Looking for some advice with respect to memory in current motherboards.

I'm looking to replace my elderly Intel bx motherboard and PIII 700.
This has 512mb of PC133 memory on it - 2 x 256mb dimms. I'm loathe to chuck this away or even flog it.

The question is, Can I use my current memory in any of the current motherboards ?
I'm looking to get an AMD sempron 2200 and a suitable board.

The Sempron 2200+ runs with a 166 front side bus, so you would be much better off with faster memory.

I also think you will be lucky to find a motherboard these days that will take the 'old' SDRam.

Flog the whole lot on eBay and put it towards the new stuff.

Thought that.

What's really bugging me is that this system has been rock solid for the last 4 years and it's just starting to struggle with modern software.

Ach well - the time has come...

either way, to find a board that uses SDR these days is difficult, and they tend to be cheap tat

personally, i'd suggest looking at keeping the p700 intact, and replace everything, that way you'll have a spare machine for a child or to use as a server

My main use for the machine is recording multitrack audio via my Sounblaster and livedrive front input bay. That would be my use for a new machine as well.

Most of the modern boards seem to have onboard audio, so I would rather find one without. I know you can usually turn it off at bios level, but the luddite in me doesn't quite trust that...

Unfortunately with PC components advancing so quickly and getting cheaper by the day, I don't think you could expect to sell your current system for much As suggested above, you could keep it as a spare computer or even use it as a firewall or server.

The good news is that PC bits are very cheap now, so you can put together an extremely good machine for not very much cash! If you're looking at building a machine yourself, I would strongly recommend www.ebuyer.co.uk, they have very fast delivery and I've never found anything cheaper elsewhere...

Pete

I'm not really bothered about thevalue of the current system. It has constantly evolved over the years with the weakest link being swapped out and upgraded. It's like the 40 year old brush that's had 8 new heads and 4 new shafts...

It is already running as a server and everything is into an ADSL router so that takes care of the firewalling as well. My god isn't this stuff so easy these days ?



Regarding ebuyer - yep I know all about them and they will be on my shortlist for new bits.

Cheers

JF

Try CCL Computers ... and pay my wages !!

That's where my brother buys all his kit from !

I'm right over there

Never heard of CCL before but the website looks impressive and prices are good, is it your company or do you work for them?

Pete

I just built a new AMD64 machine using all bits from ebuyer great service etc... A mate asked me to build him one to the same spec. Both orders were exactly as they should be. I looked at CCL but ebuyer was cheaper sorry mate.

Cheers

Hi Scooby, I work for them, in the 'system build' department.

If you have your PC built there, there's a 1 in 4 chance of me building it.

If you want to build try either

http://www.eclipsecomputers.com

or as already mentioned CCL.

You will be lucky to find a motherboard without onboard sound these days. It can be turned off at bios level on all boards afaik. My board has onboard, its crap and its turned off...and i have never had any trouble with my soundblaster.

Afaik you will not find any new boards that take SDRAM and a the sempron processor. Go for DDR 3200, since its the same price as 2700 and cheaper than SD! If you have a bit extra money go for DDR2.

Anyway the only advice i would give is build a complete new computer and buy big name components (Creative, NVidea etc etc) (virtually guaranteed compatability).


Cheers,
David