Motherboards

[Rogue]

Happy New Year

Hi...My name is Lazaro. Currently I am in the market for a new computer. I already have a Pentium PRO 200 and decided I would rather built a system (or buy the parts and have someone built it for me) then spend extra money on a full system (whish I don't need). So currently I am in the market for a motherboard...and for some reason "ASUS" name keeps coming up. The problem is there are so many MB to choose from and my technical knowledge is not a as good as I thought it was, so I was hoping you can answer a few questions for me...

1) Right now I am looking to upgrade to either a Pentium III 500 mz (Expensive!) or the new Celeron 500 mz. Whish MB is best suited for these chips (IE a Slot 1 or 370 socket)?.

2) I noticed some of the boards (ASUS) have "Fast Ethernet Controllers" and "SCSI Controllers" (from Adaptec). With these MB, do I still need to add a SCSI card or Ethernet car to my PCI slot to support my different devices? I have an external modem that requires an Ethernet card....do I still need the card with these MB?

3) Most of of the ASUS MB are divided by "chipset"...Whish is better an 440bx vs. an 820 vs. an 810? (I'm assuming the 820 is better but if I knew I wouldn't be asking) http://www.gotapex.com/ubb/smile.gif

4) On some boards you have optional "IR controllers"...will I still need additional Hardware if I wanted to add IR capabilities to my new computers?

5) Once I add the MB to my new case, do I still need additional cabling for the board or does it usually come as part of the MB package?


Sorry If I sound way to naive here, but I am looking to get into a system I want and not something put together for me with what they want. I've tried looking for these answers but all I get is a bunch of Technical answers whish doesn't mean anything to me...

I would really appreciate if you can help me with this....

Thank you...

Sincerely

Lazaro (a frustrated computer geek)

[Leon]

1) Socket370's are for the Celeron PPGA's. Slot 1's are for Pentium 3's. It's not that the mobo is best "suited", it's required.

2) If the mobo specifies on board controllers, that means that they are built in. Notice that these are much more expensive mobo's? Basically, it's just like having the SCSI and the Ethernet card already installed, so you won't need to buy them.

3) This is a question that has been debated for a while. For now, the 810 and 820 don't offer much performance increase (if any) over the venerable 440BX. So the 440BX is a better value, plus RAMBUS sucks and is expensive.

4) Hmmm... Haven't heard of this.

5)The Mobo will come with IDE Cables and everything necessary to install it. Your case will come with everything else you need.

BTW, the mobo's you are looking at are kind of high end. You sure you need all that?

Don't forget to check your other post:
http://www.gotapex.com/ubb/Forum1/HTML/000022.html

[Rogue]

Do I need that much MB??? Hell I don't know. I know what I want, and I really dont want to spend to much (duh!!) but I want the best (Double duh!!!!!).

Right now I have a SCSI setup...(i.e. two SCSI HD's and a SCSI zip drive.) So I want ot keep the SCSI line up. The thing is I have a SCSI scanner that comes with it's own propietary SCSI card (Another card!!). At one point I tried hooking up my scanner to my Adaptec 2940W card but i couldn't get it to work) So now I read how the MB have the SCSI on board. Does that mean that I can hook up my SCSI chain directly to the board and not need the Adaptec card? (It'l save me a slot, that's for sure. THen again, how do I hook up my scanner (External device) to the MB???

Same thing applies to my Ethernet card. I have an external modem that goes to the ethernet card (LAN). If the motherboard has the propietary Etehrnet card built in, how do I get my modem to the MB??

That's part of my dilema...go with a MB that has none of these features and fill in the appropiate slots with cards (whish I'm trying to avoid) or get a MB with propietary devices (I.E. Ethernet, SCSI) built in and avoid the extra cards (but then what do I do with the external devices????

Lazaro

PS...Thakns for all the help. You have definitely answered more questions in a few emails than ASUS (Tech Support) did in a month...

[xyrth]

i'd oc that ppro and hold out a little while longer. if i were buying a system right now tho, i'd be looking at athlons, not p3's.

also, #4 is a pretty common option on most boards, it's used mainly for interfacing with some printers & notebooks. i wouldn't worry about it.

leon did a good job with the others, so i wont touch them.

also, it's a common problem to have scanners not work correctly with faster scsi cards.

- xyrth

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"why buy the cow when you get the sex for free?"

[Fuz]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>THen again, how do I hook up my scanner (External device) to the MB???
<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

You can get a cable that runs from the mb to an empty slot in the case. Or you can just run a cable straight through the case to the motherboard. I would have to suggest that you just get a motherboard without on-board scsi since you already have a scsi card and you are trying to save money.