I'd like to replace my Abit BH6 with one of the now, relatively
inexpensive, Socket 478, 400 or 533MHZ FSB, P4 motherboards people
are currently selling new on Ebay for under $50. But I'd like to
continue using the two, 80 GIG, ATA, Maxtor HD's I'm currently running
(WIN 98) in a RAID 0 array on a Promise controller.

I currently have a PIII 850, but since I only do web surfing and word
processing, I don't really need anything more than, say, a 2GHz, or
even less, P4.

Can you guys tell me which of these P4 boards were the most reliable
over the last few years, and whether I can just move my HD's and
controller over to one of them. (Someone told me I'd have less
problems doing this on boards that have Intel chipsets, since that's
what my Abit uses?).

As, since I'd also like to upgrade my Win 98 to XP Home, what would be
the best way to go about this? Before or after I transfer my HD's?


Thanks a lot in advance.

Trying to steal the thunder from Arnold, Jim Lyons <lyons432> on Sun, 03 Oct 2004 19:56:42 -0400 spoke:

>I'd like to replace my Abit BH6 with one of the now, relatively
>inexpensive, Socket 478, 400 or 533MHZ FSB

Make sure you get one that does the 800mhz FSB.

> P4 motherboards people
>are currently selling new on Ebay for under $50.

Forget eBay, but from a dealer you can trust.

Check www.pricewatch.comfor prices and availability,
then use www.resellerratings.com to check the dealers history.

>But I'd like to
>continue using the two, 80 GIG, ATA, Maxtor HD's I'm currently running
>(WIN 98) in a RAID 0 array on a Promise controller.

Shouldn't be a problem.

>I currently have a PIII 850, but since I only do web surfing and word
>processing, I don't really need anything more than, say, a 2GHz, or
>even less, P4.

The 2.4 or 2.6ghz CPUs are the best price-point right now.
The price difference between a 2ghz/400 and a 2.4ghz/800
is only about $35, but you'll really notice the difference.
And it should last you quite a bit longer.

>Can you guys tell me which of these P4 boards were the most reliable
>over the last few years, and whether I can just move my HD's and
>controller over to one of them. (Someone told me I'd have less
>problems doing this on boards that have Intel chipsets, since that's
>what my Abit uses?).

The HDs aren't the problem,
it's Windows and the MB-specific drivers it uses.





--

The truth is out there,

but it's not interesting enough for most people.

On Sun, 03 Oct 2004 19:56:42 -0400, Jim Lyons <lyons432> wrote:

>I'd like to replace my Abit BH6 with one of the now, relatively
>inexpensive, Socket 478, 400 or 533MHZ FSB, P4 motherboards people
>are currently selling new on Ebay for under $50. But I'd like to
>continue using the two, 80 GIG, ATA, Maxtor HD's I'm currently running
>(WIN 98) in a RAID 0 array on a Promise controller.

>I currently have a PIII 850, but since I only do web surfing and word
>processing, I don't really need anything more than, say, a 2GHz, or
>even less, P4.

So why do you need an upgrade if your existing system is working fine?

>Can you guys tell me which of these P4 boards were the most reliable
>over the last few years, and whether I can just move my HD's and
>controller over to one of them. (Someone told me I'd have less
>problems doing this on boards that have Intel chipsets, since that's
>what my Abit uses?).

It probably doesn't matter since you are using the Promise to do your
RAID 0 and you are going to have to re-install the OS anyway because
of the new board.

>As, since I'd also like to upgrade my Win 98 to XP Home, what would be
>the best way to go about this? Before or after I transfer my HD's?

You have to update the OS after a new motherboard anyway so it's a
little pointless to install before changing motherboards. I'll
strongly suggest you backup any important data on CD before you
attempt the cross over.

--
L.Angel: I'm looking for web design work.
If you need basic to med complexity webpages at affordable rates, email me
Standard HTML, SHTML, MySQL + PHP or ASP, Javascript.
If you really want, FrontPage & DreamWeaver too.
But keep in mind you pay extra bandwidth for their bloated code

Why not get an Athlon XP processor instead? Motherboards for an
Athlon XP are inexpensive, and an Athlon XP2800+ is only around
$75.

Jim Lyons wrote:

> I'd like to replace my Abit BH6 with one of the now, relatively
> inexpensive, Socket 478, 400 or 533MHZ FSB, P4 motherboards people
> are currently selling new on Ebay for under $50. But I'd like to
> continue using the two, 80 GIG, ATA, Maxtor HD's I'm currently running
> (WIN 98) in a RAID 0 array on a Promise controller.
>
> I currently have a PIII 850, but since I only do web surfing and word
> processing, I don't really need anything more than, say, a 2GHz, or
> even less, P4.
>
> Can you guys tell me which of these P4 boards were the most reliable
> over the last few years, and whether I can just move my HD's and
> controller over to one of them. (Someone told me I'd have less
> problems doing this on boards that have Intel chipsets, since that's
> what my Abit uses?).
>
> As, since I'd also like to upgrade my Win 98 to XP Home, what would be
> the best way to go about this? Before or after I transfer my HD's?
>
> Thanks a lot in advance.

Why not get an Athlon XP processor instead? Motherboards for an
Athlon XP are inexpensive, and an Athlon XP2800+ is only around
$80.

