Upgrade time!

[Elite]

Okay so ts that time now to get an upgrade on my rig, keep in mind when I give you the specs I don't use this (or any) rig for gaming, video/picture editing, or overclocking in any way.

So my current rig is setup as so:
P4 3.00GHz HT/64-bit/XD etc
Asus P5LP-LE Lithium (Old HP Machine Motherboard)
4x1GB GEIL RAM
Radeon Sapphire 4650 1GB DDR2 Video Card
430W Thermaltake PSU
Thermaltake V3 Case

Not too much of a rig but it gets er done for sure.

Now the kicker here is that I am not sinking much money into this build, if any at all at this time. So I am only doing the CPU/Mobo for now.

Now here is what I will be upgrading to
2.4GHz Intel C2D
Q35T-AM (Not Too sure on brand, also from what I can tell a Acer board)

I cannot seem to find much on the mobo so I can't even tell you much about it. From my searches it is a board from an Acer Veriton desktop, I could be wrong. My friend had pulled this board from a desktop that he was working on saying that it was dead then after it was all said and done it came back to life so I will be testing it for sure.

According to thissite the board is said to support up to 8Gb of DDR2 so in the future I will probably be making the jump to 8GB soon. Like I said I am not 100% sure that this board works so once I test it and know for sure I will order it.

Also should mention the Hard Drives in the rig:
2x1TB Drives
1x200GB
2x250GB - One internal one External.
1x320GB

Also once I upgrade the board and All I will be adding a spare 160GB HDD in after the fact because I have it lying around and I want the space as I am always downloading. I had an issue once before with the drive in the current rig where it wouldn't POST or something (can't remember what it was) so I just left it out.

Questions/comments/criticisms welcome.

Afterthought:
If you are wondering how I came to get this board for no cost then I shall tell you. I have an older (S478) P4 1U rackmount server laying around that I never use anymore, My friend that I am getting the board from has a small makeshift server farm in his basement and we came to an agreement that we would trade straight across board for full server, however seeing as he told me the board was dead then came back to life has me sketched right the **** out so I have decided not to send him the server till I can confirm it works or not.

Also if any of you can find any more detailed info on this new board and give me a few links let me know.

[Rassal]

Manufacturer: Acer
Part Number: Q35T-AM
Compatible Models:
Acer Veriton S661 S461 Series
Acer Q35T-AM LGA775 DDR2 SATA Motherboard. Acer meets the current and future demands of high performance, power embedded computing, making it ideal for communications, transaction terminal, interactive client, industrial automation applications as well as for standard home use. Specifications:

CPU Socket Type: LGA775
CPU Type: Core 2 Duo
Chipset Type: Intel Q35
FSB: 1333MHz
Memory: DDR2 800MHz
Memory Slots: 4
SATA: 6 x SATA Ports
Form Factor: Micro-ATX
Video: Inegrated
Audio: Inegrated
LAN: Inegrated
Expansion Slots: 2 x PCI, 1 x PCI-Express x16, 1 x PCI-Express x1
Rear I/O Ports:
6 x USB Ports
6 x Audio Ports
2 x PS2 Ports
1 x RJ-45 Port
1 x VGA Port
1 x Serial Port
1 x Parallel Port

This motherboard seems to have been pulled off an Acer Desktop (Acer Veriton S661 S461 Series) and to me it sounds like a pretty cheap board. Upgrading this to 8GB with DDR-2 memory will probably cost as much as buying 16GB of DDR-3 memory for today's PC's... it's your choice, but i don't think it will be a good upgrade over your P4 3.0Ghz, especially with what you intend to do with your computer.

Computer Manual: http://global-download.acer.com/GDFi...C=Acer&SC=PA_4

[Elite]

Does acer actually manufacture this board or is it made by someone else? I have looked around for this board and found that it is acer or ECS but can't seem to find this board on either site.

[Rassal]

No idea if they manufacture it, all i know, is that the board itself was never sold as a motherboard, it was part of one of their own desktop lineup, which is Acer Veriton S661 S461 Series. So who makes the board... probably ECS, and if it's really ECS, then it's really a crappy board believe me.

[Elite]

Can you give me an experience or anything as to why you feel it is a crappy board?

[Elite]

Well the Canada post site says that it's out for delivery, hopefully it will be here this morning so I can get it in! :)

[Elite]

okay so the board came, got it installed, and running, didn't take long to get running at all either.

Only thing I cannot seem to get to work is the HDD Light on the case, I am not sure why it won't work but I can't find anything for the mobo pins either so I dunno may just leave it unplugged.

[great_big_abyss]

The pins on the motherboard should be labeled either HDLED or IDELED. Usually they're 'above' the PWRLED pins.

[Elite]

I will take a look and get back to you on that later, I was up literally all night so it's nap time now :P

[Elite]

SO I got the light to work, but that picture didn't really help me much, this board is different than most and it was right at the top end of that strip on the left side (where keylock should be.)