What the heck is Slot 1?

[Guest]

My parents computer just died on them. They had a PII 400 that would not boot up, so my dad took it in to a repair shop and they told him that his motherboard was dead. Because the machine has a slot 1 motherboard, they are telling him he needs a new power supply, case, and of course a new motherboard, which will be socket type.

Do they really need a new power supply and case, and why? I only recently started learning about computer architecture, and I have no idea what slot 1 means and only a vaugue idea of what socket means. I am looking for some information or a link that describes the difference between a slot 1 motherboard and a socket motherboard.

Thanks for your help!

 

[FatBurger]

Slot and socket are basically just the ways the CPU connects to the motherboard. A slot is...well, a slot and a socket is...well, a socket. I don't really know how to describe them, except a slot is long and skinny and a socket is square and beige.

Yes, you'll need a new power supply. You shouldn't need a new case, except for maybe the fact that the power supply won't come out of the case easily.

If you're looking to upgrade (which it looks like you are), you can get an AMD Duron 800 or so and a motherboard for around $100 some places.
A cheap case with a 300w generic power supply will be around $50.

You will probably want to take it back to the shop and have them install everything for you, and then you'll be set.

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[Flyboy]

He may need a new case if the existing case only supports proprietary motherboards and not ATX form factor. I bet this is what they are talking about.



Catheter and Caffeine IV are in place. Let's PLAY.

 

[Crashman]

They lied. They are trying to sell him more stuff tahn he needs. Slot one boards are still available for as little at $40 for decent quality units. They may not have them in stock and may not feel like ordering them. I suggest you go to another shop.
Their are very few companies that had proprietary motherboards-Dell, Compaq, and IBM. Even Gateway used ATX in most systems. Packard bell made the swithch to ATX as well. Unless it's a book sized system or something wierd.
Tell us what kind of system it is, and one of us will suggest a good replacement board.
Alternatively, you could get him a SYSTEM minus a few of the parts he already has for $150, the Blaster PC from Tigerdirect.com, which comes with a motherboard (Slot 1), integrated Creative Soundblaster Live Platinum 5.1 sound, case, power supply, remote controll for the sound, and FM tuner.

Video killed my Radio Card!

 

[Crashman]

Maybe, but they should still sell him a Slot1 board.

Video killed my Radio Card!

 

[o1die]

I would fix it yourself and order any barebones unit (with floppy, cd-rom, etc. and offer to buy the heatsink/fan if the dealer will install it at no extra charge. Everything will be new and faster than your old system. Check pricewatch and write down some 800 numbers. The only drawback is that you will have to wait a few days and install your own hardrive. Or haggle with the local dealer, and he may be willing to come down in price or order a board that is cheaper and will work just fine. Check pricewatch under pentium 3 motherboards or pc kits. Might as well get a pentium 3 board so you can upgrade later. They start at about $45 plus shipping.

 

[Guest]

Thanks for all the replies people!

I'm can't deal with any of this directly because the computer and my parents are in a different city. But I am trying to find out the make of the old motherboard to find out what the deal is. From what I know the system is a mid-tower case, PII 400 with 64mb RAM.

My dad did mention that he was verbally quoted around $500 Canadian ($325 US) for a Duron 800 mb, power supply, and case. Seems a bit steep, but I am getting him to give me the exact make and model of all the components.

 

[bungee]

Canada is my country! Let me say that a Duron is 75$CAN, a motherboard is between 150$ and 200$ (max!) and a case with power supply is less than 100$ (59$ at sholci.com). Add labor for 40$ and it is a bit less than what you were quoted, but it's not dramatic. I'm from Montréal, Québec and I take my prices in shoplci.com

<font color=red>Hail total victory of AMD versus Intel!

 

[Guest]

Quick question: will a 250 Watt power supply (from the old system) suffice for a Duron 800 system and what advatage does the bigger supply give?

 

[bungee]

Here, I'm not an expert, I just give my opinion. First, you need to be sure that your power supply is compatible with the new components. If you keep your actual video card or buy another one that does not consume too much power, 250 watts is ok. Duron does not consume lot compared with athlon.
Of what I have heard, if components requires more power than what the power supply is able to provide, then the system runs unstable and may crash. That's not very interresting! So I hope somebody else will give his opinion because it can be very bad if 250 is not enough.

<font color=red>Hail total victory of AMD versus Intel!

 

[Gog]

You may get away with 250 watt if you don't overclock and you run an old graphics card - new cards draw a lot of power.

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Look at the size of that thing!

 

[FatBurger]

Not all of them. He'll be ok with 250w. My parent's P3 Dell came with a 250w (no problems with the PSU at least), and a Duron eats less power than a P3.

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Whoever thinks up a good sig for me gets a prize

 

[Gog]

I was just trying to urge some caution, buy a GF3 and the system will die.

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Look at the size of that thing!

 

[Guest]

LOL, I don't think my parents need a GF3. My Dad's not big into Unreal Tournmanet.

I think I might get the 300W just to be on the safe side though.

I have been looking for a good motherboard and I think I have decided on the Asus A7V. I have the A7V133 for my 1.2 Athalon, and I really like it. I noticed that the A7V-E is about $75 bucks cheaper ($135 CND at pccanada) then the A7V133 ($200 CND). The only apparent difference is the slower bus speed and lack of some advanced features.

Is the A7V-E a good board for a Duron 800? Does it lack anything relatively important?

 

[o1die]

I have used a 235 watt power supply with a duran 600 overclocked to 900, with no problems. Sparkle and A-open are 2 ps that work well for me. The Asus A7V-E has the via kt133 chipset, which only supports 200 fsb. But this mb is fine for the Duran cpu. I suggest you upgrade to an Athlon 1 gigahurtz while you're changing motherboards. Your current ps should work fine with it. It is dirt cheap, but make sure it is the 200 fsb Athlon and not the 266 if you use the A7V-E.

 

[Oni]

but he is in Canada and their prices are more expensive, it seems dealers there charge out the arse for parts after you do the US --> Canadian conversion, so upgrading to 1 GHz might be to pricey.
If there is a slight chance your parents might want to play games get them a geforce 2 MX or cheap Radeon DDR video card. They are both good for playing most current games up to 1024x768 resolution and still getting excelent FPS.
Duron is a nice way to go, I built my dad a Duron 800 computer on an Abit KT7-RAID motherboard (raid is un-used) and he is very happy with it. I told him for $102 (US) I could upgrade him to 1.2 GHz but he claims his computer is fast enough.
My friend had the same problem with his parents, they thought their computer was fast enough and didn't want anything above 166 MHz (Ouch I know!)