School could use some advice please

[science7]

We are looking to update some computers that were donated to us.........most of them don't work but I think they can be eaisly upgraded. I have built a few computers in the past but am no expert. I went to a local shop and was told that all cases were ATX standard and would take a full-size ATX board. These machines are used for Office XP work and internet research. The most stress they get is a little Photoshop 7 but no games (at least high end). We just need to be able to run XP pro and other standard programs. Now for the questions............ I have been told that Asus makes a board (a7n266vm) that has built in video, lan, and audio that would do a decent job when coulped with 256meg of ram (266 mhz) and a AMD xp chip at whatever speed we can afford.....soooo

1. Does anyone know about this board?
2. What about the "onboard" stuff...does it work OK?
3. Any other brands, cheaper route, ect. ?
4. What about CPU speed vrs. price?
5. Power supplies are 200-250 ATX do we need bigger (we were told we do)?
6. What about remanufactured boards (some of them are only $35 at places like Newegg.com)?
7. Can usb2.0 be added via PCI card?

I have used both Asus and AMD before and like them both. All other items in machines are PCI except the AGP 1x video cards which say asus 3400 on them. Sorry for the bother but need to get the most bang for the buck.

Thanks so much for the advice.
James

 

[Grub]

James...I think you would get better responses if you posted your question in one of the other forum categories. This one is for overclocking motherboard questions. Try the motherboard forum.

Is there a synonym for thesaurus?

 

[Crashman]

Hree we go again. It's a good board, it has the best onboard audio and video money can buy, it's inexpensive, it performs well, and it has few to no compatability issues/stability problems. It's as close to perfect as you'll find in any board. And the onboard stuff saves you money.

The Athlon XP1600+ is the best performance value right now.

The power supplis are very close to being enough for such a system (integrated parts tend to use less power). I would try it. If some don't work, replace them on a need basis.

If you're interested I'm still offering charity work as long as it can be documented as charity work.

<font color=blue>You're posting in a forum with class. It may be third class, but it's still class!</font color=blue>

 

[knowan]

1) I've never used this board before.
2) For what you want to use it for, onboard should be fine. The video is about equal to a geforce2 mx. The NIC and sound is actually pretty good.
3) Cheeper would be the ECS k7sem-266. It's not as good but it is cheeper, especially since it uses SIMMs and you may be able to recycle a few from your donated PC's. The onboard NIC and sound is not as good as the ASUS, but should do fine unless you want to do wake on LAN and automated install over LAN. The video is not good at all, but it should be fine for 2d apps like Office XP and internet. It may not be as good for Photoshop though, but will likely do the job.
4) I think that the Athlon XP 1800+ gives the best bang for the buck, but for what you want to use these pc's for a Duron CPU should be fine, and a whole lot cheeper.
5) 250 watt power suppply will likely be big enough for an all-in board. 200 will be risking it, but with an all-in board you may be able to do it. Of course if you're planning on adding lots of PCI cards, multiple hard drives and a cd burner or 2 you may run into problems.
6) I've never used a re-manufactured board. Newegg is usually pretty good though. For the simple fact that these are school pc's and likely won't be upgraded for quite some time after this, I would not recommend remanufactured motherboards. Remanufactured have a greater chance of breaking down again and typically have a much shorter warrenty period.
7) Yes, USB2 can be added via a PCI card, but every card that you add and every USB device that you plug in will stress your power supply further.

If cost is your main consideration, then get the ECS board with a Duron processor. Both the motherboard and the RAM will be cheeper.

If long term viability is your main consideration, then get the ASUS board with an Athlon (or possibly a Duron). It'll cost more, but your getting better parts from a better manufacturer. 2 years from now you may in slightly beter condition than you would be with the ECS board.

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