Gateway rebuild questions

[Mugen_the_lion]

I posted this thread from a couple weeks ago. What ended up happening, the local shop said it was bad compacitors and the HD was failing. The mobo had no brand anywhere on it. So like I thought, and the shop man confirmed, cheap China parts. I told my parents we could try saving some money with a new mobo and a solid new HD. They didnt want to wait for that or take the chance on "what would fail in it next".
So they bought a new Asus brand tower form best buy, after we shoped around all day. I feel really good about that tower Asus name brand all inside of it, Win7, came with extra case fan, and runs quiet as hell. I digress.

So now I have this gateway (here is the stock specs of it) Im able to mess with. Which is great before I get to building my own comp from the ground up. With the formentioned problems above and obviously a new HD/mobo, I have some questions:

-Would you say the CPU and RAM are still good? The shop and best buy would charge me to check them. I may ask the shop again maybe they will do it for me.
-Will the stock h/f assembly fit on a new mobo? Im guessing yes
-The mobo standoffs in the case dont look like I can change them. If I get a new mobo will the standoffs still work for me?
-Will the am2 athlon fit in any am3 socket? Im guessing yes
-When I took the h/f off the cpu the thermal paste is all white and tacky. Is this a bad sign, old paste, or should I have not taken the h/f off? I have never taken a h/f off a cpu before.
-will all this require a new psu? Should I test that also. I didnt do it originally becouse I didnt want to screw the psu or shock myself.

So is this worth my time/money? Its a real nice case and I would hate to trash it. I have some mobos I was looking at on the egg that sould work for this rebuild. I can post them later, and if anyone has any suggestions I am open. thx

[glc]

Motherboard replacements with anything other than an exact replacement board in a name brand machine are not straightforward. What is the Gateway part number on your board? An example would be "4006202R".

[Khalil]

Most MicroATX motherboards will work with this model, here is a view of the inside of one, Gateway Support - Inside View
The CPU and Ram should be ok and you should be able to get an AM2 or AM2+ motherboard from newegg.com stick to Asus or Biostar

Did you want to upgrade the processor as well?

[Nikon]

as far as the heatsink/fan, if you have to replace the mobo, you needed to take it off, do not try to put it back on and run the machine until you clean off all the old paste and reapply new. if it was still somewhat tacky then it was doing its job. if it totally dried out chances are it was not performing as well as it should have.

PSU's in factory built machines are most often just strong enough to handle the machine they were put in. most likely you will need a new one, and if you plan on using a videocard that requires any kind of dedicated power, you will need a new one.

if it is an AM2, im not sure... i know 2+ and 3 are the same physical socket. not sure about 2 tho.

[Mugen_the_lion]

No processor upgrade or video card. I just want it a basic internet/office machine.
Khalil, that is exactly how the inside looked, a mess. So the standoffs are pretty universal depending on the form factor?
Nikon, the socket said AM2 on the bad board, but it seems the boards I compared said "CPU Socket Type: AM3/AM2+/AM2".
GLC, Im doin home work so I will take a look at the board later. Also I will post the boards I found then, too.

[glc]

If it is in fact a 4006202R, you can buy a brand new one on Ebay for around 65 bucks.

[Mugen_the_lion]

Originally Posted by glc If it is in fact a 4006202R, you can buy a brand new one on Ebay for around 65 bucks.

Wow thanks for that. The last one failed sould I go for it. I was thinking a name brand board would with a year warranty. But I do see where you are coming from on compatibility.

[Mugen_the_lion]

Now that I am looking at the pic on ebay. The board I took out has 4 memory slots those only have 2. The comp had 3gb in it, with the board on ebay I could only use the 2x1gb set?

[glc]

What is the Gateway part number on your board, please?

[Mugen_the_lion]

The only numbers on the board are: HT2000, then mcp61pm-am rev:1.0a, then 15-vo1-011011

So using the mcp61pm-am 1.0a I found the board on ebay in a range of prices. So I should for it, quilty wise? Also I will need a new hd and the original comp came with its own windows install cd would this work with the original product key.

[glc]

Yuck - that's an ECS board.

4006202R MOTHERBOARD DESKTOP BOARD EMACHINES GATEWAY

[Mugen_the_lion]

So I should go with the 2 dimm board. If thats the case, I dont want the system to be stuck with 2gb ram. It cam with 3gb in 2x1gb and 2x512mb ram kit. So I guess I would just bump it up to 4gb. What would you recommend?

[glc]

Is that only a 2 dimm board?

Look a bit harder on the board for the Gateway part number. It may just be on a paper sticker or it may be on the back.

[Mugen_the_lion]

The board I took out of the old computer has 4 ram sticks in it. The 4006202R board you should me on ebay and serversupply only have 2 ram slots. When I search mcp61pm-am 1.0a those have 4 slots.

There is no other serial or part looking number on the board then what I posted before.

[Mugen_the_lion]

I can post a pic of board if you want.

[glc]

Here you go:

Gateway MCP61PM-AM MCP61P-AM 4006203R Rev1A MOTHERBOARD on eBay!

[Mugen_the_lion]

Much thanks. Just have to get the cash now, haha.

I still have this question, I will need a new hd and the original comp came with its own windows install cd would this work with the original product key. If I need a new copy of windows could I install win7 on this system, but thats more money. I dont know if the processor will handle it.

Im thinking of going with this drive: Western Digital Caviar Blue 320GB SATA 3.0Gb/s
Looks good?

[glc]

I'd spend the extra 12 bucks for this:

Newegg.com - Western Digital Caviar Black WD5001AALS 500GB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive

Your Windows CD should work fine if you are using an exact replacement motherboard.