" Also, will an ASUS GeForce Ti 4200 128MB be too much for the new
board? That is, will the board and processor support it? The board,
processor (with fan and heatsink) and graphics card is being offered
to me for $50. I need to replace the fan on the graphics card. Is
this worth it? "
The M7VKB supports AGP4x, which is fine for the Ti4200. It also
supports up to 768MB PC133 SDRAM from 3 DIMM slots, and can support
200FSB AMD Athlons / Durons up to the Athlon Thunderbird 'B' 1400+ .
You can download the manual, drivers and BIOS updates from here:
http://www.biostar-usa.com/mbdownloads.asp?model=m7vkb
The Duron 700 will be fine to start off with this board. I'm not
sure what RAM you already have, but 128MB or 256MB PC133 would be
recommended, the amount depending on your operating system and what
you use your PC for.
As for the Ti4200's fan, you can get a Thermaltake A1349 for $7.94
($2.99 + $4.95 s/h) from this ebay seller:
http://snipurl.com/5vpp .
You will also need Nvidia's Detonator drivers for the Ti4200 from
http://download.guru3d.com/detonator/ . I would recommend version
45.32 for stability with the Ti4200.
Problems usually arise when you come to upgrade and install it all.
If you don't have a manual for the motherboard, then you should print
the PDF manual from the link I gave above. I'm not sure how Dell
supplied your operating system, but if you aren't running XP, then
you will most likely need to do a full re-installation of Windows
from an original CD with license key (which means you'll need to
back-up stuff you need). You should also make a boot-disk floppy
from
http://www.startdisk.com/Web1/ubd/ubd.htm in order to do all of
this. I'd also recommend putting all of the aforementioned drivers
on a CD if you have a CDRW (along with stuff you wish to keep).
If your hard drive has an OEM version of Windows without a CD then
you could have major problems, as the conflicts between your old and
new motherboard drivers won't like each other. You may have a
restore CD to set the system back to factory settings, but this would
just have the original motherboard drivers on also.
If you do have a full version of Windows, then the following steps
should sort you out:
1) Create the boot-disk
2) Burn the relevant motherboard / graphics card drivers to CD
3) Back-up stuff you wish to keep
4) Make notes of internet connection settings
5) Install all of the hardware
6) Load *Fail-Safe Defaults" from main menu in the BIOS
7) Format the hard drive from the boot-disk
8) Install Windows (with original CD and license key)
9) Install motherboard chipset and audio drivers
10) Install Nvidia Detonator drivers