Hi all just wanted to pick your brains I’m looking at spending about 100 pounds to upgrade my current system which is as you'll see quite old.
PII 400 , 440bx motherboard
I's ideally like to spend not more then 100 pounds to upgrade the motherboard and cpu i must stress this would simply be a stopgap measure until i save up enough to get the system of my choice (ideally a p4 with all the bits) but seen as that will be a while away yet i figured i may as well c if this upgrade can be done. And also because my system is having trouble handling my broadband connection kazaa and playing divx files all at once the cpu is constantly maxed out at 100% usage.
At this price range i understand I’ll be looking at the AMD athlon xp 2000+ which I’ve just checked on komplett is about £46 and then I’m left to get the motherboard and heatsink and fan !!!
i've seen the following :
Asus A7N8X-X mainboard for Socket A
- nForce2 400/MCP,ATX,ATA133,USB2.0,LAN
£58,81
also
EPoX EP-8RDAE mainboard for Socket A DDR
- nForce2 400/MCP, ATA133, ATX
£47.38
The EPox looks to have all features of the Asus and falls in my budget better leaving change for the heatsink any thoughts on epox.
All are the nForce2 chipset which as i understand from reading on here is the best to go for i'll be basically using all my exisiting equipment aureal soundcard, dlink 10/100 nic, samsung 160gb HD, ati radeon 7200 64mb ddr vivo, 384mb ram sdram i belive 133 or 166 can't remember will check. I'll just be swapping out the motherboard and chip any thought and suggestions on the mobo greatly appreciated.
and finally what heatsink?? preferably solid and quiet (and also not brake the back) not going to be overclocking this machine as i will do that with new p4 system and this will become the family pc for the parents and brothers to use.


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There are several factors here as already said. I think it's safe to say your PSU will be ATX (so the right connection) but it may be under-powered for even a slow SktA system, just be prepared if you need somethig better (£25 should suffice). The case may lack adequate ventilation, fan mounts or be on the small side, again be prepared you MIGHT have to upgrade it. What's your current RAM, PC133? If so you could find an old 266FSB mobo sporting either SDR or SDR+DDR, KT266 or SiS730/740 most likely. So long as you're happy running around AthlonXP2000+ type speeds you shoud be fine although most CPUs are now 0.13mu which can be a problem on old mobos. Perhaps you can find a good deal 2nd hand?
It may be easier to simply upgrade the mobo (no need for nForce2 if you aren't o/c'ing), RAM (PC2100 fine), CPU (even a Duron is a BIG step up) and finally HSF. As said you may need a case and/or PSU upgrade too. If gaming is any priority factor in something beffier than Rad7200. So I'd say look to ...
