Upgrade Dell MoBo

[peretis]

Hey, I'm trying to upgrade my Dell dimension 2400 with a 2.8 Ghz Pentium 4 processor, 512 MB, 40 GB; and getting a mother board with PCI express slots for gaming as well as one that will support at least a gig of ram. I want to keep processor though. Help is great!

 

[vnf4ultra]

You'd need a micro atx socket 478 board with pci-express x16 then. They've been made but are hard to find. It'd be a lot easier to find one with agp...
I replaced my 2300's board with a gigabyte 8IG1000MK, which has agp, and it's a decent board. Asus also makes some nice boards with agp that are matx and socket 478. I belive it was Asrock who made the one board with pci-e, socket 478, and micro atx form factor that I've seen, but not 100% sure.

Edit: here it is.
http://www.asrock.com/product/P4Dual-915GL.htm
But it has limitations on which pci-e cards it supports since it's a "fake" pci-express slot.

 

[peretis]

Hey thanks for the info

I really didn't know where to look, I'm not a total dummy about computers but when it comes to knowing sockets and power supplies I'm sort of lost. But will the power supply be enough to handle a 200-350 dollar ati or n-vidia graphics card as well as the mother board?

 

[nickslick74]

But will the power supply be enough to handle a 200-350 dollar ati or n-vidia graphics card as well as the mother board?

The stock Dell PSU will not be able to handle the stress of a powerful gfx card. It may work for a short time and the croak, probably taking your new mobo with it. You will need at least a 450 watt psu with min of 24 amps on the 12 volt line to reliabliy run your computer. Also, you will want to get a decent brand like Enermax, Thermaltake, Antec, or Fortron (FSP).

 

[peretis]

Does chipset really matter, lets say I get a board with and intel 865G but my original chipset on my old mobo is Intel 845GV. I am keeping my pentium 4 2.8 processor from my old mobo that has a intel 845GV chipset, What could happen?

 

[vnf4ultra]

Actually I just found the perfect motherboard for you.

http://www.asus.com/products4.aspx?l1=3&l2=12&l3=0&model=771&modelmenu=1

http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDetail.jsp?ProductCode=247048

It may be discontinued though. You could email zipzoom and see if they will be getting any more in.
Edit: I emailed zipzoom, and got this response.

Dear Customer,
Thank you for your inquiry.

Please note that we will no longer carry this item, and we will remove it from our website. We apologize for any inconvenience.

If you have any further questions, please respond to this email or give us a call at 510-739-1890 x2200.

Sincerely,
ZipZoomFly Customer Service

So I guess if you want it, then you'll have to get it on ebay.
http://cgi.ebay.com/Asus-P4RD1-MX-P...ryZ80161QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem


If that board doesn't work out, then I'd go with these parts.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813128222
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814143046
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817189003

That'd be about $440, but the v. card has a $50 rebate.

Your copy of xp will not transfer to a new motherboard according the the microsoft eula, but that's not to say it can't be done (it can).
So if you want a legal copy of xp, add another $85 for xp home oem.

The problem would be activating xp once it's on the new board if you do transfer it. Most likely xp won't even boot though, and will require a "repair install." Sometimes it helps if you uninstall your ide controller in device manager on the original motherboard so that it uses a generic ide controller driver so the new board will (hopefully) work with your hard drive. Xp will (likely) detect that the system has undergone major hardware changes and force reactivation, which will almost certainly fail online, which leaves you with the option of calling Microsoft and trying to get them to give you a code to let you reactivate.

Best wishes.
vnf4ultra