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Mobo choice

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Fellow TRs,

I built a box five years ago that gave me great service. Unfortunately, I now live in a place that has pre-World War II power service and my mobo took one too many power sags. The only thing that took the hit was my AGP slot, but that was enough.

My board was a Microstar MS-6191. It is a MicroATX board, 3 PCI slots, 8X AGP, 2 SDRAM slots up to 512 MB, onboard sound. It was a Slot A, yes, try not to laugh too hard, 900 MHz Athlon.

I tried to Google this board and came up with one hit, and for some reason it will only support up to 700 MHz. I've never Googled anything with less than a thousand hits, so I don't think I'm going to be getting another one of these boards.

If no one knows where I can find one of these boards, could you please recommend a decent microATX board w/Athlon I could put back into my case? I'd need at least 3 PCI slots and 512+ SDRAM (2 SIMM/2 DIMM is fine). CPUs go from Socket370 to Socket A. When I was making 586s, I don't remember there being 80 mobo manufacturers....

I don't need anything intensive. I run MS Office, play a game or two (if I ever get time), and am looking to go wireless in the near future. I'd like to keep the costs under $150 for a mobo/CPU bundle.

Any recommendations would be highly appreciated. Thanks people.

13 replies

by cp7212

Yeah, I tried Ebay. All they had were refurbs. I put in all of my personal info, then they asked for my cc number, even though I wasn't purchasing anything at the time. I emailed them, asking them why I had to put cc # in and the reply said basically, that's the way it is.

Then, to boot, they would keep your cc info on their server. I wouldn't give them my cc info. I'd rather find a different motherboard. Then as a bonus, after trying to remove my personal info, I got spammed later. Thanks anyway.

Ebay = caveat emptor

by dmiles

Try the computer geeks web site,they may have something ,if not you should craigs list in your area

by cp7212

My original post said I live in an area with crappy power service. I wish I lived even near one of the areas on craig's list. Points for trying.

by cp7212

dmiles, craigs list? I'm not familiar with that...could you please elaborate or post a link? Thanks.

by thechas

A couple of your specs don't make sense.

I don't recall ever seeing a Slot A motherboard with 4X AGP let alone 8X.

The slot A motherboards that supported the "Thunderbird" slot A CPUs was VERY limited.
If you find a board with the full AMD chip-set and not the VIA or a combination, you will have the best chance of supporting your 900MHz CPU.

You are not likely to find anything other than a used or refurb slot A board.
I don't think any have been made since 2001.

As far as starting over, my list of motherboard manufactures that I trust includes:

Asus, ABit, Epox, Shuttle and Intel.

I avoid PC Chips, Jetway, and many others.

If you want to look at reviews and comparisons, check out:

www.tomshardware.com

www.motherboards.org

I've had pretty good luck with refurbished motherboards from www.newegg.com

Chas

by cp7212

Chas,
There were settings in the bios for 2X, 4X, and 8X AGP. Maybe it was just crap, but I figured if it was in the bios, it wouldn't hurt to set it. I was wondering why I couldn't find any of these boards to support 900 MHz. Nonetheless, thanks for the recommendations.

by cp7212

I will probably wind up going with the new board, but I did check into PCI cards.

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