Build your own? Suse 8.2 w/MSI Athlon 2600+

[bill at horne.net (Bill Horne)]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Rich Braun" <richb at pioneer.ci.net>
> Doug Sweetser <sweetser at TheWorld.com> asked:
> > Motherboard replacement sounds like open heart surgery.  How long did
> > switching the motherboard take?  Is this something that a first timer
> > should try?  Is there enough solid documentation, from PCs for
> > Everyone or a great FAQ on the process?
>
[snip]
> You asked how long it takes to swap out the motherboard.  Here are the
steps:

  i.  Consider carefully: is it worth it? Given the extremely low price of
new cases,
      you may be better off retiring the old machine to firewall duty or
just keeping
      it as an alternate box for emergencies and/or backups. You'll probably
want to
      upgrade the LAN card if it's not at least 10/100, and any ISA cards
are
      probably best left behind. Remember that your biggest improvement will
      come from higher bus speed, not higher processor speed, unless you're
      doing CAD or Crypto, and the old cards won't keep up.
 ii.  If you intend to dual-boot the machine, check the M$ Hardware
Compatibility
     List (HCL) of any board before buying it: note that most linux flavors
have
     one, too. Check any PCI cards you want to (re)use as well.
iii.  Don't forget to allow for growth: if you can only afford 128MB of ram
      right now, be sure there are slots for extra sticks when your budget
allows.
 iv. If you've never done this before, consider using work gloves. Some
cases,
     especially older ones, have razor-sharp internal edges.

> - Open the case.

... and attach your anti-static strap to the power supply ...

> - Remove the 3 to 6 screws holding your PCI (or ISA) and/or AGP cards, set
the
>   cards aside.

... On an anti-static bag or grounded work surface.

> - Take note of the color and location of wires attached to the
motherboard:
>   power, reset, hdd LED, speaker, and so forth.  Pull those wires.

... after you LABEL each of them. Take note of the legend that's
silkscreened on the old board: instruction manuals are sometimes
out-of-date, so the position of the connectors may vary from the manual.
Remember to note the polarity of the wires going to the LED outputs: power,
HDD, "turbo", keyboard lock, etc. (1)

> - Remove the 6 to 10 screws holding the motherboard in place.  Remove the
>   motherboard.

... and place it in the anti-static bag the new one came in.

> - Reverse the above procedure with the new motherboard (not all your old
cards
>   will be needed, of course, because new motherboards have more built-in
>   components).

... all of which will need to be on the <linux-flavor> HCL. Some MBs have
built-in
winmodems, and some video chips won't be on both the M$ and <linux-flavor>
HCLs.

[snip]
>
> It's really not hard to do this:  you're pretty much guaranteed to get a
> boot-up BIOS screen if you plug in your monitor and the power supply, and
if
> you plug in a floppy or CDROM with a bootable Linux disc, you'll get a
working
> Linux in no time.

But, to whip the unfortunate stallion one more time, you may do better to
buy a new case, and then have the old one for backup. A working 486 will get
you though a weekend of word processing even if your new P-IV is down with
the flu.

> Of course, once you get that far, you'll probably find time slipping away
> quite rapidly, to the consternation of family members who probably would
like
> to see you at the dinner table at a more-reasonable hour.  ;-)  In fact,
more
> than 10 years have slipped by since my first time with Linux, and I missed
a
> *lot* of dinners...;-)

You too, eh? I tell my wife I'm on the "Torvalds" diet ...

Bill

(1) If your old case has a "turbo" button, I suggest you use it as the
"hibernate" switch for the new MB. A "turbo" LED comes in handy to show the
hibernation status.