A reason I've heard is that the largest single RAM module available at the time might only be 1GB in size, and thus the BIOS was only programmed to expect up to 2GB. 2GB modules may or may not work, or may (apparently) work as 1GB modules, subject to BIOS support and RAM module specifics. Search for "VIA P4M800 4GB" in your favourite search engine.
Parts of that vintage would have been made around the time of the Great Capacitor Plague, and even good electrolytic capacitors might have gone bad after 15+ years in storage even if NOS - Inspect carefully, and power up with caution.
I certainly wouldn't connect them to the internet, if you intend to use Windows - The latest version of that OS the system might support would be long out of support and security patches, and there will be driver troubles either way. As much I love vintage builds, two brand new ones with either a previous-gen APU or a Core i3 with integrated graphics might serve your kids' needs much better.
thank you very much. I had the same thought about the RAM: that might have been the max available at the time the manual was written. I didn’t think of wording the search quite as you did, adding the “4gb“ part may well yield something good. I will follow up in case others ever have the same query and post it back here.
You bring up some other things I had failed to consider. i hadn’t realized that this board was made during the era of the ”capacitor plague” and that alone makes this idea more questionable. I’ve had good luck with capacitors with my electronics lasting more than 15 years, but that’s only if they were good to begin with!* Thank you for pointing this out and I will most certainly factor this in.
I also hadn’t considered that I might not be able to get a modern OS running on this board. I had assumed I could get Windows 7 running at the least. Perhaps I made a poor assumption?
Like you I think, I enjoy playing with older builds. However, you’re right that maybe this isn’t the board for my daughter. I’m basically looking for something she could use for a couple years until I invest some “real” money in building a much better system for her. But if this won’t serve even my basic purposes then it will be a no go.
As an aside, would you recommend avoiding the old socket 775 boards entirely? I ask because I already have a small stockpile of DDR2 RAM and 775 CPUs from years past. So even if this board is not the answer it would be so cheap to just buy a better 775 board to get her by for a few years. Maybe I am just out of touch with newer hardware but I feel like the old 775 boards and CPUs would be fine unless you’re trying to do something graphics heavy like new games, video editing, etc.
thanks so much for the feedback and anyone else who posts as well.
best, Aaron
*-I have some Citation 5.1 and 7.1 amplifiers that are about 25 years old as well as some other amps that have held up very nicely. Then again I am now reaching the point where they should be serviced before the capacitors take the whole shebang down with them. It is a tough call seeing as it is expensive to recap the amps, replace monos, etc.