Need help choosing motherboard compatible with ArcadeVGA card.

[Wyluli]

Well, I have my pc all loaded up with games and ready to go.  The
controller works great, the games work, Mame runs good (mame32 right now vs. .89)
My system is:
> Pentium 450 mghz
> 80 gig hard drive
> 192 megs of RAM
> Windows 98SE

Well, it appears the Arcade VGA card may not be compatible with the agp slot in my motherboard (per Andy) so I guess I need to buy a new motherboard, processor, Ram.  I'd like your help to pick something that will definately work with the Arcade VGA card.  I'd like to keep the price down and just upgrade to say a 1 GHZ machine.  Can you all recommend a motherboard, processor, and Ram from Newegg.com?
Thanks.

[Wyluli]

*bump
One last plea for ideas.

Thanks.

[Lilwolf]

It should be compatible with anything current.

decide on what type of processor your looking for and go from there.  You probably want to ask which chipset is it compatible with....  Usually makes more of a difference then the brand.   Go with a standard one and you shouldn't have any problems.... Don't go with a brand spankin new motherboard just produced... takes about 3 - 6 months to get all the bios updates to work well... but since you are looking 1ghz range... you probably wont deal with this.

btw, pick your price... Then start looking from there.  Price / performance is probably worth looking into... go down to those prices...and you can double the speed of a machine for 20 bucks or less... and get new boards that haven't been in storage for 3 years.

[Paul Olson]

Look at Fry's, you should be able to pick up a MB/CPU combo for $50-$70. For that price you should get an Athlon XP 2000 or better.  Another $70 at Newegg for 512MB of PC3200, and you are all set.

The Frys combos have lower end MBs, but they work fine.  I have 2 systems running them now and they are very stable.

Paul

[Wyluli]

How about this:  (http://www.newegg.com)

Intel Celeron(Pentium 4 based) 1.8 GHz 400MHz FSB, 128K Cache - Retail
Model# BX80532RC1800B 
Item # N82E16819112172
PRICE $57


FOXCONN "655A01-FX-6LRS" SiS655FX Chipset Motherboard for Intel Socket 478 CPU -RETAIL
Model# 655A01-FX-6LRS 
Item # N82E16813186011
PRICE $44

ASRock "P4V88 RAID" VIA PT880 Chipset Motherboard for Intel Socket 478 CPU -RETAIL
Model# P4V88 RAID 
Item # N82E16813157034
Price: $47

Which MB would you get?  Will the processor work ok with these boards?  Is Celeron good enough for emulation?

Thanks.
P.S. what is fry's?  Is that a website, or a store in the UK or something?

[Paul Olson]

Frys Electronics.  I don't know if they have them back east, they are everywhere on the west coast.  They joined with Outpost.com for their online store.  It is a seperate store, and doesn't usually have the same specials.  Sometimes they do, I bought a harddrive from outpost last month, and it was pretty much the same deal as the Frys B&M.

I would think an Athlon XP of similar speed would be a better option than the Celeron.  P4 and Athlon of the same speed would be pretty close in performance, but the athlon would be cheaper.

Paul

[RayB]

What exactly was not compatible? Was it just the AGP speed?

[ssjenkins]

Well I've just been through this with Andy . I sent the first card back as I thought I was faulty . Turned out that both my IBM NetVista and Dell Dimension 8100 were not "compatible" with the ArcadeVGA (or viceversa) . The BIOS wouldn't pass the p.o.s.t . So I went down to my local DIY PC shop and bought a :

ASRock K7S41 mother board : 33 Euros
AMD Sempron 2200+ (1.5Ghz) : 47 Euros
256M RAM: 29 Euros
ATX 300W PSU :19 Euros

and a few other bits and pieces , fan , floppy etc .... for a grand total of 164 Euros . Tested and working fine with my (replacement) ArcadeVGA card .

Sammy

[krick]

Motherboards from ABIT and ASUS are very good.
I personally own the ABIT IS7-E and IS7-E2.

[elvis]

The current ArcadeVGA batch are based on Radeon 9200 cards, and therefor are AGP4X/8X.

These certainly will not work in AGP1X boards, as the AGP port cannot output the correct voltage needed for the card (you actually risk damaging the board, your card, or both!).  I'm not 100% sure if they will work in AGP2X slots, but I doubt it.

Safest bet as mentioned is to buy a new board that definitely supports AGP4X or 8X for guaranteed compatability.

[Wyluli]

Motherboards from ABIT and ASUS are very good.
I personally own the ABIT IS7-E and IS7-E2.

[krick]

You have to make sure that the processor you choose is compatible with the motherboard you've chosen.

In the case of the Abit IS7-E2, you need a Pentium 4  (or Celeron) socket 478 processor.  A pentium III won't work.

Check the details on the AMD setup to make sure what you've selected will work.

I always buy retail (boxed) processors because they come with good heatsink/fan units.

The savings you get from buying an OEM (non-boxed) processor is usually not enough to cover the cost of a good heatsink/fan unit.

Plus, retail boxed processors usually have 3 year warranties.  Bare processors have 1 year warranties at best.

[Wyluli]

Ok, I'm really trying here I swear.

[DaveJ-UK]

Surely any AGP 4x video card should be compatible with any AGP 4x compatible mobo? (ArcadeVGA is AGP 4x isn't it?)