Can anyone advise?

[Paul Woodsford]

My No2 PC has a MB that is antequated and needs replacing. It is running
XPHome SP2. It seems many of the newer MB's have SATA capability.
This PC has 2 EIDE HDs and a CD/DVD player and CD Burner connected to EIDE1
and 2 and an AGP graphics card.
Besides getting a new MB, CPU and DDR ram, old MB only uses SDram, will I
still be able to use my 2 HDs and 2 CD drives?
Any advice regarding a Mid level MB/CPU combination that I could use the
above components with would be much appreciated. I live in the UK.

 

[philo]

My No2 PC has a MB that is antequated and needs replacing. It is running
XPHome SP2. It seems many of the newer MB's have SATA capability.
This PC has 2 EIDE HDs and a CD/DVD player and CD Burner connected to EIDE1
and 2 and an AGP graphics card.
Besides getting a new MB, CPU and DDR ram, old MB only uses SDram, will I
still be able to use my 2 HDs and 2 CD drives?
Any advice regarding a Mid level MB/CPU combination that I could use the
above components with would be much appreciated. I live in the UK.

Check with your local supplier...there are plenty of IDE motherboards still
being manufacturered

as a matter of fact, just because a board is SATA capable does not
necessarily mean it does not have IDE.

(Check the specs before buying of course)

 

[DL]

visit anyone of the major manu sites, eg asus, gigabyte to name but two, or
online retailer
The hd's & CD's wont be a problem, many new mobo's dont use AGP

 

[paulmd]

My No2 PC has a MB that is antequated and needs replacing. It is running
XPHome SP2. It seems many of the newer MB's have SATA capability.
This PC has 2 EIDE HDs and a CD/DVD player and CD Burner connected to EIDE1
and 2 and an AGP graphics card.
Besides getting a new MB, CPU and DDR ram, old MB only uses SDram, will I
still be able to use my 2 HDs and 2 CD drives?
Any advice regarding a Mid level MB/CPU combination that I could use the
above components with would be much appreciated. I live in the UK.

You can buy an IDE hard drive controller card. Promise makes good ones.

 

[Keith]

My No2 PC has a MB that is antequated and needs replacing. It is
running XPHome SP2. It seems many of the newer MB's have SATA
capability. This PC has 2 EIDE HDs and a CD/DVD player and CD Burner
connected to
EIDE1 and 2 and an AGP graphics card.
Besides getting a new MB, CPU and DDR ram, old MB only uses SDram,
will I still be able to use my 2 HDs and 2 CD drives?
Any advice regarding a Mid level MB/CPU combination that I could use
the above components with would be much appreciated. I live in the UK.

Do what I did in a similar situation Paul,
www.powerc.com . Buy a bare system

 

[Sylvain Lafontaine]

With today softwares, the speed of the HD is as important as the speed of
the CPU. Taking into account that probably you will have to change the
video card and the power supply too, I don't see why you would want to try
keeping these old drives instead of replacing them with the latest SATA that
will run at least three times faster. (And probably more. Also, with many
Sata controllers, you will have the possibility of setting them into a Raid
0 configuration, which will double the available speed. You can find a Raid
controller for EIDE; however, you will have to pay for it and it's price
will probably be the same as simply buying a Sata HD.)

It's always possible to keep old hardwares when something is broken in an
old PC and that all you want is to make it to work again. However, when you
want to replace it because it's antequated then I'm afraid that any attempt
to keep some of the old parts will only result in a very crumpled system in
exchange of only a few saved dollards.

 

[Ron Martell]

My No2 PC has a MB that is antequated and needs replacing. It is running
XPHome SP2. It seems many of the newer MB's have SATA capability.
This PC has 2 EIDE HDs and a CD/DVD player and CD Burner connected to EIDE1
and 2 and an AGP graphics card.
Besides getting a new MB, CPU and DDR ram, old MB only uses SDram, will I
still be able to use my 2 HDs and 2 CD drives?
Any advice regarding a Mid level MB/CPU combination that I could use the
above components with would be much appreciated. I live in the UK.

Many of the newer motherboards have only a single channel IDE
controller (2 drives maximum) plus multiple SATA controllers so you
would need a third party IDE controller card in order to install all 4
of your drives. These cards are not too expensive.

Also many of these same boards also have PCI Express slots rather than
AGP so you may need a new video card as well.

There are motherboard that will support your existing devices, but you
have to search a bit and read the detailed specs to find them. For
example, PC Chips, which many would consider a low-end rather than
mid-range supplier, has a model P23G which has a socket 775 for Intel
CPUs, accepts both DDR and DDR2 modules (2 slots for each), has 2 IDE
channels (4 drives) plus 2 SATA, and an AGP 8x slot.

Good luck

Ron Martell Duncan B.C. Canada
--
Microsoft MVP (1997 - 2006)
On-Line Help Computer Service
http://onlinehelp.bc.ca
Syberfix Remote Computer Repair

"Anyone who thinks that they are too small to make a difference
has never been in bed with a mosquito."

 

[Paul Woodsford]

Many of the newer motherboards have only a single channel IDE
controller (2 drives maximum) plus multiple SATA controllers so you
would need a third party IDE controller card in order to install all 4
of your drives. These cards are not too expensive.

Also many of these same boards also have PCI Express slots rather than
AGP so you may need a new video card as well.

There are motherboard that will support your existing devices, but you
have to search a bit and read the detailed specs to find them. For
example, PC Chips, which many would consider a low-end rather than
mid-range supplier, has a model P23G which has a socket 775 for Intel
CPUs, accepts both DDR and DDR2 modules (2 slots for each), has 2 IDE
channels (4 drives) plus 2 SATA, and an AGP 8x slot.

Good luck

Ron Martell Duncan B.C. Canada
--
Microsoft MVP (1997 - 2006)
On-Line Help Computer Service
http://onlinehelp.bc.ca
Syberfix Remote Computer Repair

"Anyone who thinks that they are too small to make a difference
has never been in bed with a mosquito."

Thanks for all the advice. Much appreciated.