HELOOOOOO FUTURE PERSON!!!
The Big Buck Hunter Pro series is a pretty popular machine to sell off now, but unfortunately the computer inside (described as the "microtel" computer) is pretty trashy. it comes in an unbranded square black or white case. It suffers from bad caps and often will straight up die if you don't change them out...or die shortly after.
Should you end up with a dead/dying BBHP, BBHOS, BBW (and some BBsafari)... and the mainboard dies, you can replace it with some other more available and more reliable parts...
the original red 6100 and later green 6100 boards are both terrible and prone to failure. They can be changed with
10099.999% compatibility, provided you run the latest version of the OS.
M2N-MX SE+
M2N86-AM-SE2
M68S+
M2N68-AM
M2N68-AM+
K9N6PGM2-V2
EDITED TO ADD:
N68-GS4/USB3_FX R2.0
N68-GS FX
TForce 6100 AM2
other boards might be compatible too as well, but I have tested and verified these in particular. Lots of these models are available on ebay with ram and CPU's ready to go for often under 100 bucks.
I've found that more or less if the northbridge is either a nVidia 6100 or 7025 series
AND
the sound chip is a Realtek ALC662 or ALC665 chip
It will work with the software without any farting around.
should you end up having to replace a safari computer (most where Dell computers.) you can replace those with either...
CN-0YP696
CN-0HX340
both are nearly identical to the original board but with additional internal ports. (sata etc)
EDIT: Aug 2018
the latest versions of the software are as follows...
Big Buck Hunter Pro - 1.25
Big Buck Hunter Open Season - 1.50.05
Big Buck Hunter Safari - 1.02.22
Big Buck Hunter World - 1.17
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!PLEASE NOTE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
If you have replaced the motherboard with the "M2N-MX SE+" motherboard with the nvidia 7025 chipset, ... the computer WILL NOT BOOT the BIG BUCK PRO v1.25 and earlier or the BIG BUCK HUNTER OPEN SEASON v1.50.00 and earlier installation CDs... but DOES run the BBH software just fine.
You can install the harddrive in another computer, boot and install the software off the CD, then install the drive BACK into the M2N-MX SE+ computer. this is an issue with a BIOS component and a configuration in the boot CD that conflict. This could be remedied with a BIOS update or a modified OS install CD. The motherboard manufacturer has not released an updated BIOS for this motherboard to make it compatible with the boot disk, but the install outlined above works. I believe modifying the CD boot itself to eliminate looking for the offending component is possible, but i'm not a linux person.
the newest open season (1.50.05) and big buck world (1.17) boot just fine. I have not tested on safari, as we have since sold off our safari machines.
you may run into this issue with some of the other boards i listed above as replacements... if you run into an issue like this with another model, please post an update.
EDIT OCT 2023 to add more boards