2 different motherboard buying questions!

[Fat Tone]

Firstly, for the bother-in-law, who has a semi-dead PC with a Piii600E and needs a new mobo - which slot1 board should he buy? Needs 1 ISA, lots of PCI,AGP, 3/4 DIMM & UDMA 66.

Second, for the sister-in-law, who has no PC and wants me to build her a budget model for WP, what mobo/cpu combo would you recommend with audio/video for ~£140.

All opinions welcome, Tony.

[Guru]

Thats easy!
Bord#1 ABIT BE-II (ask for one that haves the hp370 controller)

Bord #2 I can't understand why you want integrated audio/video, but I would recoment the CLUS2 from Asus you will however have to buy a seperate soundcard! The reason i recomend the intel 815e Mboard is because it has an AGP slot so you can upgrade the onboard videocard later on!

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[Fat Tone]

Hi Guru
Thanks for the answers.

#1 - That certainly seems to do all I asked, and the price looks good, but it is BX - is that a wise purchase these days. The web page I looked at (www.abit.com, which takes you to www.motherboards.com) mentions softmenu and a max cpu of 700MHz. Does this mean a) overclocking via the BIOS/dips and b) it can't take anymoe than 700MHz? I think it would be best to get a board that will take his next slot1 cpu upgrade if possible.

#2 - it's all about cost. I have a total budget of ~£600, inc. printer. Sound quality isn't important, and I've made it clear that if they want to play the latest and greatest games, a budget for a decent gfx card will have to be found. That mobo does seem a bit out of my budget though!

Cheers, Tony.

[Raptor^]

Abit's website is at www.abit.com.tw www.abit.com just redirects you to some 3rd party site.

The only real alternative to BX is an 815 based board, but I don't think there is a slot 1 based version. They don't have ISA slots either.

I've given up trying to buy a mobo that will last more than 1 processor. If your like me and don't change processor more than once every 18 months upgradeability is not really an issue.

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P3-700E@933, Abit BF6, G400 MAX, 8.6 gig Seagate, 8.6 gig WD, SBLive 1024, 256Mb PC133... Logitech Optical Wheel Mouse, Keyb, Stuff

[dZeus]

Tony: just buy a cheap i810 mobo with an old celeron (costs almost nothing these days)

[Taz]

Dabs sell the Jetway 913AF for £74.03. This is an Intel i810e based board so has integrated audio and video. It comes with both a Socket 370 and Slot 1 supporting PII, PIII and Celeron. Not the greatest manufacturer in the world but it should fit within your budget.

Maybe you should put the PIII 600 into the budget PC and buy a new motherboard and processor for the other one.

[Pace]

The P3-600E: Is UDMA 66 required? If not then I'd go for a cheaper model if possible (Abit BF6 I'd recommend). This will save money and, as with another suggestion, I'd recommend buying a new board when the CPU need arises. Slot 1 will be dead by the time he is upgrading. They currently go upto 933 but I doubt Intel will keep making S1's go faster and also doubt whether any new boards will ever support S1.

The Budget WP: i810's are a good choice but suitable Celeron's are rare. The new Celeron's (dubbed Celeron IIs) require an i815 motherboard and that's all that Dabs have in stock.

I have just bought a SuperMicro i815 motherboard and a Celeron 633 which came to a snippet under £200 - well over your budget. This is, however, a very fast system (in a budget sense) and unlike all other chipsets with on board graphics it will let you upgrade to an AGP card later.

You could get this down to about £175 by buying a different 815 board and a Celeron 600 but it's still over budget.

Also, would the budget machine be requiring anything else? If so, what's the total budget (ie for hard drive? Have you already got the rest?).

Paul.

[Fat Tone]

Hi guys

Taz - that board was looking good, but it doesn't have an AGP slot, and I think it is quite likely they'll want to upgrade the gfx at some point. Swappin the CPU isn't currently an option.

Pace - I agree about the longevity. He has a udma66 46Gig IBM, so it would be a shame not to have 66.
Thanks for the heads up on only 815's having AGP slots - that'll save some searching.
I'll be buying everything new. I costed everything based on memory of prices from the computer shows last month, but I had to guess at the integrated mobo combo. I need a good reliable system as it will be over 200 miles away. I based the price on k6-2-550 £60, combo mobo £80, 128Mb PC100 £85(ish), case £30, 8Gig £60, 15" £100, modem £25, DVD £60 Epson SC670 £90 + keyb +mouse. =~£610
I'm sure some of those prices will be a bit +/-, but it should average out.

Cheers, Tony.