A Question for some one with a lot of computer hardware knowledge

[Beldaran]

One of the computers in my room is a 133mzh Pentium that I got for free. It has a brand new ethernet card, 128mb RAM, a video card, a sound card, and a 10GB hard drive. I want to replace the motherboard and processor with something newer, preferrably in the 900-1500mzh range. I intend to make this computer into a full time server.

I dot know a lot about the speficiations of motherboard/processor combinations. They are full of acronyms and technical codes that I am not familiar with. Can some one help me understand what exactly I should be looking for?

[fatcatfan]

I'm not sure exactly what you want to know... I *can* say that the ram for the old computer likely won't be compatible with a modern motherboard.

What sort of acronyms/etc don't you understand?

[Beldaran]

You are, of course, correct about the RAM and I will replace it with brand new 256mb sticks.

As far as what I don't understand, I apologize for I should have been more specific. Take this example:
http://www.forrestkyle.com/misc/pc.jpg

To my limited knowledge, this appears to be a motherboard with a built in video card (probably a crappy one, but who cares) and a 1.6ghz processor with a heatsink/fan assembly for about $100.

Am I correct? There are so many codes, acronyms, and model numbers all over the description that I can't be sure that I'm not buying just the processor or just the board, or nothing at all.

$100 seems extremely cheap for that much technology.

Thoughts?

[Flash Man]

If the Video Card, and Sound Card aren't integrated on the board then you would need to invest in some that are either PCI, which is a standard connector all PC Motherboards have or AGP which is most common on motherboards that don't already have an AGP Integrated Video on board. On a lot of the older boards that came out before ATX boards came out integrated video and sound were on the board but there were pinouts where you hooked in the connect so it may seem as if you have a card but really its integrated.

The RAM might be usable if its SDRAM, there are boards that still support that with AMD although I haven't looked much into any Intel board because of the prices. I wouldn't reccommend using SDRAM if its going to be a full time server. Dependant upon which kind you're going to invest in if you're going Intel don't get anything with DDR, although DDR is quite good RDRAM is much better. AMD you only have one good choice which would be DDR.

Now you have a choice for processors. For multi-processor boards you want to go with Athlon MPs or Xeons, which are quite expensive. Definately for this kind of board get a Tyan. For a single processor board Athlon XPs or Pentium 4s. Athlon XPs are getting very cheap lately. You can get a Retail XP 1700+(~1.47GHz) for about $65 varying from place to place. On the other end you can get a P4 1.7GHz, comparable to the Athlon XP 1700+ although obliterated by it, for about $123. You can see the massive price difference between them so its all your choice.

If you are planning on getting one of the above processors you will for an AMD Athlon XP/MP need a Socket A(462) board. Intel Xeons are Socket 603/604 and P4s are Socket 478. If you're getting an old computer such as a Pentium 3 look for Socket 370. Since its going to be a server you shouldn't need a massive video card or anything but you can look through places and see if you can find integrated video, almost all boards have integrated sound, this of course is only if yours aren't integrated on that one computer.

Definately if you're looking into an AMD board the chipset of choice I would recommend that you look into a nVidia nForce 2 chipset. It can handle much faster memory than KT400, and support more sticks at once at the fast speed. Intel I would suggest go into an Intel chipset, although I don't know for sure not through experience but they do make good chipsets for their boards.

I would definately recommend stepping up and getting DDR or RDRAM. If you stuck with SDRAM it would make your server a slug.

You can get a lot of the stuff i've mentioned at Newegg (http://www.newegg.com) which is mostly where I shop. Their interface is very easy and using the information i've given you it shouldn't be hard at all to put something together. If you decide to go somewhere else online be sure to check out Reseller Ratings (http://www.resellerratings.com/) for their ratings for Tufshop.com its very low it got a 2.5 lifetime so I definately wouldn't suggest getting it there.

[Beldaran]

Thank you very much. That was an incredibly helpful post.