If only I had been reading this forum on a regular basis, we would have know. Oh well, live and learn.

 

[aloevera]

Only needs to last another year.

I would just get a new system that is upgradable at a later time. I don't want to be biased since I own a Dell but you could go to Walmart and buy a whole new system that can be upgraded a component at a time at a later date. I bought mine from Dell before they were available retail. Just a suggestion:

http://www.walmart.com/search/searc...query=dell&ic=24_0&Continue.x=27&Continue.y=5

Thanks. I know this is not the best computer but, I have another son who is traveling for a year. He's the tech person in the family. When he returns, we'll get him to build a computer for us but in the meantime, we need this one to work. I use mine for business and don't want to share.

I can put one of the hard drives into my machine, back up the files, install a new mb and windows XP and put an new mb in his machine. Problem is deciding which one is good. Since the form factor is 9.6 x 9.6 they are limited. Maybe I can just email newegg and ask them which inexpensive board with that form factor will work and is pretty decent.

Wish me luck.