Motherboard for socket 478

My father has a dell that is dieing and I have pretty much narrowed it down to the power supply. He is hoping to be able to use the 2.53 GHz processor, RAM and drives out of his Dell in a new motherboard/PSU/case. The problem I am running into is being able to find a good motherboard. Most of the motherboards that are recommend by searches on here are impossible to find. Like the popular 865/875 chipset boards from abit and asus. Is there a good 478 motherboard that is still produced?

I assume you need mtx. I was just looking for my gateway. I found a gigabyte 865 chipset but can no longer find it. If he doesn't want to OC this board should be fine.
http://www.geeks.com/details.asp?invtid=D865GLC-WB&cat=MBB

Steve

I think you will need an ethernet card, I don't hink it has onboard lan

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.asp?N=2010200280+1070509907&Submit=ENE&SubCategory=280 A whole slew to choose from. Be advised tho some DELL parts won't run in non DELL boards.

good question that is also one that i would like to know

Nebulous said:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.asp?N=2010200280+1070509907&Submit=ENE&SubCategory=280 A whole slew to choose from. Be advised tho some DELL parts won't run in non DELL boards.

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What is considered a "Dell part"? All we will be using from the Dell is the processor, RAM, DVD drive, floppy drive and zip drive. All that stuff should be standard issue right? The only thing that is really Dell is motherboard, PSU and case. We will be replacing those 3 things.

I would rather stay away from Micro ATX. That Asus board in the link you provided is what I have been looking at but it has quite a few bad reviews about them showing up DOA.

I was faced with this same issue a couple months ago...I wanted to upgrade my old board one more time to it's full capability before I trashed it for my 775. I purchased a brand new MSI Neo2-V. After playin' with it, I felt stupid for not upgrading before obsolescence. Excellent board, full featured BIOS, and I even got an awesome deal on Amazon--brand new $50. I haven't owned a zillion boards in my life, but so far, it's been the most stable I've owned. The only down to it was 3 memory slots for a dual channel board bothers me. There is something inherently wrong with that picture. Amazon is out of stock so you'll have to Google it, but that (above) is the correct model name. Skt 478, Prescott ready, dual channel, pc3200, 800meg FSB, Intel 865PE. I'm sure cheaper can be had by now, but this has been a quality board for me so far.

you might not believe it....

Some boards can run PCIe or AGP and have both slots for the P4 478 socket. That is a rare motherboard but it let's you use the latetest video cards. I got an Asus P4GPL-X, and it built up real easy with the old P4 478 CPU and a 7900GT. I checked out 3DMark03 and it ran 18,000 3DMarks. That is respectable enough. BTW a low price Conroe rig is probaly better than my PC but I did not have to buy the new processor or waste the proc and RAM I have.

vogster said:

My father has a dell that is dieing and I have pretty much narrowed it down to the power supply. He is hoping to be able to use the 2.53 GHz processor, RAM and drives out of his Dell in a new motherboard/PSU/case. The problem I am running into is being able to find a good motherboard. Most of the motherboards that are recommend by searches on here are impossible to find. Like the popular 865/875 chipset boards from abit and asus. Is there a good 478 motherboard that is still produced?

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865 rare

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/category/category_slc.asp?CatId=182&

I used the VIA chipset in the cheapest mobo on the list in a cheapy PC. It was easy to build and all went well. It depends what you expect and do withthe PC. If it just a word processor/surfer device. You won't need a good 865/875 chipset. If you burn home movies to DVD and so forth then the pricier mobo is for you.

vogster said:

My father has a dell that is dieing and I have pretty much narrowed it down to the power supply. He is hoping to be able to use the 2.53 GHz processor, RAM and drives out of his Dell in a new motherboard/PSU/case. The problem I am running into is being able to find a good motherboard. Most of the motherboards that are recommend by searches on here are impossible to find. Like the popular 865/875 chipset boards from abit and asus. Is there a good 478 motherboard that is still produced?

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cost more money-relatively a premium board

http://forumz.tomshardware.com/hardware/ASUS-P4GPL-478-PCIE-Review-ftopict172519.html

good luck finding one...I got one from Germany in an eBay auction too---I did not write that article.

vogster said:

My father has a dell that is dieing and I have pretty much narrowed it down to the power supply. He is hoping to be able to use the 2.53 GHz processor, RAM and drives out of his Dell in a new motherboard/PSU/case. The problem I am running into is being able to find a good motherboard. Most of the motherboards that are recommend by searches on here are impossible to find. Like the popular 865/875 chipset boards from abit and asus. Is there a good 478 motherboard that is still produced?

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This is pretty much going to be a web surfer/email/pics computer. I think I am leaning more towards just upgrading all around though.

www.pcpowercooling.com has replacement Dell PSU's with more power if you need it. Better than replacing the mobo and case.