Re: OT: Looking for a replacment board

["Bryan J. Smith" <b.j.smith@ieee.org>]

Jacques Sabrie <sabrie@gmail.com> wrote:
> All,
> I had an ABIT BH6 motherboard die over the weekend and am
> looking for a replacement. Any suggestions on a MB
> (and CPU?) that will drop in place?

The Abit BP6 is an old Intel i440BX chipset with PIIX4
southbridge.

For Linux, anything will work.  Your main hardware concerns
will be 1) memory compatibility 2) CPU voltage and, possibly,
3) AGP voltage.

For Windows 2000/XP, you'll need to either stick with another
PIIX-based mainboard, or the NT5.0./5.1 (2000/XP) kernel will
go beserk.  This is because there are 3 registry keys that
are set to your ATA controller.

Revisiting the hardware concerns ...

1)  The i440BX memory controller only supports 128Mib IC
technology.  This means only up to 128MiB DIMMs (SDR,
168-pin) can be used with 8 or 16-bit ICs, or a registered
256MiB DIMM with 4-bit ICs.  This is more than just checking
for PC100/133 compatibility, as the i810/815 chipsets use
_different_ 256-512MiB SDRAM DIMMs (even though they are SDR,
168-pin) than the i440LX/BX.

[ And from a Windows standpoint, the i810/815s typically use
the newer ICH southbridge, which is completely different than
the i440LX/BX's PIIX. ]

2)  CPU voltages are typically not too much of a concern. 
You have an older PPGA Socket-370.  Any newer FC-PGA or
FC-PGA2 Socket-370 mainboard _should_ support older PPGA
Socket-370 CPUs.

3)  If your AGP is AGPx1, then a newer AGP mainboard might
have trouble supporting the voltage required for such an old
AGP1.0 board.  If you have an AGPx2, it might either be the
older AGP1.0 or it could be a newer AGP2.0 -- there is a
better chance.  Any recent AGP3.0 mainboard should be able to
support any AGPx4 (which will be AGP2.0 or 3.0) and
definitely an AGPx8 (AGP3.0).

Now there are many places that sell unused/refurb Socket-370
mainboards, although far fewer than just last year.  I'll
send you a few links I've bought from before when I get home.

For now ...
  http://froogle.google.com/froogle?q=Socket-370+168-pin  

If you need to replace your CPU too, you might want to look
elsewhere than just another Socket-370 mainboard.  You might
wish to look at Socket-462 (A) [AMD].  The only kicker is
that Socket-462 mainboards that support older PC100/133 SDRAM
(168-pin) are no longer manufacturered -- although a few
exist that support both PC100/133 [SDR] SDRAM and PC1600-2700
DDR SDRAM (184-pin).

In reality, since Socket-462 was killed by AMD last year
(there are still only a few straggling Sempron models for
Socket-462 left, and they are not cheap), newer Socket-754 is
actually cheaper now.  But you'll definitely need to upgrade
your memory if you do that.  I only mention it if case you
run into the situation that you want to upgrade your memory
-- then it's better to just go Socket-754.  Especially the
new (video on-board, no new graphics card required) GeForce
61x0 / nForce 4x0 that start around $55 for the mainboard,
and another $50+ for the CPU ($70 for Sempron 64-bit).


-- 
Bryan J. Smith                | Sent from Yahoo Mail
mailto:b.j.smith@ieee.org     |  (please excuse any
http://thebs413.blogspot.com/ |   missing headers)

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