P4 540 3.2 ghz Replacement motherboard suggestions

[RU_469]

Hi,

I have a Dell Dimensions 4700 machine that I suspect the motherboard has a fried PCIE slot.

I have upgraded the powersupply to 500w and have tried to use 3 different Nvidia 7600 GT PCIE cards. No luck.

Sooooo.....before I rebuild I have thought about replacing the motherboard.

Any suggestions? I have 2G of memory (2 sticks).

Thanks in advance for your help.

Oh yea, I use the machine for gaming and regular use. I don't expect to overclock. Just need a quality board.

Thanks in advance for your help.

 

[GreenJelly]

Hmmm, many of these companies use different connections for power, could be a problem. Upgrading would require a New Mobo, and a New Case, at the very least. It may also require memory, cpu, video card.

The good news is that you can still use your old Hard Drives. The bad news is that your going to have to re-install windows when you replace your motherboard, and because you dont have a copy of the CD, your going to have to buy a copy of that.

 

[redwing]

OEM software ftw !!

 

[Scarchunk]

If I were you I'd buy a core 2 compatible MB so that you have an upgrade path. You didn't say whether your RAM is DDR or DDR2, but I'll assume its DDR2. An Asus P5B-E would be a good buy for about $150. Your cpu, RAM, video card, etc. should all work fine in the new board and you can reuse your HP case as long as its ATX.(though I would take the chance to get a new one) You already said you replaced the crappy HP PSU so you should be good there. You will have to reinstall Windows, so you'll need to figure something out there.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813131070

 

[GreenJelly]

BAh, no Asus... Go Gigabyte...

In the last 3 days, I have answered 3 posts that all had corrupted BIOS's, and each one didnt have a Gigabyte. And each one will have a few weeks to wait until a new bios shows up.

There are so many reasons why I dont like Asus. Its not that important, many people love their Asus. I just dont... I happen to like my coffee black, while others like theirs with a bit of cream.

Anyways... No matter how you slice it, you got to go buy a new Videocard and Case.

I would recommend the Coolermaster Stacker 2 Case.

Mike

 

[RU_469]

Thanks for the 411,

I'm picked up a hunk o junk from Fry's to try and get this thing going.

I've decided I'm also going to build a new E6400 rig within the next 60 days.

Although the Dell was cheaper to buy then build its now a pain in my booty

 

[GreenJelly]

Assuming you know what your doing, building provides better value then buying machines.

The problem is that no one seems to know what they are doing at this stage in the Core2Duo processor lifecycle. Im specifically talking about Motherboard, Chip, and memory combinations.

DDR2 is the worst thing I have seen since I started working on computers 20 years ago. The standard is crazy, confusing, irregular, and plain stupid.

Sorry, but I have never seen so much crap from such a part of the computer sector. Every board handles every memory differently, and it seems that every board, cpu and memory is all independent of each other, and becomes very hard to do anything predictable, without having someone else who has already done it.

Mike