chiark

Anyone got any great ideas on where to get a cheap Pentium Motherboard, capable of supporting the vast power of a genuine Pentium 133 or, at a push, 166?

I'd prefer integrated VGA and ports, so an old corporate workhorse would be good.

Just the motherboard and chip, but if it's cheap enough I'll take the whole lot.

As an indication, Computer Exchange have a P133 compaq for 75 quid inc floppy drive and hard drive of some type.

Cheers!

MatthewR

Hi...

Have you tried

chiark

Hi Matthew,

I've browsed ebay, but couldn't find anything that lept out at me. There's a few on QXL, but they're mostly in spain/abroad.

I guess I'll take another trawl: I was trying to be lazy.

Anyone got one for sale to save my phonebills?

Ta for the suggestion!

Ian Cook

I have a motherboard, well 2 in fact that will indeed support such a beasty, and i even have a processor, but its a 166 i also have a couple P75's a little memory and some hard drives all sitting in a drawer doing nowt ! The motherboards dont have onboard anything though.

Mr.Cookie

Hmm wonder what this is for

chiark

Mr C: perhaps you could guess . I do need to get a life, I know. Not long until the unveiling of the MuppetMobile MP3...

Ian: if I can't find anything with integrated VGA I'll be pestering you . Some motherboards don't like booting without a VGA board being present, which would be a bit more to go wrong/shake out of the socket/break/get fed up of the temperature ranges/... in a car environment.

I found a new board made by Jetway that seems to do what I want, and another made by PCChips. Seem cheap, almost too cheap. Anyone heard of either of 'em, good or bad?

ChrisB

PC Chips - nooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

Best be very, very, very cheap.

The used to make motherboards branded TX Pro 100 which couldn't actually run at 100Mhz.

A Jetway board got a value recommendation in PC Pro a year or so ago.

Chris.

Shark

Got a P133 intel chip, and guess what - you can have it FOC

David

chiark

Shark: cheers for that :-). I O U a beer or two then!

Went to the local Computer Exchange at lunch. They've got a Compaq base unit, integrated VGA, 1GB drive, 32MB memory, P133 for 75 quid. Wouldn't give any money off if I took the drive out.

Looks like I may as well go for the Jetway thing then, unless I can find an ex-corporate special at a computer fair!

MartinM

C'mon Chiark!

What's all this for then? Think Muppetmobile MP3 is a red herring!

You want a PC, but no video or even a drive by the look of it.

Making your own ECU?? Auto IC spray? Pentium powered Bright switch?

Yours etc
Intrigued from Tunbridge Wells

chiark

Straight up it's for MP3. Video on board so it'll boot. Display and keypad is attached via the serial port (http://www.matrix-audio.com). Hard drive will be a 2.5" job that I already have - 2.5" because they're better at taking the knocks as they're designed for laptops.

It'll run Linux, as that's happier to be embedded than Win95.

Of course, once I've got the thing running in car, it'll be easier to "update" certain things though with my mechanical ineptitude when it comes to cars, I think I'll stick with the pentium powered bright switch.

In fact, I think you've just found me the on-off switch for the thing

The "web diary of the muppetmobile mp3" will be starting when I get the board.

I hear that there's these things called "lives" that some people have. Does anyone have a spare one that they can lend me? My wife thinks that I need to get one.

john banks

I have a Jetway board in my thrown together PC which has not missed a beat in prob 5000 hrs use so far. £50 running a Cel 500 o/c to 623 on board sound + SVGA. Don't know about the older boards for P166s though. I presume you would use a digital or optical out for the sound. It is telling you how to suck eggs to mention that the on board sound on these boards (on my machine anyway) is about as good as a £5 jumble sale Walkman left to rot in a swimming pool for 5 years (or something like that!)

Have you looked in Micromart (sorry if that sounds like a swear word)?

chiark

Well, I've just bought the Compaq machine from CEX. Will get money back on the hard drive, which turns out to be 2GB.

John: I've bought a Soundblaster Live! 1024 Player for the playback, as I guessed that they might not be quite up to scratch.

I'm using the onboard DACs from the SB Live!. If it doesn't cut it, I'll try to find a cheap DAC.

Cheers all! Project underway...