Hello GUYS,

It looks like I'm going to be shopping from Newegg soon, even though I don't want to. :-/

It seems my computer has decided to start dying on me all at once. I originaly built the system a little over 4 years ago and it's seen heavy use, so I can't say I'm shocked.....but I am surprised at the problems I've had recently. I posted here a little over a week ago getting help with some of the issues, and it was helpfull.

Over the last two weeks, I've replaced the mouse, the keyboard, the ethernet card, the sound card, installed a PCI card to give me USB plugs, and some of the cables for my modem/router. The video card and power supply are less then six months old themselves, as well as the monitor. The hard drives are about 3 (for one) and 4 (for the other) years old and the DVD drive is only about a year old. Finally, the speakers are about two years old. The oldest parts of the PC now, besides the case, the motherboard, and the CPU, is the memory.

I strongly suspect the motherboard is going. I noticed the voltage for it on my BIOS screen was lower then it should be about six months ago. It did'nt seem to have any ill effects at first, but then I noticed that some USB devices were 'timing out' like they were'nt reciving enough power. A new power supply/surge protector took care of that problem, but when these parts started dying a couple weeks ago (starting with the sound card just going for no reason) the computer also started to randomly lock up on me (I use Win XP).

Actually, it's not TOTALLY random....it seems to happen when the computer tries to do a 'major' load from one of the two hard drives (as in a game, making a WINDOWS Restore point, loading Windows, etc.) It happens with stuff on both HD's so I know it's not them. And it does'nt happen with 'soft' loads (small things that happens here and there). It's getting rather annoying and I'm not sure how to fix it. While I have enough tech knowledge to diganose and fix basic to moderate computer problems (I DID build this system, after all) I'm not sure what is causing these lockups, or how to track down or fix the voltage problem that the motherboard is having. I really don't want to pay the money to take it into a PC shop to have them look at it, plus I need the computer for work, so I really can't be without it.

Anyway....the point of this thread. I thought I would use this as a excuse to go ahead and replace the motherboard/CPU, since they are over four years old by now. But I don't have much money to spend right now on it....the timing kinda sucks and I allready spent quite a bit. Figure I can go about $400, maybe a little higher. And since I have'nt done this in over 4 years, I could use some advice on the following points:

1) Can you suggest a good motherboard/CPU in my price range? Don't care if its Intel or AMD, I'd like a motherboard that I can upgrade easily with faster CPU's in the future and last another 4 years, and I'd prefer to bump the PC up to at LEAST 3 Gig in speed.
2) Will everything in my computer be compatiable with said new motherboard/CP? I'll list the stuff I currently have at the end of my post
3) How do you suggest I go about the processing of 'moving' everything over? I HATE having to reinstall Windows XP, cause of the pain in the *censored* that it is and that I have to remake my desktop, my bookmarks, etc.
4) Can some fans be suggested also? I'm not really happy with the two case and the one CPU fan I have, they are rather noisy and don't seem to work that well.

Thanks in advance for the help.

The motherboard is a EPoX EP-8RDA+ Socket A (Socket 462) NVIDIA nForce2 Ultra 400 ATX AMD Motherboard.
And the CPU is a AMD Athlon XP 2600+ Thoroughbred 333MHz FSB Socket A Processor Model AXDA2600DKV3D.

Current PC parts that I want to carry over:
Case: CHEF|AX-01SLD SPX2 U2F SL 450W
Memory: Crucial Technology 512MB 184-Pin DDR SDRAM DDR 266 (PC 2100) System Memory Model CT6464Z265 - OEM (I have 3 of these)
1 Hard Drives: HD 60GB|SEAGATE ST360021A 7200%
2 Hard Drives: HITACHI Deskstar 180GXP IC35L180AVV207 - 07N9216 180 GB 7200 RPM IDE Ultra ATA100 Hard Drive
Video Card: ATI 100-435508 Radeon X800XL 256MB GDDR3 AGP 4X/8X
DVD Drive: NEC DVD Burner Beige IDE/ATAPI Model ND-3520A BG
Power Supply: Antec TruePower 2.0 TP2-550 EPS12V ATX12V 550W
Ethernet Card: Linksys Gigabit Network Adapter Model EG1032
Sound Card: Creative Sound Blaster Audigy SE

I can list the fans I have to if anyone asks. Right now I have one in the front of the case, two at the back, and the CPU fan.

There's other stuff also -- the monitor, modem, router, mouse, keyboard, the USB card....but none of that should matter.Holding in the hope that someone here can give me some great advice like last time. Have you CONSIDERED just replacing the motherboard? With that processor and the amount of memory you have, you would still have a sytem that's quite capable of doing many tasks.

If you got the same model motherboard, you would avoid the need to format your hard drive and reinstall Windows, since the same device drivers would work. And, you would spend the least amount of money. ebay is one option: EPoX EP-8RDA. Or, you could get a new Socket A motherboard of a different brand; in this case, you should expect to format and reinstall for best results. I'd suggest you try to verify whether your current memory will work before making a selection.And should you decide to keep the CPU and replace just the MBoard there is a way to bypass re-installing XP and losing all your data...we can walk you thru it if this is the route you choose.

patio. 8-)Although with a new motherboard I would personally ALWAYS reinstall Windows without a second thought. Too many "gotchas". Surprisingly it can be quicker as well than trying to remedy all of the annoying things that will come up.Thanks for the responses, guys.

Yes, I do have my heart set on upgrading the CPU as well. Right now it runs at 2.1 Ghz. Some games I want to play suggest faster then that, and if I'm going to go through the hassle and EXPENSE of ripping everything out of my current case and rebuilding it, I want the new CPU. Speed is the one bottleneck my system has, and I want to improve that.

So, any suggestions?Well, if you replace your motherboard, processor, and probably the memory also, you should be able to use everything else you already have except perhaps the video card. Quite likely, a new motherboard will not have AGP, so you'll either have to buy a PCI Express video card or use onboard video if the motherboard has it; onboard video is not a good choice for a gaming machine. That would unfortunate, since your current video card is not very old. So, you may want to see whether you can get a motherboard with an AGP slot.Yeah, considering I spent $300 on this video card just six months ago, I'm not eager to lose it's services.

Okay, look for a motherboard with a AGP slot. Check. Would like to find one with PCI Express support if possible, although not sure if such a beast exists. Have'nt had time due to work this week to check online yet.

How could I tell if this memory would work? Again, I spent quite a bit of money on it and it would be pricey to need to replace all of it as well.Actually, some motherboards have both AGP and PCI Express. So, that's probably what you'll want to get. For example: ASRock 939Dual-SATA2 Socket 939 ULi M1695 ATX AMD Motherboard - Retail. As far as memory, perhaps you could email the motherboard manufacturer and ask whether your memory would work in a board that's rated for, say, PC3200. I'm not sure but I believe this will work in some cases; the memory speed will, of course, be limited to the slower memory you're using. You might also visit crucial.com and use their memory selector to see what they show for a particular motherboard; I know they will sometimes show more than one speed of memory as being compatible with a motherboard. I would first try to get the info from the motherboard maker.