Wanting to buy new MoBo - Questions

[Wesablo]

Hey I have a Gigabyte K8 Triton K8NS Ultra-939 with an AGP slot, and I just recently bought a new vid card because my Asus Geforce 6800GT keeps dying on me, but I ended up buying a PCI-E card thinking that my current MoBo supports it. Big mistake, but I don't want to return the card knowing of its potential power, so I was thinking of just buying a new MoBo instead but ive never installed a MoBo before.....Now heres the questions
1.) Will the installation of a new MoBo require any major inconveniences in terms of reconnecting all of my HDs, DVDrom, vid card, CPU, and all of my current hardware (I mean is it just like installing a new video card nice and easy, or is it more than that?)
2.) Following question 1., will installing the new MoBo require any type major inconveniences like the reformatting of my HDs? (i have 2 regular IDE drives one which is partitioned, and then 1 SATA HD)
3.) Is it better to get another Gigabyte MoBo rather than Asus or any other diff. maker, and lastly
4.) Is it a bad idea to purchase a GA-K8N Pro-SLI if it IS in fact a good idea to get another Gigabyte MoBo, from eBay, because I can't find it anywhere else?
Thank you very much for your time and response, I really appreciate it because I just want to get my comp back up and running. The link to the GA-K8N Pro-SLI I found on eBay is below

~Wes



http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dl...loc=closed_view_item&refwidgettype=osi_widget

 

[Fragrant Coit]

Mostly, it depends on the health of your wallet!

S939 boards are obsolete now, and buying one second hand is about the only option - obviously there's no garauntee how long it will last...

It is a biggish job, but if you take your time, it's pretty straightforward. The #1 thing is to make sure all the Motherboard Spacers are under the Screwholes & nowhere else, and clean the CPU & Heatsink of old thermal goo thoroughly, and apply some new stuff. I find hooking up the Front Panel Connectors is the hardest bit - I have big fingers! Having an 11 year old Daughter really helps in that instance...

If you went for a New 'Board - either to suit an AM2, or Core2, you'll also need new RAM, as yours uses DDR, and the new standard is DDR2.

As for Windows - a fresh install is always the best option, but if you get a 2nd hand Board with a similar Chipset, a Repair install will work, whereas a brand new one with any chipset will be completely foreign to your Windows install, and a Format / Reinstall is the only option.

I'd recommend getting a Core2 of any flavour {e4xxx and above}, a P35 Chipset 'Board and some DDR800. You'll have an up to date system, full warranty, great performance for your $, and blow the 939 away.

 

[Wesablo]

yes I failed to mention yet you easily realized, that I only have DDR support on this current MoBo and 939 socket athlon xp +3200 - that being said, the other major thing I didnt mention is the budget, and that it's basically none. Haha, don't quite have too much money currently and so im pretty sure that just getting a cheap chipset would be my best option at this point.....kinda in a bind here on what to do, but like I said, I guess just getting something cheap but still good and without cutting off the connectivity of my current hardware is my best bet. So, youre thoughts?

One other concern, if I didnt reformat my windows XP pro is it possible that errors, big or small can occur because of the change of MoBo? Or if I get that one from eBay, probably not?

Thanks again I really appreciate it.

 

[Fragrant Coit]

They're both NVidia Chipsets - albeit different ones, so it'd probably boot, but wouldn't run as it should - a Repair install is the easiest way to go - installs Windows again without changing your Settings, programs etc.

There's probably not much point getting a SLi board if things are tight, just a PCIe would do the trick - unless you are planning on buying another identical Video Card at some point.

What Video Card did you get, by the way?

 

[Rage_3K_Moiz]

Avoid eBay to buy important computer components such as PSUs, motherboards, video cards, HDDs or RAM. Only buy items that are relatively cheap, such as mice, keyboards and optical drives that won't hurt your wallet if they turn out to be defective.
As for brands, any motherboard from GigaByte, ASUS, ASRock, MSI, Abit, DFI or XFX will do fine. Avoid brands like ePox, Biostar and ECS, they're generally of poor quality and meant for low-budget, non-gaming systems.
If you want some recommendations, give us a budget, your location and we'll dig up something for you.

 

[Wesablo]

okk, im glad i checked this again because I was about to purchase the Gigabyte board from eBay......Sooo, I live on Long Island, N.Y and although I know this is pretty rough, but my budget is about...$80? I agree I don't need SLI but it was the closest chipset to the one i have now that included PCIe that I found...

btw, the card I ended up getting was this http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?Sku=G458-1010

 

[Rage_3K_Moiz]

This will be just a little bit over your budget with shipping, but it comes with SLI, Dual Gigabit LAN and other nifty extra features so it's worth much more than the price it's selling for. I recommend it.