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Dumbguy

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Aug 17, 2005
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I have an XP 3000+ and 768MB of PC2700 laying around. The old Chaintech mobo is a piece of crap. Can anyone suggest a decent, but cheap microATX board? I've never OC'd, so now that I have these spare parts, I'd like to take a shot at it. But, if I kill it, I don't want to be out too much dough.
 
Wow..I only saw one for sale on NewEgg. Your choices are slim at this point. I would look on ebay to see what you can find. If you find one that might be an option... post it here and we can give you more advice.
 
If that were true no one would rarely ever buy anything from ebay. I've bought many things on ebay and have never had a problem. If you can't find it anywhere else, Ebay is a good option, just don't pay an arm and a leg for it and you have about as much chance of getting ripped off as you have buying it out of a classified ad in the newspaper. On a side note, I bought a brand new OEM scsi controller card for 1 penney on ebay about 4 months ago, but that was unused, though I have bought used before. Shipping costs me $7.50....I think I got ripped off.

IRT topic, your options of overclockng a 3000+ with PC2700 memory is pretty limited. But, with that said, if you can find an Abit NF7 series board (not the NF7-s2) or an Asus A7n8X version on ebay, you will at least have a decent board to mess with. Of course, those boards aren't microATX. I think you're going to have a hard time finding any good micro boards that supports a lot of oc features.
 
IRT topic, your options of overclockng a 3000+ with PC2700 memory is pretty limited. But, with that said, if you can find an Abit NF7 series board (not the NF7-s2) or an Asus A7n8X version on ebay, you will at least have a decent board to mess with. Of course, those boards aren't microATX. I think you're going to have a hard time finding any good micro boards that supports a lot of oc features.
Click to expand...

Form factor plays a part in ocing? The only reason I'm looking for mATX is I'm trying to reuse my eMachines can.
 
Well, not really. I bought a barebones from tiger that had a Chaintech board and the XP 3000+. The eMachine was originally a Celeron with a board that was hit by a bad PSU, so I decided it was time to get rid of the Chaintech because it was a piece of crap. I upgraded the barebones to an X2 3800+, so I had a spare CPU laying around...Along with a dead eMachine. Right now, I have a couple of ECS K7SEM boards, but I think they're dead as well. I can't get it to power up. So, maybe starting from scratch is the way to go.
 
I have an XP 3000+ and 768MB of PC2700 laying around. The old Chaintech mobo is a piece of crap. Can anyone suggest a decent, but cheap microATX board? I've never OC'd, so now that I have these spare parts, I'd like to take a shot at it. But, if I kill it, I don't want to be out too much dough.
Click to expand...

Probably your best bet is an nvidia Nforce board, if you can find one that is.
 
Form factor plays a part in ocing? The only reason I'm looking for mATX is I'm trying to reuse my eMachines can.
Click to expand...

Not necessarily, but I assume [guess] that the micro boards are rather limited in features, but that's a guess.

As long as you aren't trying to stick with a micro and just wanted to use an old case, then pick yourself up a cheapo case or find one in the dumpster, then go and find a board on Ebay. I see a bunch of the NF7 boards....I didn't look for any other boards, but there are probably bunches of them, and probably a bunch of new ones too. Just pick a price you want to spend, bid that amount right up front and then forget about it. If you win, great. If you don't, move on to the next one until you do win. Eventually you'll win a bid for the board you want at or below the maximum price you were willing to spend, and you'll be happy.

I've got a lot of those XP's and they are nice machines for what they are. In fact I'm typing this on a 2500+ running at 2.2G. The only problem you are going to have with the 3000+ is the multiplier being so high. If it's a 333 [166] fsb, you might be able to run anywhere up to 400 [200] fsb and get a good bump, but you'd have more options if you had a 2500 or 2600, for example instead of a 3000+. And, if it's already a 400, then you don't have that many options.
 
I have an XP 3000+ and 768MB of PC2700 laying around. The old Chaintech mobo is a piece of crap. Can anyone suggest a decent, but cheap microATX board? I've never OC'd, so now that I have these spare parts, I'd like to take a shot at it. But, if I kill it, I don't want to be out too much dough.
Click to expand...

Try and fine one of those Abit NF-7 boards.... all great boards, mines been running strong for years now

not sure where you would find one though...
 
I bought an Epox 8rda3+pro from Newegg 3 months ago & is a rock solid board that oc's like mad. You can also order directly from Epox's site. I think i saw it on there for $48.
 
I only found the NF-7 at PCWharehouse for $96 8O

so go with the Epox LOL, its stilll a great board though
 
Form factor plays a part in ocing? The only reason I'm looking for mATX is I'm trying to reuse my eMachines can.
Click to expand...

Not necessarily, but I assume [guess] that the micro boards are rather limited in features, but that's a guess.

As long as you aren't trying to stick with a micro and just wanted to use an old case, then pick yourself up a cheapo case or find one in the dumpster, then go and find a board on Ebay. I see a bunch of the NF7 boards....I didn't look for any other boards, but there are probably bunches of them, and probably a bunch of new ones too. Just pick a price you want to spend, bid that amount right up front and then forget about it. If you win, great. If you don't, move on to the next one until you do win. Eventually you'll win a bid for the board you want at or below the maximum price you were willing to spend, and you'll be happy.

I've got a lot of those XP's and they are nice machines for what they are. In fact I'm typing this on a 2500+ running at 2.2G. The only problem you are going to have with the 3000+ is the multiplier being so high. If it's a 333 [166] fsb, you might be able to run anywhere up to 400 [200] fsb and get a good bump, but you'd have more options if you had a 2500 or 2600, for example instead of a 3000+. And, if it's already a 400, then you don't have that many options.

They aren't really limited by features, they just have a couple fewer PCI slots. most of em even still have SATA and multiple USB headers and the like.
 
I thought Newegg had some recertified socket A (that's 462, right?) mATX board for $18 or so earlier this week. Check out the clearance section. Sorry can't look for it myself right now. Good luck, then use that thing for some distributed computing!
 
If you're still looking, this is a good motherboard for the price. I use it for my HTPC, and it hasn't given me any problems. It's not the best motherboard for overclocking, as it has a sub par chipset, but it seems to be reliable at stock clock speeds.
 
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