Micro ATX MoBo with P4 processor

[Skywave]

Wanted to buy: One Micro ATX MoBo, complete with Pentium 4 processor.

Essential requirements.
1. Fully functional with fitted Pentium 4 processor.
2. Two IDE connectors.
3. Floppy disk connector.
4. Minimum of two PCI slots.
5. Capacity for 2 GB RAM minimum (DDR or DDR2).
6. On-board audio.
7. On-board video / VGA / SVGA (15-pin D-type socket).
8. Minimum of two USB ports (ideally USB 2.0)
9. LPT / parallel port.
10. PS2 mouse port.
11. PS2 keyboard port.

'Nice to have' extras.
1. On-board LAN / Ethernet @ 100 Mb/s
2. SATA connectors.
3. Extra USB ports.
4. AGP video slot.
5. Fan for the uP.
6. One or two more PCI slots.

Preferred manufacturers.
Well-known names - e.g. Intel, HP - for which drivers are readily available for Windows XP and have a reputation for producing reliable, quality products with good after-sales technical support.

► Now I realise that all of that sounds a lot and is very specific, but:
(a) I do believe it encompasses a wide range of commonly-available motherboards;
(b) It should eliminate / reduce the possibility of anyone offering to sell me something which significantly won't meet my needs.

And finally . . .
There are certain members here who are far more knowledgeable than I am on PC MoBo specs., so if any of my 'essentials' are unrealistic (or even downright silly ), I'd appreciate 'the word': thanks.

Al. / July 26, 2015.//

[dom10161]

Hi Skywave, I have got a motherboard which may fulfil your requirements. It is an Intel D101GGC with a P4 3Gig Proccessor and 1GB DDR Memory, Information and drivers are available on Intel's Website, See following link http://www.intel.com/p/en_US/support...boards/d101ggc

Yours for the cost of the postage

I have also attached a couple of photos

[Paul Stenning]

I was offering one of those (with 3GHz CPU) for free, plus a couple of complete P4 PCs (HP and Dell) for £10 each a few weeks ago, all fully working, but there was no interest. It all went for WEEE recycling.

I'm sure there are loads out there, on their way to WEEE if not rescued. I disposed of a load of similar spec PCs about 15 months ago (to a PC recycling charity) for a client moving away from Windows XP when it reached end of support.

You shouldn't need to spend much money as there will be loads around and few people wanting them.

Faulty capacitors are likely to be an issue on motherboards of that era, so you may need to replace a few for stability.

[Jonster]

Personally I really wouldn't bother with PC components of this age and spec any more, there are so many much better spec machines available for very little money (on auction sites and many other sources) with legitimate installations and COA of newer, fully supported operating systems like Windows 7, you would have to be a real masochist to want to build up a machine of that spec with XP from scratch, only for it to be running an unsupported operating system.

[Paul Stenning]

I completely agree, which is why I was getting rid of everything too old for Windows 7, which was basically everything before dual core CPUs, DDR2 RAM and SATA drives.

Older stuff is fine as collectables, but not as day-to-day PCs on the Internet.

[SiriusHardware]

Motherboards of this era are still just about useful for running Linux on, if they have a reasonably high end processor from the same period.

I have been reluctant to upgrade the motherboard in my main Linux box (fitted with a 1.6Ghz Duron) because the motherboard is from the 'crossover' period where they still had a mixture of PCI and PCI-e slots, and where they still had both IDE and SATA drive connectors, AND a connector for a 3.5" floppy which is important if, like me, you still have boxes of floppies you might want to read. Oh, and IEE1394 (Firewire) because I'm still using an old camcorder with Firewire, not USB connectivity.

Like the O/P, I could do with something with similar specs fitted with a processor which was the fastest thing money could buy about 5-7 years ago to replace the now fairly ancient thing I'm using. (Note I'm not hijacking the OP's thread - just stating that there is a niche desire / demand still for hardware of a certain age, contrary to expectations).

Paul, you were (as I recall) giving all of that stuff away as an all or nothing bundle which people were understandably reluctant to take as a job lot - if you then offered the PCs separately I missed it, but in any case, the distance between us would have made it impractical for me to ask for it. That doesn't mean I wouldn't have been interested in the actual hardware, it was just in the wrong place.

[Paul Stenning]

Originally Posted by SiriusHardware

Paul, you were (as I recall) giving all of that stuff away as an all or nothing bundle which people were understandably reluctant to take as a job lot - if you then offered the PCs separately I missed it, but in any case, the distance between us would have made it impractical for me to ask for it. That doesn't mean I wouldn't have been interested in the actual hardware, it was just in the wrong place.

I offered the PCs separately after a few days but there was still no interest. It's not as though I was offering anything rare though.

[Skywave]

To dom10161: ref. post #2 - you have a P.M.

Al.

[Skywave]

Originally Posted by Paul Stenning

I was offering one of those (with 3GHz CPU) for free . . . . but there was no interest.

Which was a very generous offer indeed. However at that time the need, to which this thread relates, had not then arisen.

Al.

