Recycling an old ATX case. Advice?

Post #208,949 by dws 5/28/05 4:45:48 PM Reply	Recycling an old ATX case. Advice? I've got an old (1999ish) ATX PC that I want to upgrade to use as a Linux server. It has a good case, a quiet 200W power supply, and CD-Rom, but everything else can go. If I go with AMD but stay back a generation on processors (bleeding edge isn't necessary), what's a decent all-in-one (or nearly all-in-one) mobo? And am I going to have to upgrade the power supply? The last time I priced out parts, it seemed cheaper to just drop the box into a lake and buy a new one, but rebuilding seems like the right thing to do for some odd reason.
Post #208,952 by Another Scott 5/28/05 6:48:15 PM Reply	I think your inclination is correct. I've been partial to ASUS motherboards recently. I've used Tyan and Abit in the past without much trouble, but each has had some issues. Note these are samples of 1 each and of different generations, so YMMV. Also note that I've never overclocked a machine. Greg was partial to Gigabyte at one time. Check the [link\|http://z.iwethey.org/forums/render/board/search?boardid=1\|Site Search] for some of the things we've played with. Browse around [link\|http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.asp?Submit=GO&Range=1&bop=and&description=asus+athlon&InnerCata=22\|here] at newegg. Note that sometimes VIA chipsets have issues (or at least used to). You'll have to do a little digging to understand the +/- of each board. I see 3 boards with integrated video: $51.50 for an AthlonXP/Duron board; $70 for an Athlon64/Sempron board; $81 for an AthlonXP/NVidia board. I'd go with an Athlon64/Sempron chip myself (newegg's cheapest Sempron is only $20 more than their cheapest Athlon). My approach to PCs is generally to pick a budget first and then decide on the parts. Unless $50-$100 is a deal-breaker, I would get a new case. You'll have easier access to new ports on the board (especially USB2 ports), and you won't have to worry about the power supply being marginal. A good power supply is very important on a new system - if the new box is flakey you need confidence that the power is OK to do troubleshooting. I'm partial to [link\|http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.asp?submit=PROPERTY&SubCategory=7&manufactory=1516&bop=and&InnerManu=1516\|Antec] cases myself. A while ago some people were advocating the use of the [link\|http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.asp?Submit=GO&Range=1&bop=and&description=mobile+athlon&InnerCata=343\|Mobile Athlon processors] on desktops because they were more flexible in various ways. Those chips would consume less power then their desktop variants, but I don't know if they'd be happy on a 200 W PS. Check [link\|http://www.amd.com/us-en/assets/content_type/white_papers_and_tech_docs/26003.pdf\|this] .PDF from AMD (24 pages) for info to calculate what you need. My guess is that 200 W is going to be cutting it very close. The time doing the figuring may be worth the $50 or so that a new case + PS may cost. Do you have a friend who needs a PC? It can be cheaper to buy a pre-assembled box, but you usually end up with better parts if you do it yourself. I've had good luck with refurbished Presarios from HP/Compaq. HTH a bit. Luck! Cheers, Scott.
Post #208,954 by folkert 5/28/05 7:20:11 PM Reply	Add to that... Variable Speed, thermally controlled Fans in everything. I now do that, on everything. I change out ALL fans in power supplies and I do 80mm fans for the cooling fans now, plus I cut out all metal screens/guard and replace with the wire-guards for out-flow and add a "dust filter" to the inflow fans. Basically the screen is a coated screens (usually plastic over screen) and then you wash it in heavy soapy water and do not rinse it. Stays sticky. Trapping dust. Cleans easy. One last thing, add as many fans as you can. If you have a ton, then they all are quiet and do a bit pof cooling each rather than one Tornado. Gigabyte boards, as well as Soyo. I am using the mainly those boards now, the Dragon series has been pretty good for most everything. Ihave had everything from Thunderbirds to Durons to AthlonXP in them... very good performers. The only thing I can say bad about the Gigabyte boards, is that the last two motherboards to fry on me were Gigabyte boards. GA-7VRXP was in knight that got hit by the Power outage I had at work... but that is what is there now, and a GA-7VAXP burned up in my primary machine at home... more than likely because of of lint/dust buildup and over heating... :) Given that, I'd still buy and use Gigabyte Motherboards, but I am leaning more toward the SoyoUSA stuff, recently. Not saying that Tyan boards are bad, but I stopped using them and stopped having little idiosyncracies pop up all the time. -- [link\|mailto:greg@gregfolkert.net\|greg], [link\|http://www.iwethey.org/ed_curry\|REMEMBER ED CURRY!] @ *i_wethey* [image\|http://www.danasoft.com/vipersig.jpg\|\|\|\|]
Post #208,983 by dws 5/29/05 1:17:35 PM Reply	Cool. Thanks both. That's the info I was looking for. And yeah, the dollar cost of the time spent figuring out how to go from here may be a net loss, but it's a fun net loss. As it happens, the parts for this old box came mostly from newegg when they were new on the scene. It is (was) an Celeron 300 OC'd to 450 (Woo Hoo!) on an ABit board, with 256Mb of RAM, an 8Mb Maxtor, and a 4Mb video card. (Plus a second 8Mb Maxtor to dual-boot some now ancient RedHat.) Decent for it's day, but I found the receipt for the parts and had a good laugh/cry comparing it to what you can do for a quarter of the money now. The bucks I shelled out then may explain the attachment I have to the box now. It's also the device in the house that has a floppy drive.

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