Jim Lyons wrote:

> I'd like to replace my Abit BH6 with one of the now, relatively
> inexpensive, Socket 478, 400 or 533MHZ FSB, P4 motherboards people
> are currently selling new on Ebay for under $50. But I'd like to
> continue using the two, 80 GIG, ATA, Maxtor HD's I'm currently running
> (WIN 98) in a RAID 0 array on a Promise controller.
>
> I currently have a PIII 850, but since I only do web surfing and word
> processing, I don't really need anything more than, say, a 2GHz, or
> even less, P4.
>
> Can you guys tell me which of these P4 boards were the most reliable
> over the last few years, and whether I can just move my HD's and
> controller over to one of them. (Someone told me I'd have less
> problems doing this on boards that have Intel chipsets, since that's
> what my Abit uses?).
>
> As, since I'd also like to upgrade my Win 98 to XP Home, what would be
> the best way to go about this? Before or after I transfer my HD's?
>
> Thanks a lot in advance.

On Mon, 04 Oct 2004 01:20:31 GMT, Never anonymous Bud
<(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:


>Make sure you get one that does the 800mhz FSB.

Why?He sated he doesn't need the latest and greatest.

I would look for an Asus P4B533 which is an 845 chipset mb (400/533mhz
FSB). Good mb.

On Mon, 04 Oct 2004 01:42:40 +0000, The little lost angel wrote:

> On Sun, 03 Oct 2004 19:56:42 -0400, Jim Lyons <lyons432> wrote:
>
>>I'd like to replace my Abit BH6 with one of the now, relatively
>>inexpensive, Socket 478, 400 or 533MHZ FSB, P4 motherboards people
>>are currently selling new on Ebay for under $50. But I'd like to
>>continue using the two, 80 GIG, ATA, Maxtor HD's I'm currently running
>>(WIN 98) in a RAID 0 array on a Promise controller.
>
>>I currently have a PIII 850, but since I only do web surfing and word
>>processing, I don't really need anything more than, say, a 2GHz, or
>>even less, P4.
>
> So why do you need an upgrade if your existing system is working fine?

Angel, Angel, Angel... Need you ask such silly questions? I bought a new
system (my K6-III/400 is still working just fine), simply because I
*could*. Perhaps you need to watch some _Red_Green_ to understand. ;-)

>>Can you guys tell me which of these P4 boards were the most reliable
>>over the last few years, and whether I can just move my HD's and
>>controller over to one of them. (Someone told me I'd have less
>>problems doing this on boards that have Intel chipsets, since that's
>>what my Abit uses?).
>
> It probably doesn't matter since you are using the Promise to do your
> RAID 0 and you are going to have to re-install the OS anyway because
> of the new board.

One *might* get away with cloning one drive off the other in a non-raid
configuration and then rebuild the array on the new board.

>>As, since I'd also like to upgrade my Win 98 to XP Home, what would be
>>the best way to go about this? Before or after I transfer my HD's?

Kill yourself... XP-Home?!

> You have to update the OS after a new motherboard anyway so it's a
> little pointless to install before changing motherboards. I'll strongly
> suggest you backup any important data on CD before you attempt the cross
> over.

Or, as I suggested, bust up the mirrors and copy the data from one to
another.

A friend is having trouble with his laptop (poorly partitioned from the
get-go and now seeems to have a virus), so I lent him my USB stick to see
if it would work to get his stuff off his drive so he could re-install.
There are ways of saving data. ...programs are a different issue, thanks
to the ****-poor way WinBlows works.

--
Keith

Trying to steal the thunder from Arnold, Mike Kirkland <(E-Mail Removed)> on Sun, 03 Oct 2004 19:07:00 -0700 spoke:

>>Make sure you get one that does the 800mhz FSB.
>
>Why?He sated he doesn't need the latest and greatest.

Today he doesn't. But it's sensible to plan for tomorrow.

You can get a VERY nice MB using an Intel 865 chipset for under $50.






--

The truth is out there,

but it's not interesting enough for most people.

On Sun, 03 Oct 2004 19:56:42 -0400, Jim Lyons <lyons432> wrote:

>I'd like to replace my Abit BH6 with one of the now, relatively
>inexpensive, Socket 478, 400 or 533MHZ FSB, P4 motherboards people
>are currently selling new on Ebay for under $50. But I'd like to
>continue using the two, 80 GIG, ATA, Maxtor HD's I'm currently running
>(WIN 98) in a RAID 0 array on a Promise controller.

Am I reading this right? You're booting Win98 off a Raid-0 array? I
wasn't sure that was possible but... life in the err, fast lane?:-)

>I currently have a PIII 850, but since I only do web surfing and word
>processing, I don't really need anything more than, say, a 2GHz, or
>even less, P4.
>
>Can you guys tell me which of these P4 boards were the most reliable
>over the last few years, and whether I can just move my HD's and
>controller over to one of them. (Someone told me I'd have less
>problems doing this on boards that have Intel chipsets, since that's
>what my Abit uses?).

It probably doesn't make a whole lot of difference whether you go with an
Intel chipset or not. The PCI Bus device will have a different device code
and everything hanging off it, including your striped array, will have to
be rediscovered based on new .INF files and potentially drivers. Sounds
awfully risky (impossible ?) to me unless you break that Raid-0 into
standalone drives.

I've done literally dozens of Win9x chipset migrations without a reinstall
of the OS and it *is* possible but *can* get ugly... though I've never had
one fail to complete yet, once I've figured the correct path. Let me know
if you want more details on how.

>As, since I'd also like to upgrade my Win 98 to XP Home, what would be
>the best way to go about this? Before or after I transfer my HD's?

Do you want to keep Win98 as an option, IOW dual boot? WinXP is much more
difficult to do a chipset migration than Win98 so I'd say do the XP upgrade
after but strongly recommend XP Pro.

Rgds, George Macdonald

"Just because they're paranoid doesn't mean you're not psychotic" - Who, me??

Thanks for all the advicer. Anybody knwo anything about the Abit IT-7
MAX2, or the ECS PT800CE-A?