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Well despite my bad luck these days, apparently an angel descent from heaven and give me some options to overcome my PC probs. Yes, a low budget PC upgrade. Despite my dreams of "Super High End PC" I think I better accept this "B;essing" rather than day dreaming all the time

Anyway here's the option :
Mother Board Brand ASUS type TUV4X
Processor Intel Pentium 3 - 1.13 GHz
RAM : Kingston 128 MB DDR

Existing ones :
Video Card : Inno3D nVidia Riva TnT2 32MB
HDD : Maxtor 6.5 GB & 20 GB

My question is :
1. Any problems encountered in the future, i.e. hardware conflicts, conflict caused by certain programs with the hardware etc. ?
2. Which type of DDR memory I can use to maximise the performance ?
3. Any problem with hardware upgrading in the future ? What kind of maximum spec you can get with this type of Mother board ?
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 ?

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.

Which ASUS Mobo is better than this one and still upgradeable, if I plan to use :
Intel Pentium 3 - 1.13 GHz
DDR Memory ?

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.

Well, I can only negotiate with my dear "angel" about some specs for now. FYI the DDRs are from the stock scavenged from some customers upgrading a server sometime ago

For Pentium III boards that support DDR RAM, check out this review from Tom's Hardware.

Regarding getting new stuff: Read my sig, "It's easier to ask forgiveness than permission."

If you want to stick with Asus for the motherboard and DDR then your only choice will be the CUV266 . Intel didn't start suppporting DDR memory until the P4 processor, so not many boards will be available for that configuration.

Have you considered an AMD Athlon CPU instead? Might save a bit of money and you will then be making use of the DDR memory. Heaps of boards available for those processors.

Stick with the TNT2. S3 are a fair bit behind in the power stakes for graphics chips.

Well thanks for the info, guys ! I've just got it with slight change, P3 1.2 for P3 1.13. Well it's gonna be lots of SDRAM memory hunting these days