Mobo Recommendation for Pentium D?

[phykell]

I've got a PC here which needs a new mobo (I think).

It's running a Pentium D (the 3.2GHz I think) and has 2x 2GB DDR2 sticks of RAM and a PCI-Express video card.

The current mobo is a P5ND2-SLI which has a few must-haves such as Gigabit LAN, RAID, etc.

I'm at a loss with regards to latest chipsets and so on so can anyone suggest a cheap replacement mobo?

Thanks :)

[divine]

If it's a Socket 775, virtually any Gigabyte, Asus, DFI or whatever motherboard with the features you require should work.

Gigabyte do a good P31 chipset board (iP31 DS3L if I remember correctly) that will probably support a P4D and the other gubbins.

That one you have atm was a seriously priced board (i think £100 plus) new though, so you'll probably have to take a feature cut somewhere or other with a replacement.

Just be aware you might have a bit of hassle sorting windows out if you replace the motherboard, especially if you move to a different chipset / brand.

[phykell]

thanks, it's a friend's PC. Weird thing is that if you leave it plugged in for long enough, the mobo will boot and then runs fine for a while until it then spontaneously shuts off. The green LED on the mobo itself lights up just fine.

He will have to take a feature hit but he's only using it for music stuff now rather than a games machine which was its previous purpose.

As for Windows - the machine has a new hard drive now anyway.

I'll take a look at that Gigabyte board :thumbsup:

[divine]

It's the recommended budget board in Custom PC at the moment (and has been for a while), with Gigabyte having been given their 'motherboard manufacturer of 2008' award

GA-P31-DS3L

Should be around £45

Just personal opinion, but the behaviour you describe sounds more like a dodgy PSU to me, so might be worth looking into that too, especially if it's a cheapy no brand one that came with a prebuild or something.

[Mark]

Or a ****ed capacitor on the motherboard. I had several go on a motherboard in the '****ed up electrolyte' era and the symptoms as a result were similar. I also had a capacitor explode in a PSU, which also did the same a few times before it let go spectacularly.

One of my more recent systems was also doing that earlier this year and I never tracked down the cause. Built a new system and yanked some components from the old one. Of those, the hard disk didn't appreciate that and promptly died. Nine months later that same old system has been powered on and shown no sign of the fault. Whether it'll come back, I don't know.

Anyway, as a result, I'm a big fan of Gigabyte DS series motherboards. I have two now and they've both behaved immaculately so far (touch wood).

[Stan_Lite]

I'm a big fan of Gigabyte boards at the moment too. I have several and I'm perfectly happy with them.

I agree with divine - it could be the PSU. If you can lay your hands on a spare PSU to try it before buying a mobo, it would be a good idea to try it out.

[phykell]

Thing is, when I remove the PSU and ground the power switch connection, the PSU works fine. The 12V and 5V lines are fine and the fan spins. It's as though the mobo isn't holding the power on. As you'll probably know, the power switch on a PC is a push to make type so it doesn't hold the power on. The power is held on by the mobo once it detects the switch making contact so if that's not working I think it's the mobo itself that's the issue.

The machine had been plugged into the power socket for hours yesterday. I tried the power switch just out of interest and it worked! I powered it down, disconected the supply, reconnected and tried again - nothing. It's definitely the mobo not holding the power on for some reason.

[divine]

Fair enough, was just suggesting it as something to look at, which it seems you already have :p

You'd have loved me long time if you'd then thought to check the PSU and it was that and I saved you £45 on a pointless motherboard :D

[phykell]

:D

For it to work fine when it does decide to power up means it's probably something relatively simple like a discrete component on the mobo :(

I was an electronics engineer in a previous life - I'd love some time to play about with such stuff again.

I've recommended that Gigabyte board to him. Apparently it's not in stock at Scan or Micro Direct though :(

[divine]

eBuyer have 71 of them :p

[phykell]

Going for this as it's local:

http://www.microdirect.co.uk/(26676)Gigabyte-motherboard-GA73PVMS2H-GeForce-7100.aspx

It's similar but a bit more modern plus it has onboard GFX (fine for music apps)in case he decides to whip out the GFX card to put it in something else.

Be nice going back to Gigabyte - I always used to go for them, don't know why I stopped using/recommending them really.

[divine]

nVidia chipset *spits on floor*

These latest Intel socket nVidia chipsets (ie. nForce 630i like that one is) aren't very good. The only people you'll find buying them are people who want SLi instead of Crossfire for their graphics as until now with the X58 chipset, nVidia wouldn't license the tech out to other people.

I'd stick with Intel chipsets if it were me.

[phykell]

Hmm, good point. I'd prefer an Intel for me thinking about it. Let me have another look- this is worse than buying a telly! :D

[phykell]

Too late to do anything about the Intel board as he'd already bought it. There wasn't much choice TBH but I fitted the mobo last night and it all worked just fine. It's definitely the mobo that was at fault then :S

I've taken the heatsinks off the old one it but it's just so much junk now.

The PC runs perfectly now :)