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Ok,
i have an old 1995 pentium 133 from packard bell. I want to rebuild it, i'm putting in a new hard drive and a new motherboard, but, i want to get a motherboard that will fit in the old case, and with all the existing hardware that's on there. Does anyone know how i can find what form factor it is? I don't have the documentation for it anymore.
thanks.
Are the serial ports, parallel port(s), and mouse port (assuming it's PS/2) all directly onboard, or do they connect to the mobo via cable/ribbon? If the latter, it's most definitely an AT. But if they are all onboard, then it's most likely an ATX.
well now i'm ticked, i practically used a crobar on that thing and i couldn't get it to open....I didn't feel like breaking the case so when my dad gets home i'm asking how he opened it the last time he did. Anyhow if anyone has owned this computer before let me know what it was.....one thing that may help to note is that all the ports are mounted vertically....so if that helps narrow down options that'd be cool.
thanks again for all your help.
you can build a 1ghz machine with 512mb of ram, 64mb video card, 30gb hard drive, 40x cdrw, and case and all for $345, so give up trying to upgrade a really really out dated machine, itll cost u more then that(finding a motherboard that supports a fast processor and also has all the ISA slots u need) to upgrade ur POS
Easiest way is to check how the motherboard is connected to the power supply. If it is a single connector that looks like a lego brick then it'll be ATX, if not then It'll have two seperate connectors side by side, this is AT.
And since it's from '95 it will most likely mean it's AT. That means you also have to buy a new power supply.
So, the tally is: new motherboard, processor, RAM, power supply, and replace ISA cards with PCI.
Buy a new computer, it will be cheaper and less hassle ;)
i am getting a new computer, i just wanted this one working as a backup...i also wanted to get into some distributed computing
sometimes u can get the kits that have just the mobo/proc/ram for like 200 bucks, one of those and a pci vid/net card and a 6 gig hard drive would do ok as a backup.
You might be able to throw in a 233 mhz Pentium MMX into it if your lucky. That and more ram, and a new (bigger, used) hard drive would be your cheapest option. First check what kind of motherboard you have, then look up it's specs. The fastest pentium 1 known to man is a 233 mmx, so if you can put one in, it will make an excellent backup computer. If you can't put in a 233, then may be a 200. It's all up to the type of motherboard. And also, you definitly have an AT style case if it was manufactured even in the later part of 95. Good Luck!
PS - What ever you do, don't throw it out! You can always find a good use, like a print server or something along that line. I have a weird passion for old obsolete computers - I still own an Apple!
thanks tommaso
and i never dreamed of throwing it out, i still use an old 486, and an even older 386