[XP] chipset confusion

hello again people, the time has come for me to finally get round to replacing my fried motherboard. Last time I did this I had no problems buying a new motherboard....this time it appears that they have vanished from the face of the earth....outdated I assume.

please help! ... what is all this socket 478 chipset 865pe business? the motherboard in there at the moment is a Gigabyte P4 titan GA-81PE1000-G rev.4 (http://www.giga-byte.com/Products/Mo...ProductID=1863) this says 865pe and socket 478. I seem to be able to find motherboards that tell me they are compatible with pentium 4 processors but they are different chipset numbers .... does this matter? and why? lol ... totally confused :confused:

Virtual Patient

ok, let me put this another way :confused:

will this motherboard work for my old pentium 4 computer?
http://www.misco.co.uk/applications/...9278&CatId=327

I realise I would have to replace my old DDR ram for the newer DDR2 ram, and I need to find one with an AGP for my graphic card. Please could you tell me what considerations I need to be aware of.

Virtual Patient

Nope.
You need a Socket 478 mobo. (according to your first post)

Mobo's with Intel chipsets are generally better then SIS or nVidia.

thank you Steve, I have found a couple of socket 478 motherboards out there and will probably go for this one http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/s...tml?ASR-P4I65G
simply because it also has an AGP slot as well.

I still don't understand the chipset stuff, but will assume that the socket type is of vital importance and the type of chipset although not irrelevant, is an option to be considered by those more knowledgeable (but I did go for an intel one).

Virtual Patient

I question whether this is really worth it, there will be no advantage performance wise. You would be better off upgrading the motherboard, CPU and RAM

..

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finally get round to replacing my fried motherboard.

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The socket 478 CPUs and motherboards are no longer mainstream so they would be harder to find now.

It may be more cost/performance effective to just upgrade to all new components using a socket 775 motherboard so you can use a Core 2 Duo/Quad CPU, PCI-Express Vid card, and DDR2/DDR3 ram.

Some questions come to mind:
1. Are you sure the other components are working? (power supply, video card, ram, hard drives, etc.)
2. What video card do you have now?
3. What's your budget like?
4. Play games or just work and internet surf?
5. What CPU do you have now?

Another alternative would be to find a local supllier for the ASROCK 4CoreDual-SATA2 motherboard. This would allow you to upgrade the CPU and still let you use your old ram and AGP vid card. It also supports DDR2 ram and PCI-Express vid cards.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813157115

sorry but I just need to get this puter working, this is the second time it fried a motherboard and I will be replacing the cooling system this time too http://discussions.virtualdr.com/sho...62#post1192062. my budget doesn't stretch further than the motherboard I have ordered together with 1gb ram a new processor fan with a couple more fans too.

This computer is/was used for all kinds of stuff including 3d modelling/rendering and such like. It has a pentium 4 ...3.02 processor, Radeon 9200se....nothing special....except that it is far better than the p3 800 I have been forced to use for the last few months :mad:

I am almost certain from past experience that it is just the motherboard that is damaged, I've been there before.

time will tell ... the new stuff arrives tomorrow :eek:

Virtual Patient