I need some suggestions <_<

Hey all. I need a little aid in looking for some cheapy parts i can use to build a second box on the fly. I need somthing that is powerful enough to access the internet, play dvd quality divx, light games and fast enough to do some light graphics with if i can.

for reasons i dont want to explain, my primary pc is inopperable and i need a replacement to tide me over untill i can afford to repalce several parts. my next pc will be a SFF pc probably based loosly on a SF45G shuttle box. I want a 9800xt in that thing and a few other mods of my own. but that is a ways off, since the 9800 xt i want is still $600.


In the mean time, I need a cheap *** get me through machine.

I have: 80 gb seagate hard drive, 256 mb pc 2700 micron ddr, my monitor, Antec super lanboy case, antec 380 watt psu.

These parts are definate. I still need a mobo, new cpu, video, and a lan card.

Since this pc is not going to be used for heavy gaming, i have decided to look at Integrated motherboard sollutions. Not only are they cheaper than standard atx motherboards, they have, for the most part, adequate video performence for windows use and some light 3d, such as ragnarok online.

Im trying to find a cheapy duron 700 around town. i seem to remember there was somone in the classifieds here that was going to sell me one for $25.

what motherboard would you guy suggest and where could i get it? im thinking a7n266vm. it has decent onboard stuff and is pretty cheap. the km4m MATX is also a pretty good bet, but there are a lot of people who say the video on it sucks.
I would love to get a IGP9100 platform, but havent found anyone who makes them.

heeeeeelp. of course, ill be looking at used stuff, i only have about $100 to spend.

i ran km4m and the video does suck .. integrated via chrome or whatever ... it's basically a non-gaming solution .. works fine for browsing and writing emails tho .. and folding (that's what I used the board for.

having said that tho, the board has AGP slot, so you can always upgrade later...but keep in mind that km4m has no overclocking options whatsoever, and I had to do wire trick to overclock.

I managed to get hooked up with a A7N266-VM and duron 1100 for $100 cdn. which isnt too bad. Not too sure how the onboard video is going to be, if it can compete with a TNT 2 ultra at least, ill be happy because the most 3d intensive game im going to play on this box is Ragnarok online. after all, im still not quite lv 99.

the audio is going to suck ballz, but i have an sblive platinum to use for that. the only problem it might have, is that it only has 256 mb ram.

I was tempted to pick up the ecs board. it comes with an sis chipset and a xabre 200 with 64 mb built right onto the board. that sounds like a really good integrated sollution but apparently people have had issues with the board simply not working at all.

The A7N8X-VM looks like it would be a fantastic board. nforce 2, dual ddr 400, lan. all the good stuff, and pretty much the same as the a7n8x.

the integrated geforce 4 mx 420 video is a great onboard sollution but... for some reason the board gets really bad ratings.
and again, Radeon IGP9100 was quoted as having supurb image quality. but i have seen no developers working on boards for this.

ah well. this a7n266 is great with that duron. it wil be sufficiant for my basic needs and this summer, i can **** money at the a new shuttle box with radeon xxxx.
this will make a fantastic folding machine/web server/BT hub/ media box.

its too bad that km4m sucks so bad though. its a really nice looking board. you would tink it would have oc features. my kt400 ultra did. that board actully oc'd really damn well considering... its too bad agp 8x was broken on it.

that's a great deal you got for the pair .. that 1100 duron can easily run 1600mhz with adequate cooling .. and the geforce igp is always better than via chrome

At one point i knew exactly what that board had too. i wanted to get one or two for farming/media/server box or a rendering farm when i was more interested in 3d work. I actully didnt know which chipset that nvidia integrated 64 bit graphics was just now ^^:;

Yea. i really wanted an a7n8x-vm. regardless of the reviews. if anything, those ncix people are only damning it because it wont overclock that well. which.. fair enough, but i dont want to cool a duron with a tornado... just doent seem worth it.

this is a morgan core duron 1100. im not sure how high it will OC since it is basicly a tbird with tweaks. it may run a little colder, but ill have to unlock it certainly. on the plus side, it will come in the older ceramic casing that ill be able to unlock pretty easily.

but. meh.. this machine is not meant to really oc. since all ill have is the geforce 2 onboard video, i wont be pushing it that much in games. especially untill i get more memory. 256 mb is what i have left, shared...
ahh well. for a matx and cheap system, its a good one. Im kind of drooling to think about what my shuttle will be like if i can make it work out old. that is going to be a really fun one
So much modding. and i can take it on the plane with me back to victoria.

I guess this thread was kind of needless. i knew exactly what i wanted for my cheapy box. somthing quite and fairly decent. I wanted a duron 700, its cheaper... like $10 cheap.. but cant complain. this is being traded for one stick of my memory which helped the machine in my sig oc so well. Im glad i was able to get approval though. any opinion is a good one. especially where money is concerned.