Advice Needed

[Cosmobeatnik]

Hello,

I am considering replacing my Mini ITX board myself and could use some advice regarding what board would be a suitable replacement based on my needs and some help making this happen. A warning - I am not very computer savvy but I have replaced other components before. Still, I do not pretend to know what I am doing. I have never replaced the motherboard so I am very apprehensive because of the level of damage I could potentially cause due to my lack of experience. Specifically, I am concerned that I may not match the right components and install them correctly. Maybe there is someone with a great deal of patients that would kindly consider helping me?
Anyway, there are a few considerations that I also have. I recently just upgraded the memory, power supply, and graphics card; I would very much like to be able to reuse these components. I realize this may not be possible but I want to keep this goal in mind for the obvious cost savings. Actually, I’m not all that stuck on reusing the graphics card, but if it would be an enhancement over what the new board offers then it would be nice to utilize it as well. My current system includes:

ATX case
350 MHz power supply (new)
VIA EPIA-M motherboard
Chip Set (CLE266 VT8623)
CPU VIA C3 999.6 MHz
1 g 184 pin DIMM memory (new)
NVIDIA GeForce 8400 GS graphics card (new)

My computing needs are moderate to high. The board listed above is currently using 100% of the CPU whenever I run my applications and is causing all kinds of problems. This board is either bad or just under powered for my needs. So my question is: “what board will meet my computing needs and hopefully allow me to reuse the other components listed above?” Cost is of course always an issue. I was hoping to get into something around what the Intel Atom is priced but ultimately I will have to purchase whet best suits my computing needs, fits my case, and utilizes the other existing components I currently have.

Thank you for reading my post!

Regards -Scott

[glc]

Is that graphics card legacy PCI, AGP, or PCI-Express? What is the brand and model of the power supply? Is that a full size or a micro ATX case?

[Cosmobeatnik]

All good questions, the graphics card is a 32 bit PCI card. I do not have an immediate answer for the remaining questions but I will find out and post back when I do.

Thank you for your interest.
-Scott32bit

[Cosmobeatnik]

Regarding the case type, I was not able to definitively determine what it is. I can only say that it appears to me to be a mid-tower ATX. Its dimensions are 14½”x 7½” 14” (DxWxH). Is there a specific way of identifying the case type? I just ran a search on the web but the cases I looked at all seemed to be the same except for the dimensions which still did not seem to differ from one model to the next.

The power supply is a Dynex 400 W ATX, model DX-400WPS.

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage....=1174091945952

[glc]

Okay - that's a very poor quality power supply.

Why don't you just get a conventional motherboard, processor, and ram? It won't cost THAT much more than a mini-ITX, and it will be worlds faster. Finding ANY new motherboard that takes 184 pin ram is not worth it.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813131394
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819116074
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820148160

If you can return your power supply, video card, and ram, please do so. The onboard video on that motherboard is better than a PCI 8400GS.

Here's a GOOD power supply:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817104901

Buying all 4 items will be just over $200.

[Cosmobeatnik]

Well, I guessed that the memory I bought might not be salvageable for the reason you mentioned. The power supply, although low quality, will have to do for the time being; I can always replace it later if needed.
The ASUS Micro ATX board you linked has the dimensions: 9.6”x7.6”. The board is slightly longer than my current Mini ITX board. I did measure the opening in my case and there appears to be enough room to fit the Micro board although the mounting holes were not obvious to me and the fit seems a little tight. I saw one extruded threaded hole and one threaded nut offset from one another I assume these are the mounting locations but I am not certain. I could not determine the board type or dimensions for the Intel E5300 dual core. Nor could I find any pictures of it. Can I assume it has the same dimensions as the ASUS board; also, do you know if any Micro ATX board will fit this case?

I take it you are not a Mini ITX board advocate? You say a “conventional board and RAM would be faster”. Is this a debatable onion or pretty much fact? I really don’t know the difference myself, but I would think that if I could get a faster board and keep my existing case this would be the route to go. The price is attractive, and it looks as though there is a serial port on the ASUS board which believe it or not I need for a peripheral. I couldn’t determine whether the Intel board had a serial port or not.

I think I could buy one of these boards with memory and stay close to my modest budget. The big question now is: “Will it all fit and can I install it without damaging the components”. Oh also, do you think the class of processors these boards employ well suited for high CPU demand use? I’m not a gamer but I do run multiple applications simultaneously.

More comments would be greatly appreciated..

Best Regards -Scott

[Cosmobeatnik]

as an additional note, i found a pic of my ATX case model #GQ3131, hope this helps:

http://www.fryssupport.net/gq3131.cfm

[glc]

The E5300 is not a motherboard. It's a CPU. It is compatible with the Asus motherboard I suggested. Just to clear up any misunderstanding, the motherboard does not come with a CPU like the mini ITX, you have to install a CPU separately.

A micro ATX board should fit in that case fine. You may just have to move some standoffs around.

Mini ITX is not really suitable for heavy computing use or multitasking. It's designed for small form factor cases and low power use.

Seems to me Best Buy has a 30 day return privilege - take advantage of that and get your money back on the PSU and video card and ram if you can.

[Cosmobeatnik]

I understand now thank you for clearing that up.

I bought the components from different retailers and all over the 30 days- my bum luck!

One more question before I start ripping out the old board, should I be concerned about how my hard drive, cd-rom ..etc will match up to a new motherboard and cpu? I had assumed I could at least reuse these. If not, I may just scrap the whole system and start over.

Thanks -Scott

[shadowpr]

The hard drive and cd drive should be fine.

You may just have to enable the ide controller in bios if the drives are ide. If sata, then it should be as simple as plugging them in.