[Skywave]

Originally Posted by Jonster

Personally, I really wouldn't bother with PC components of this age and spec any more . . . etc.

I'm tempted to agree. However, my humble needs for computing will be more than adequately met by the vintage of the hardware I am asking for and the software that that H/W will run on will similarly be quite adequate. Also, I have zero knowledge of any OS more recent than Windows XP and very little experience of more recent H/W, too. I've only recently 'upgraded' to XP from Windows 2000, and that was because various on-line sites that I regularly access were clearly not working right here. I suspected that my 'ancient' OS was the culprit - and having installed XP, yes, those problems promptly vanished.

Originally Posted by Jonster

There are so many much better spec machines available for very little money (on auction sites and many other sources)

Really? That is in total contradiction to my investigations. Although I suppose that our disagreement does hinge on one's definition of "very little money".

Al.

[Skywave]

Originally Posted by Paul Stenning

Older stuff is fine as collectables, but not as day-to-day PCs on the Internet.

Paul - I know that you - and a few others here - have vastly more knowledge and experience with more modern OSs and H/W than that to which I refer in this thread. So I'd appreciate a few brief remarks from you - and / or anyone else, come to that - to educate me accordingly. After all, one of the reasons I am a member of this very forum is not only to contribute - but also to learn from it.

Thank you.

Al.

[SiriusHardware]

Originally Posted by Paul Stenning

I offered the PCs separately after a few days but there was still no interest. It's not as though I was offering anything rare though.

Indeed, I was only pointing out that, as Skywave's original very specific request shows, there is still actually interest in hardware of this age: Therefore, I would ask anyone considering disposing of originally 'high end' 4-7 year old PC hardware not to assume, automatically, that nobody wants it.

[Paul Stenning]

Search for "pentium 4" in the Desktop PCs section on eBay (UK only) gives over 4,600 listings with prices starting at £5. "core 2 duo" in the same section with the same criteria gives over 2,000 listings, and "core 2 quad" an amazing 76,000 listings. Even if 95% of them are junk or parts in the wrong section etc, there is still no shortage of this stuff.

If you don't want eBay and want something with a warranty, I can recommend Jamie's Computers, the computer recycling division of a homeless charity in Southampton. www.jamies.org.uk

[paulsherwin]

You also often find them on Freecycle/Freegle if your local list is quite active.

Anything from a late P4 onwards is perfectly capable of doing undemanding stuff like web browsing, email or word processing so long as there is 1GB or more of memory fitted. An early Core processor is a better bet than a P4 though, as the latter use a lot of power when busy and run very hot.

[simonjp]

I was selling on Gumtree without interest my Fujitsu Scaleo P 3Ghz Dual threading PC.. It comes with DVD writer, 190GB HDD, twin VGA card fitted and 2GB Ram. Probably a wee bit more than you wanted. The ad expired and it was £39 if you were interested.

[cheerfulcharlie]

You can stll buy a new mtx socket 775 (G4 processor etc) mbs but they are not going to be around forever, hence they are getting pricey

http://www.novatech.co.uk/products/c...m-vs3r2.0.html

The chips are very cheap now for these on Ebay and DDR3 memory also tends to be very cheap compared with the old DDR2 .
It does not appear to have a floppy connector but there plenty of floppy to usb portable drives around.

[simonjp]

I forgot to add, it also has a FDD. 3.5"

[Skywave]

Originally Posted by paulsherwin

You also often find them on Freecycle/Freegle if your local list is quite active.

Yup: tried that. Activity here is surprisingly high, but of the 'unwanted PC' front: nil.

Originally Posted by paulsherwin

Anything from a late P4 onwards is perfectly capable of doing undemanding stuff like web browsing, email or word processing so long as there is 1GB or more of memory fitted.

Which - more or less - is what the PCs here get used for. All have 2 GB of memory.

Originally Posted by paulsherwin

An early Core processor is a better bet than a P4 though, as the latter use a lot of power when busy and run very hot.

That I did not know: thank you. And considering that there is always a stack of electrolytics very close to the processor . . . .

Al.

[Skywave]

Paul: ref. your post #13.

Thank you for your research. Entering 'Pentium 4' produces processors only, complete PCs and a range of MoBos: it was only MoBos that I was interested in. Entering 'Pentium 4 MoBo' produced 371 hits. When that was amended to 'Pentium 4 Intel MoBo', that figure dropped to 226, but some of those were without RAM and some were without a processor, but many were not Intel MoBos as such. Indeed, I saw at least one Foxconn and several Dells, neither of which I would remotely entertain, having had a great deal of trouble with both of those makes. None of those searches were restricted to U.K. only.

The very last thing I want is to get into a silly numbers game with you over this, so let me simply state that I appreciate your efforts on my behalf and that a member of this forum has said he will send me a suitable MoBo at a very attractive price. When that arrives - and is proven to be 'good' (and I have every confidence that it will be) - then I will report back here accordingly. At that time, it will probably be appropriate to close this thread.

In the meantime, all said for now.

Al. / Skywave.