Originally posted by KidD01
1. Any problems encountered in the future, i.e. hardware conflicts, conflict caused by certain programs with the hardware etc. ?
ASUS boards have a generally good reputation so I would not expect any compatibility issues.
2. Which type of DDR memory I can use to maximise the performance ?
That board will not support DDR memory; it will only support standard PC66/100/133 SDRAM. DDR memory looks like SDRAM, but it comes on a 184-pin chip while SDRAM is packaged on a 168-pin DIMM.
3. Any problem with hardware upgrading in the future ? What kind of maximum spec you can get with this type of Mother board ?
It looks like you will not be able to upgrade the CPU beyond the P3 1.13 GHz, but you should buy as much RAM as you can afford. You need to check your board's documentation to see what the maximum amount of memory it will support (ie-you have 4 DIMM slots, but they may only support 256 MB chips each, so it would be pointless to buy 512 MB memory chips). You also need to check and see what kind of AGP acceleration the board supports (1x, 2x, 4x) because that will also determine how good a video card you can put in it; for instance, you wouldn't want to buy a GeForce4 Ti card (a 4x AGP card) if the board will only support 2x AGP.
4. I got an S3 AGP VGA card (I dunno the brand yet it caused lots of prob last time) Should I stick with my nVidia or try my S3 in this new PC ?
I don't have any experience with S3 cards, but the video chipset leaders are nVidia and ATI; I would stick with the nVidia card for now, unless you can find the specs on the S3 card that show it to be a better card than the TNT card you have. You might also check with your favourite games to see if they have any compatibility issues with S3 cards before installing it.
My wife turned me loose with the checkbook last weekend and I put together a high-end PC (not a
super high-end PC, though) for $550 or so plus some other scavenged parts, so if you can afford it, you may consider just buying a bunch of new, top-of-the-line components and building yourself a new computer with the intent of keeping it in service for the next three years.
