Attention PC Gurus: Need a little refresher

[FrankenFretter]

I had a customer that was getting rid of a bunch of motherboards, and I picked the most recent looking one, which is this (http://www.ecsusa.com/ECSWebSite/Product/Product_Detail.aspx?DetailID=673&CategoryID=1&DetailName=Feature&MenuID=16&LanID=9):

https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/_NPlyZiLy0Pw/TcIf1SGoh4I/AAAAAAAAA6I/norAYeTXB9w/s640/100_2253.JPG
https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/_NPlyZiLy0Pw/TcIfz1Sg3WI/AAAAAAAAA6M/0V7kWwVuNuk/s400/100_2252.JPG

It's been a while since I built my last PC. In fact, it's the one I'm using to post this thread...a socket A Athlon. Like I said, it's been a while. I'm assuming not too much has changed. Looks like the former owner left a CPU in the socket for me, a Pentium D 2.8. I guess "sockets" have changed, since there are no pins on the processor. Looks weird to me. I think I just need a heatsink/fan on top of that, and I should be good in that area for now, right? This board isn't recent enough to have PCIe, so I won't be needing any new cards, and it has an AGP slot, so I can use my current graphics card. RAM I understand, it's plug and play. What I'm new to is SATA; what do I need to know, if anything, about those drives? I found a rather cheap 400 gig drive on Newegg, so that should do for starters. Eventually I'd like to run a RAID 0 array with bigger drives, but that will have to wait until I can afford that.

Any advice? I still have some super duper thermal paste for the proc. I am wondering if this board needs a different type of power suppy. I hope not, since I have a nice one that's currently in use on this computer.

Thanks in advance!

[mapka]

Is the board current enough to have SATA ports on it? They are different from the IDE style connectors. IF the connectors are there, then the drive should be plug and play. If the board is too old it may not see large hard drives (1G or 2G?) and you may have to enter the information manually. This is not a big deal as long as you can find the information! Memory can also be very fickle. Make sure that the board supports the speed, size and type that you are installing. You may be able to find info on this at the mobo manufactures website. They usually have a list of RAM that they give a thumbs up to. You will need heat conductive paste and a fan for the CPU. Most fans do not come with the paste and IMO is needed to help pull the heat from the CPU. I am replacing my mobo now and picked up an Ultra CPU fan. Got it mostly cause it was affordable and came with the needed paste.

Two more things to consider... 1) make sure that the power supply in the tower is robust enough for the demands of the mobo and cpu and 2) if it is replaceable you may want to replace the "button" battery on the mobo.

BTW I am no guru but I do play one on TV! :D

[bcdon]

Looks like a stock PC motherboard and your current power supply should just work (most likely it is ATX). As for SATA, they are much nicer than the old IDE drives with the master/slave dip switches. Just get one and plug it in. Make sure you put a fan on the CPU and that your power supply is rated at a couple of hundred watts at least. I'd avoid the RAID0 setup as some boards have really broken controllers.

[Spudman]

The thing that might cost you more than you want will be getting acceptable RAM for that older board. The price has really gone up on it and I didn't see any in your photos.

[FrankenFretter]

Thanks, guys. I think the power supply I have is 400 watts or something. It's been a while since I bought it, but it's a good brand (Enermax or Antec...can't remember). I have some Arctic Silver for thermal paste, which has always served me well in the past. I've studied the manufacturer's product page for the board, and it states that is supports 1066mhz bus speeds, and DDR2 533+DDR 400 RAM. I plan on buying 4Gb of Dual Channel RAM to start with. I'm assuming that the DDR2 533 would be better than DDR 400?

Really looking forward to this. I haven't done this in awhile, and I remember it used to be fun.

[bcdon]

I've studied the manufacturer's product page for the board, and it states that is supports 1066mhz bus speeds, and DDR2 533+DDR 400 RAM. I plan on buying 4Gb of Dual Channel RAM to start with. I'm assuming that the DDR2 533 would be better than DDR 400?

It's always best to use the fastest supported RAM, that said, if the price difference is too much, go with the slower. Look at the manual to see what combinations of RAM DIMMS are supported (e.g. 2x2Gb vs 4x1Gb vs 1x4Gb)

[FrankenFretter]

It's always best to use the fastest supported RAM, that said, if the price difference is too much, go with the slower. Look at the manual to see what combinations of RAM DIMMS are supported (e.g. 2x2Gb vs 4x1Gb vs 1x4Gb)

Good call, Don. It supports up to 2Gb of DDR2 533, and 2Gb of DDR 400. Seems weird that they have two different types of RAM slots on the board. It's also only single channel, which is sort of disappointing, but it was free so...

I think that technically, if I just bought a CPU cooler, I could just transfer my RAM (pretty sure it's DDR400), power supply and hardware over to this board to see if it even posts. Might take that on this weekend. Maybe...

[stingx]

Everything older costs more. DDR3 RAM is cheaper than DDR2 or older. IDE drives cost more than SATA, etc. CPUs are something that cost more newer than older. Just something to bear in mind.

[FrankenFretter]

Everything older costs more. DDR3 RAM is cheaper than DDR2 or older. IDE drives cost more than SATA, etc. CPUs are something that cost more newer than older. Just something to bear in mind.

DDR2 is still not bad. Found 2 gigs for around $35. I remember when it was around $80 for that much, because that's about what I paid for the 2 gigs in my current PC. The nice thing about this board is that it's a "transitional" board; I can use most of my old stuff, but still upgrade to newer stuff. I'm running an Athlon 2800+ in my current rig. Yeah, it's overclocked, but it's still much less processor than even a Pentium D. Really I don't use my rig for much other than Internet and ripping CDs and DVDs anymore. My gaming days are in the past, I guess. No time for that now, unless I want to stop playing guitar.

[deeaa]

Yeah, any speed mem should do unless I'm badly mistaken...the 800 is the most usual and common one. I don't remember if the D series - it was the first dual-core CPU btw, so definitely much better than the Athlon A - has a locked FSB ratio, or not. You might be able to run the mem at any speed you wish regardless of CPU speed. I run mine at 1066, although they are 800's and the 3GHz CPU I keep at just under 3.7Ghz. It would go up to 4 but I like to keep it where there's no problems with stability and no cooling problems yet.

I see the mobo has a VIA chipset though, those weren't in favor among builders at all, I recall you will need some extra drivers that didn't come with Windows embedded, some Via Piixide or somemething comes to mind. I have had several VIA chipsets and they were called VIAllinen here ('faulty', same start for words) but I always managed with them just fine. Merely some driver issues. I don't think the VIA set supports Dualchannel either, but might be wrong about that.

Oh I googled quickly and yes the CPU has a locked ratio so the FSB governs the CPU speed as well.

I woulda had some assorted old PC hardware lying round here somewhere, if you lived close you could have it...not feasible to send 'em though. I'd have at least one quite nice passive-cooled NVidia APG card and I think a bunch of 5xx Mhz ddr2 as well, a few IDE drives and whatnot. Dunno how much of that works though. I have like 5-6 old mobos in my garage and all kinds of assorted parts, I bet most of them have gone bad though already...I have also nailed half a dozen even older motherboards onto the garage walls, just for decoration...some are VERY old and from UNIX minicomputers rather than PC's.