I retired my old Gateway PII400 computer a year or so ago when the monitor went south.I had acquired the Toshiba lappy so just used that. I bought a nice 17" flat screen monitor at the Humane Society Thrift store for $10.00.I want to resurect the old Gateway.It works great BUT is just to light in the processor department.So......I'm looking for a MoBo that has the following criteria:Btw It will have only one function,assemble songs in RB to be used for my show.
1. Built in Video
2. EIDE
3. ATX Form Factor
4. Includes the processor that will run BIAB/RB. My PIV 3.0 works fine in the lappy so should be evn better in the desktop.
5. Includes RAM
6. PCI slots
I just need help wading through all the stuff out there. Some of the details are scketchy as well and I've never built a computer.
Thanks guys/gals
BTW I'm going to use Win2000 Pro as I have the OS on CD.

I sent a MOBO to somebody here on the forums who then decided to build a new one instead of re-use his old box. If he still has it he should be able to ship it very cheap as you two aren't that far apart.

Thanks Bob. I emailed him.I can even go get it.He's that close.

If you are looking to rebuild the Gateway, you MAY need to go to Gateway. I worked in one of the service centers before they closed them and many of their models have quite proprietary hardware. If you are looking to build from scratch, you may want to do some math and add up what you will pay for parts and see if it is worth it. I used to take custom building to levels of absolute snobbery ("I will NEVER buy a computer in a store!") until the prices came down like they have in the last few years. I still have friends who are "building snobs" but they build for gaming and need the latest greatest video card (one bought a video card and sound card that cost more than my last computer) and if you are looking to dedicate one to Real Band you don't need the really high end stuff since most of this runs on USB, and USB by any other name would still look so rectangular...(apologies to The Bard).

The one I run RB on is a home build but only because I had the case and power supply and drives, etc.... I bought a MOBO and RAM, cloned the hard drive onto a 10,000 RPM drive using Drive Image, and hit the ground running. And THOSE changes only happened when I was trying to climb My MOTU. There was nothing wrong with the old MOBO other than I wanted 5v USB slots, which turned out to not be my answer anyway (It was the age of that PCI card.) so when it was all said and done I upgraded for essentially no reason.

John,
It's almost cheaper to buy totally new.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.892403 $150

Memory
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820148419 $25

Two hard drives
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136769 $150

Power supply, since you'll need a new 24 pin PSU
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817153023 $35

Use the case you have, and you're into a new computer for less than $400. You can actually buy a new desktop for less if you go to WalMart or something. The only thing is this doesn't have an OS, and even though you have Windows 2000, I would highly recommend getting Windows 7 Home Premium to take advantage of the 64 bit nature of the CPU. That's another $100. You may also need to buy a DVD burner, which is another $20, since the mainboard doesn't support IDE drives.

Gary

Yea but I get RHARV's old board for free & 2G of RAM for $32.00.I don't need or want to spend the money on a high end machine.I don't do recording with lots of effects in RealTime etc.I just build songs in RB for my live show.My Toshiba laptop works great for this. I've done over 200 songs with it, but now that I have 2 complete show setups, one big & one small it'd just be more convenient to have another machine at desk level(physical height) to build songs on.

John,
If you're getting Bob's old board, then that's great. My only concern is 'old time' parts. My sister needed a new computer, and I was going to fix her up with something very similar to what I listed for you, except one hard drive, and it needed a case. About the same price. Ended up taking an older PIV from work that we weren't using instead, and put a new hard drive in it, and got it running for her. But, I have two more of her old computers here that i'm going to try to get running again, just so she'll have a back up. As things move forward, at some point you have to drop what you have and take the next step. For instance, the board that I showed you didn't have any IDE ports, so if you have IDE drives, you can't move them to a new computer. On the computer I fixed for my sister, I didn't realize it didn't have a DVD drive, and couldn't figure out why I couldn't load Win 7. . .it's on a DVD. Ended up loading a new copy of XP that had. Software is moving forward, and you can now install 32 bit or 64 bit versions of software, even Sonar LE, I've found out!

So, while I understand not spending a lot of money, at some point it's almost like you're going to be forced to.

Gary

Bought my IBM on ebay for $60 with free shipping. P4 3gig Processor 3gig ram loaded with XP. Best Buy on ebay almost always has free shipping.

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So, while I understand not spending a lot of money.....

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I understand that too, but then you have to decide for someone else what "a lot of money" is. I don't even blink to drop $450-500 (and that's all they really cost anymore unless you play games and want a video card that requires a mortgage) on a quality computer that will last me 4 years. Someone else might. I am cheap in EVERY other aspect of my life but technology. The way technology advances, you are either moving ahead with it or falling way behind.