Any computer geeks here?

[CrimsonMaiden]

We need a new motherboard for my husband's computer. Actually, we've needed one for awhile but most of the board specs listed online are greek to me and I don't know how to find out if a site is reliable or what a good brand is.

We need a motherboard that will support an older P4 card (bought about 3 years ago... processor speed is 2.8mghz or pretty close to that), PC2100 (266) memory (2gigs), has onboard ethernet and slots for video card (Nvidia Ge4) & sound card (Santa Cruz Turtle Beach) and front and back usb ports.

I'm looking for something reliable but that won't break the pocket book. Can anyone help? I'd be eternally grateful.

 

[cloudy]

We need a new motherboard for my husband's computer. Actually, we've needed one for awhile but most of the board specs listed online are greek to me and I don't know how to find out if a site is reliable or what a good brand is.

We need a motherboard that will support an older P4 card (bought about 3 years ago... processor speed is 2.8mghz or pretty close to that), PC2100 (266) memory (2gigs), has onboard ethernet and slots for video card (Nvidia Ge4) & sound card (Santa Cruz Turtle Beach) and front and back usb ports.

I'm looking for something reliable but that won't break the pocket book. Can anyone help? I'd be eternally grateful.

PM Salvor_Hardon, or Dran. Either one of them should be able to help.

 

[CrimsonMaiden]

Thanks for the tip cloudy.

 

[minsue]

Liar might well know, as well

 

[Guest]

My best recomencetion to you:

Do not, under any circumstances, skimp on your mainbaoard. That IS your computer. You can get a cheap crap mainbboard anywhere, but you will sacrifice performance and reliability. Spend a little extra and get a quality board, you'll be glad later.

Ok, so how much is a little more and what are good brands? Asus and ABit are the top mainboaeds in the world for performance and reliability. You can get them for $90-140, $20-40 more than a cheap board like Shuttle, A Open or DFI. Well worth it, in my opinion.

As for features, my main machine has an ABit IC-7 G board in it. It came with on-board sound (which I disabled as I have a Sound Blaster Audigy II), on-board ethernet, Firewire, 4 USB ports on the back and a header for 4 more in the front. It supports UDMA100 drives as well as Serial ATA and RAID array. This board is for the P4 and supports hyperthreading, up to 4GB of dual channel DDR memory, AGP 8X video and 6PCI slots. All for $139. It has been running non-stop for over a year and has never so much as hiccuped.

ABit-USA

Asus TEK

Browse their sites, find the boards that support your proccessor and then go to newegg.com and get a good deal.

 

[Huckleman2000]

I think you mean P4 CPU. That is the most crucial thing to get right, the socket that accomodates your existing pentium P4 chip.

Here's one from NewEgg.com that might suit your needs - I'm really just using it as an example to describe some things:

# REFURBISHED: ASUS P4B533-UAYZ Socket 478 Intel 845 ATX Intel Motherboard - OEM
# AGP Slots: 1x AGP 4X/2X
CPU Type: Intel Pentium 4/Celeron
DDR Standard: DDR 266 (PC 2100)
FSB: 533/400MHz
Maximum Memory Supported: 2GB
Number of DDR Slots: 3x 184pin DDR
Onboard Video: No
PATA: 2 x ATA 100 up to 4 Devices
PCI Slots: 6
South Bridge: Intel ICH4
# Model #: P4B533
# Item #: N82E16813131411R
# In Stock
$55.19

If you have the original documentation from when you bought it, some of these specs might be listed, so you'd know what you've got.
Asus is the manufacturer, Socket 478 is what the standard for certain types of Intel CPUs is called - where you would plug in your P4 chip (if that's what it fits into). Intel 845 ATX describes the chipset used on the motherboard's controller chips - those are the ones that sort of control the data traffic from all the various slots.
AGP slot is probably where you'd plug your Ge4 video card into. If not there, then it would be into one of the PCI slots, which are standard. I'm not sure what type of specs that card has, but if you can find it online, it would tell you whether it requires a 2x, 4x, or 8x capable video slot.
DDR Standard is what type of memory you should use. You listed this in your message, so that's why I chose this one to show you Newer boards will handle DDR 400 (PC3200) or even faster. The faster capabilities don't necessarily mean that you can't use the slower memory, it's just indicating the fastest you can use.
FSB is Front-Side Bus - that's the interface to the memory, and the rated speed is twice the speed of the memory it can handle. So, 533 is twice 266, the rating on your memory chips.
Maximum memory (RAM) supported is 2 gig, also what you listed
Number of DDR slots - That is how many slots there are to plug your memory into. If your 2gig is in the form of 2 one-gig sticks, you're golden. If it's 1 one-gig stick and 2 512k-sticks, you're also fine. If it's 4 512k sticks, you'll only be able to plug 3 of them into this board. Also, the configuration will dictate which slots you plug the RAM sticks into. If you have two one-gig sticks, you may have to plug them into slots 1 and 2, or slots 1 and 3... just pay attention to that in the instructions when you're plugging everything in.
Onboard video - that indicates if it comes with a video-card equivalent on it or not. Since you have the Ge4 card, you don't need it.
PATA: 2x ATA 100... This indicates the type of slots where you plug your hard drives into. This board has 2 ATA slots that handle up to an ATA 100 speed drive. Each slot can accomodate a cable that looks like a 2-inch wide ribbon, and usually has 2 sockets that plug into the back of your hard drive(s) or CD/DVD drive(s). So, this board could handle up to 4 hard drives or CD/DVD drives, in some combination.
PCI slots - That's where you'd plug any expansion cards into - probably your sound card, or a modem, etc.
South Bridge: That's a chip that controls something or other, and that's about all I know about it.

This board does not appear to have onboard ethernet, nor does it indicate anything about USB slots. so it may not suit your needs totally.

Anyway, I hope that helps you read the specs with a bit more confidence.

 

[CrimsonMaiden]

Thanks for the information guys. I'm fairly certain the vid card is a PCI card.

Just so I have this straight... if the memory says DDR Standard: DDR400, and doesn't list any other memory sizes, does that mean it's the highest speed it supports and will accept any lower speeds?

I just want to make sure I don't order a board and find it doesn't support the 2 gigs of 266 memory we have (1 gig sticks).