I need to find the right motherboard

[Guest]

I have a Dell Dimension XPS R400. This has one of those cheap boards with integrated 'Crystal' sound cards. It's PII 400 with Intel 440BX AGPset and 200W power supply. My question is I want to upgrade my system so that it can handle PIII, I have a Ultra ATA/66 and Ultra ATA/33 hard disk drives so something that can handle both but taking advantage of Ultra ATA/66 (if possible), and my current memory of 256MB 100-MHz DIMMs non-ECC in two socket. To be able to do this I thinking I need a new motherboard? Do I need to change anything else? like would I need a new case? My main goal though is to save money so I just want something that can just cover these stuff so I can use my computer for more coming years. Thanks.

 

[wapaaga]

i'mn ptretty sure your power supply i say this becuae i had a friends that kiled the board that cane with his dell then he tried to use a new boared in it, it end up bloweing the power supply out luckly the baord was still good

<font color=red>Gasoline + Fire=</font color=red> A lot of fun

 

[Crashman]

Use the Asus CUSL2 and a new power supply with the PIII FC-PGA. The Dell power supply looks like ATX but has it's own unique pin assignments.

Cast not thine pearls before the swine

 

[kaz]

You can install a P3 1Ghz slot 1 cpu in your XPS R400 with no problems and buy a controller card for your hard-drives.
If you switch the motherboard you will have to re-wire or replace the power supply, and the wiring from the board to the front panel is not standard either.
Many Dell owners have gone to the P3 1ghz with a Dell bios update. You can go here to leaarn more: http://delltalk.us.dell.com/messages/overview.asp?page=1&name=dim_upgrade
Your power supply can handle what you have.

My system was an XPS R350. It is now a:

XPS R-celeron 700@1.05Ghz (100 fsb)
Iwill slocket II S370 to slot 1 adapter
384Mb pc133 Micron sdram
Maxtor 13Gb 5400 ata33
Maxtor 30Gb 7200 ata100
Maxtor ata100 controller card
Aopen 12-10-32 cdrw
LG 52x cdrom
100Mb Iomega zip drive
Turle Beach sound card
geForce 256 32Mb video card
Dell 19" monitor

 

[MeTaLrOcKeR]

If your main goal is to save money and your going to replace the motherboard, then go buy a AMD Duron or Athlon PU and an ASUS A7V133 MB and a new case with a 300WATT power supply. Thats all, no need to buy a hard drive controller. A7V133 also has RAID support and is an EXCELLENT Overclockers board.

AMD Duron 900MHz CPU is only $63
AMD Athlon 1GHz (266FSB) CPU is only $90
ASUS A7V133 Motherboard, Around $88
A case is like what? $30 - $40 ??
and there you go.

-MeTaL RoCkEr

AMD = Always Making Dough... =)

 

[kaz]

I agree. That's why I went the Celeron route. sell the old system and build a new one. The P3 uprgade isn't cost effective.

 

[Guest]

Thank you guys, I'll take all of your suggestions into consideration and visit that web site to learn more. When I finally get my computer upgraded I'll put a post on this message board for others.