if i get that board off ebay, what else will i need ? i presume i can fit it to my existing tower, will i be able to use my radeon graphics card on that motherboard? i dont do pc games, just youtube so graphics card doesnt need to be great, enough for watching online clips
i presume i can connect up dvd drive and cd burner to motherboard too ?
You can probably fit it into your existing case, as long as it has mounting holes for an mATX motherboard (most of them do).
Your existing graphics card is likely to be an AGP one, so incompatible with the PCI-e (x16) graphics card slot on that board. It does have inbuilt graphics (VGA socket) so you could at least use it until you got hold of a PCI-e graphics card.
Be aware that board only has the one IDE socket, so you are limited to two IDE devices, unless you want to start messing around with SATA/IDE adaptors.
So if you've got a SATA hard drive then you will still be able to connect your two IDE optical drives to the board.
But if you definitely want to keep your IDE hard drive for whatever reason, then you'd either have to ditch one of the IDE optical drives or (recommended) shell out £15 for a SATA DVD/RW drive.
You can probably fit it into your existing case, as long as it has mounting holes for an mATX motherboard (most of them do).
Your existing graphics card is likely to be an AGP one, so incompatible with the PCI-e (x16) graphics card slot on that board. It does have inbuilt graphics (VGA socket) so you could at least use it until you got hold of a PCI-e graphics card.
Be aware that board only has the one IDE socket, so you are limited to two IDE devices, unless you want to start messing around with SATA/IDE adaptors.
So if you've got a SATA hard drive then you will still be able to connect your two IDE optical drives to the board.
But if you definitely want to keep your IDE hard drive for whatever reason, then you'd either have to ditch one of the IDE optical drives or (recommended) shell out £15 for a SATA DVD/RW drive.
how can i tell whether my hard drive is sata ?
ive got 2 drives, a dvd player and a cd/dvd burner drive, will i be able to connect them up to that motherboard ?
ive also got windows xp home, old i know, will i be able to install that for the motherboard ?
how can i tell whether my hard drive is sata ?
ive got 2 drives, a dvd player and a cd/dvd burner drive, will i be able to connect them up to that motherboard ?
ive also got windows xp home, old i know, will i be able to install that for the motherboard ?
Well you'll have to open up the case and look at the connectors. A SATA data cable is much thinner than a ribbon IDE cable. Your current motherboard has two SATA sockets, so with a bit of luck, either your hard drive or optical drives may be SATA.
I'd be willing to bet they are all IDE though, in a computer of that age.
You could alternatively look in the BIOS screens. It usually tells you in there what is connected to each connector.
And yes Windows XP will install OK, although if you want to put it on a SATA drive, some faffing about with SATA drivers may be required.
Comments
You can probably fit it into your existing case, as long as it has mounting holes for an mATX motherboard (most of them do).
Your existing graphics card is likely to be an AGP one, so incompatible with the PCI-e (x16) graphics card slot on that board. It does have inbuilt graphics (VGA socket) so you could at least use it until you got hold of a PCI-e graphics card.
Be aware that board only has the one IDE socket, so you are limited to two IDE devices, unless you want to start messing around with SATA/IDE adaptors.
So if you've got a SATA hard drive then you will still be able to connect your two IDE optical drives to the board.
But if you definitely want to keep your IDE hard drive for whatever reason, then you'd either have to ditch one of the IDE optical drives or (recommended) shell out £15 for a SATA DVD/RW drive.
http://www.gigabyte.com/products/product-page.aspx?pid=2557#sp
how can i tell whether my hard drive is sata ?
ive got 2 drives, a dvd player and a cd/dvd burner drive, will i be able to connect them up to that motherboard ?
ive also got windows xp home, old i know, will i be able to install that for the motherboard ?
Well you'll have to open up the case and look at the connectors. A SATA data cable is much thinner than a ribbon IDE cable. Your current motherboard has two SATA sockets, so with a bit of luck, either your hard drive or optical drives may be SATA.
I'd be willing to bet they are all IDE though, in a computer of that age.
You could alternatively look in the BIOS screens. It usually tells you in there what is connected to each connector.
And yes Windows XP will install OK, although if you want to put it on a SATA drive, some faffing about with SATA drivers may be required.