need advice on a motherboard

[ncbadboy2004]

i have an abit bp-6 dual socket 370 motherboard i have given up on, its been a PIMA the whole time i've had it, its constantly freezing up, BSOD's and you name it. I had two celeron 500's in it with an AGP 1x/2x 8 mb i740 video card and 256 mb pc-133 memory. other cards that were installed in system are an antique 1995 sb-16 ISA sound card, a diamond supra max ISA modem, an SMC pci 10/100 nic.

what i am looking for is a NON-ABIT motherboard, absolutely will never buy another ABIT product in my life to replace this board, would like a dual socket board if possible, but will sacrifice one cpu just to get a working system again.

I have a PCI modem i can replace the ISA modem with but would like to get a motherboard with integrated sound and if there is a good mb that has a good integrated video card that does 3d accelartion(?) i would possibly go for it.

I'm looking to spend no more than $75 tops with around $50 being the price range i'm looking for cause I need a new power supply also to go with this. basically i want a new board to put my existing components into without spending a whole lot of money.

Any advice on what kind of boards are out there these days that would accomodate my needs I would greatly appreciate. I've been out of the hardware loop for years and just dont know where to start anymore or who is good, who is bad, what to avoid, etc.

Also, one other small feature I would like to have on this motherboard is the capability to later upgrade the cpu to something a little newer and faster if possible, although from what i've read the socket 370 is basically dead and is being phased out with the socket 478 and this new socket 752 or whatever the heck it is.

Thanks very much in advance,
ncbadboy2004

 

[skrapptocs]

If you are looking to go just by price. ECS makes some OK boards. I have the K7S5A, and I'm not too terribly disappointed in it. It only cost $50. However, it runs AMD Athlon XP chips. I would recommend upgrading the processor you've got anyway. If you want quality, ASUS is the best.

I'm too unimaginative to think of a good quote.

 

[shadus]

Asus makes the CUV4X-DLS... but it's a VIA chipset... which means 4 in 1 drivers or no stability whatsoever... it doesn't have ISA slots though... No motherboard is going to be upgradeable from 370->478->Anything. 370 is dead and has been for quite a while :/

Honestly, as far out of date as this system seems, you are by and far further ahead to build an entirely new pc with cheap quality components... for instance...

Motherboard - MSI K7N2GL - $99.00
Processor - Athlon XP 1700+ - $42.00
Ram - Samsung 256MB PC2700 - $28.00
Hard Disk - WD ATA/100 40GB 2MB 7200RPM - $57.00
CD - Lite On 52x - $22.00 (for double price it can be a cd-rw)
Speakers - Juster 5d-107 7 PCS - $34.00
Case - Raidmax Model 208 10 Bay 350W PS - $43.00
Total - $325.00

Or if you want to stick to an intel solution
Motherboard - Asus P4P800-VM - $105.00
CPU - 2.4c 800MHZ FSB Intel P4 - $172.00
Ram - Samsung 256MB PC2700 - $28.00
Hard Disk - WD ATA/100 40GB 2MB 7200RPM - $57.00
CD - Lite On 52x - $22.00 (for double price it can be a cd-rw)
Speakers - Juster 5d-107 7 PCS - $34.00
Case - Raidmax Model 208 10 Bay 350W PS - $43.00
Total - $461.00

Both of those setups are equal to or superior in all ways to what you are currently running... finding a 'good' 370 solution is going to be hard... especially if you care about upgradeability.

The 1700+ above can be upgraded at least to a 3200+. The Intel can be upgraded to a 3.4ghz or a 3.6ghz (don't remember which). So both can be upgraded speedwise a fair ammount, the intel chip has hyperthreading which also makes it a bit more responsive.

Adding a second stick of the same ram to either machine would also make it faster and probally make it function in dualddr mode.

Best advice I can give is build a new machine, that one is to old to bother with upgrades on really... ISA is dead.

Anyways...

Shadus

 

[ncbadboy2004]

thanks i'll check on newegg.com and see what they have as far as ecs goes, i found a couple decently priced and seemed like decently equiped boards for about $50 bucks there when I looked a few days or so ago.

 

[ncbadboy2004]

well i will keep it in mind but i really just need my system up and running as cheap as possible without totally replacing it right now. i already have a wd 60 gb ata 100 drive and this shitty bp6 board wont run ata66 for [-peep-] so its been stuck in 33 mode since i got it. i already have a decent cd-rw and dvd drive so i dont really need those either. I will probably buy some cheap 370 board that has the bare minimum configuration i need (agp slot, and hopefully onboard sound), if i can find one and get a new power supply since I'm almost sure the one I have has been half fried for a while now and probably fried the board as well. i would love to jump up the cpu but that will be a later project cause cost is the main issue right now. just curious though where you got your prices from and i do appreciate the configuration(s) you posted, they sound really great, especially the p4 system, I really prefer intel but have been tempted to buy amd when i do finally replace the whole guts of the system.