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Thread ID: 23052	2002-08-06 07:56:00	Stupid PC Company mobo!	Graham Petrie (449)	Press F1

Post ID	Timestamp	Content	User
68648	2002-08-06 07:56:00	Now I've got your attention :) crafty! My PC is a heavily modified PC Company PC that is about 18months old. (I cracked her open within the first month and went to town on the internals). It is a 1.2GHz AMD Athlon 1x128mb SDR Ram 1x256mb SDR Ram (384 total) 1x28.62Gb Matrox 33073H3 HD (Advertised as 30Gb mind you!) 1x3Gb Quantum Bigfoot 3.2at HD 1x8x4x32 Acer CD-RW Geforce2 32mb video card 10/100mbs nic rockwell/conexant 56k modem onboard audio and usb. Running Windows XP Pro. Now, my dilema is that I currently have a chaintch motherboard with a via chipset. I have several problems. 1. USB doesn't work with my scanner. There is a known issue with my via chipset and imaging devices on the onboard usb under Windows XP. The solution is a usb PCI card. 2. I only have 3 PCI slots and an AGP slot. The video card is in the AGP slot, and the modem and nic in two of the PCI slots. The problem is that the AGP slot is too close to the top PCI slot, anf the video card fan blow straight down. If I put the usb card (or any other) in the top PCI slot I am worried my video card will overheat due to restricted airflow (the clearance would be only a couple of mm (if the diodes on the usb card actually fit under the fan at all). 3. I have filled both ram slots and so for any more upgrades in the furture I would first have to throw away one stick. Not very economical. As I see it I have several options: a. lump it until a major upgrade of the whole pc (the scanner can becoaxed into working for one or two scans with a little swearing and carefully planned restarts before it stops again). b. buy a new mobo with the future in mind and solve all my woes (assuming that the problem is not actually with the scanner). c. Buy an external modem (on the card eventually anyway) to free up a PCI slot, and then buy the usb card. If I bought an external modem, which would people recommend (cost is a big factor, but I beleive in false economy of cheap components, and so I am willing to pay for quality). If I ws to by a new mobo it would have to fit in with my ultimate upgrade plans. It MUST accept both DDR and SDR Ram so I can keep what I already have, but slowly go to DDR (BTW can you mix ram types on one board?) It MUST have three or more ram slots. It MUST have four PCI slots at the very least - 5 preferred. The clearance with the AGP slot must be acceptble. It MUST be socket A for my athlon (although advice to wait for the new AMD cpus will be taken if good reason is given). Other than that, I am open for suggestions. What are good manufacturers (I am led to beleive Asus is quite good). Who should I stay away from? As far as sound goes, do all of them come with onboard sound? What are the chances that the board I want will fit my case? What is the deal with WPA and a new mobo? I don't expect specific models or outlets (too much work for you), just a few general comments to my questions. Any other ideas? G P	Graham Petrie (449)
68649	2002-08-06 08:36:00	> The problem is that > the AGP slot is too close to the top PCI slot, anf > the video card fan blow straight down. If I put the > usb card (or any other) in the top PCI slot I am > worried my video card will overheat due to > restricted airflow (the clearance would be only a > couple of mm (if the diodes on the usb card actually > fit under the fan at all). i doubt it will overheat unless you are overclocking it. try putting the network card there instead(assumeing its smaller) > If I ws to by a new mobo it would have to fit in with > my ultimate upgrade plans. > > It MUST accept both DDR and SDR Ram so I can keep > what I already have, but slowly go to DDR (BTW can > you mix ram types on one board?) theres not many motherboarrds with both sdram and ddr. i doubt you can use both at the same time. with ddr333 becoming popular i doubt many boards will be coming out with both. > It MUST have three or more ram slots. > > It MUST have four PCI slots at the very least - 5 > preferred. > > The clearance with the AGP slot must be acceptble. > > It MUST be socket A for my athlon (although advice to > wait for the new AMD cpus will be taken if good > reason is given). look for a mobo with 5 or 6 pci slots and if it has an amr or other useless slot make sure its next to the agp slot. > Other than that, I am open for suggestions. > > What are good manufacturers (I am led to beleive Asus > is quite good). asus are good but unless you are an avid tweaker/overclocker a cheaper brand will be a better idea. > As far as sound goes, do all of them come with > onboard sound? almost all come with some form of onboard sound. > What are the chances that the board I want will fit > my case? how many cards slots in the case? > What is the deal with WPA and a new mobo? if past 60 days since install no problems(don't quote me on it) > I don't expect specific models or outlets buy here <jumping up and down > here ;-)	tweak'e (174)
68650	2002-08-06 09:00:00	Thanks tweak'e > asus are good but unless you are an avid > tweaker/overclocker a cheaper brand will be a better > idea . What would you suggest > how many cards slots in the case? 6 plus graphics card - ok question answered . G P	Graham Petrie (449)
68651	2002-08-06 10:06:00	if its the stock pccomp case i would throw it and get something decent, otherwise the case shall do ok. theres a huge range of mobo's to pick from eg soltek, fic, dfi, abit, epox, to name a few. depends a bit on models but a good STABLE board is the way to go. the likes of DFI who are mainly OEM manafactures have made good stable boards but are not overclocker friendly. i think they have a few with extra features now.	tweak'e (174)
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