Hardware Upgrade Suggestions Please

X

xane

Guest
My father's PC needs upgrading, I built the original and its been trouble-free since. It is a AMD/120Mhz on a generic i430TX m/b.

He needs a new CPU/mobo, he also wants a "midi tower" case so moving to ATX form is no problem, I have some "spare" 64Mb DIMM so changing RAM to 168-pin is np either.

Cheapness is the watchword here, overclocking is not required, most of his h/w is good stuff that does not need replacing. Basically I want something hassle-free and reliable

The only problem is he uses three ISA slots whereas most cheap modern ATX mobos have only two, one is used for a soundcard and another for additional serial ports, so a mobo with built-in soundcard or with four serial ports would be ideal.

My suggestion was to have a Celeron 366 on an Abit ZM6, cheap - but I would need to solve the ISA problem.

Any suggestions/comments would be most appreciated.
 
O

old.[GA] Shovel

Guest
Well, yuo could free up one ISA bby getting a new spundcard, either the SB live value for £40 quid or the Diamond Sonic Impact S90, which is about £25. I have the later and it's fine. nice clean sound and even some aureal support somewhere.. though I need the speakers for it...

Celly 400's are now only about £90 so that wont cause you any pain.
As far as mobo's go i wouldn't give a damn. Long as it has all the goods it doesn;t really matter.

Also, you have checked that the "ISA" slot used by the soundcard isn;t actually the Sound card built on the the mobo. That's what it was on mine and it turned out to be soldered on somewhere.

------------------
[GA] Shovel wardben@hotmail.com
Grey Area
Q2BATTLEUK
 
O

old.frankie

Guest
WHATEVER YOU DO DONT GET A VOODOO3
THEY ARE CHEAP SHIT AND ARE JUST PURE CRAP
THEY DONT WORK
First half the time they dont work, as in they are incompatable with the system.
they look crap.
they are crap.
they are basically just 2 v2's solderd together.
I was working in a computer shop and basically i was building brand new mavhines, with decent gigabyte make mb's, and v3's just dont work right, and crash the sys.
i had about 5 computers come in all not working caus of v3's, even with the latest drivers they still hardly work. Its a bit of a hit and miss thing.
GET A TNT2

------------------
-------------------------
members.xoom.com/alfa1000

=DI=DR_FRANKENSTIEN
 
O

old.Mincer

Guest
err, basically what shovel said, except get a Diamond MX 300 sound card, you can pick them up or around £50 (inc. VAT) , they're pretty reliable and use PCI, you will then be able to get the cele' and the ZM6.

unless he also uses lots of PCI stuff.

but dont most m/b's have two ISA and an ISA/PCI slot (i.e. can be either) or is that just my freak DELL ones.
 
O

old.FingerMagnet

Guest
Hang on, 1 AGP lets say we use 2 ISA slots and that leaves 3 PCI slots. Methinks that only makes 6 slots in all. My QDI mb has 7 slots in all, is this a new trend to have one less slot?

------------------
FingerMagnet@Pakistans.com
 
O

old.Mincer

Guest
err, going back to the original subject, i don't think you'll find one with 3 ISA slots, since that would mean it either would only have 2 PCI slots (assuming you use all the ISA's) which isn't really suitable for modern hardware, or you would need a case with an extra slot in the bac.

If i'm making a fool of myself here please point out my mistakes, i'm not really an expert at these things.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Users who are viewing this thread

Total: 2 (members: 0, guests: 2)
Top Bottom