All in one motherboad!!! Help!!!

[Gimoney]

Recently purchased an Amptron M598LMR motherboard. Looking to upgrade. Now this has onboard 16bit sound system. It has built-in graphic system(64bit 3d agp shared memory w/8mb ram frame buffer). Now with this onboard audio and video, how do I upgrade? Can I use DVD?... Also fax/modem DAA module. Can I find a modem like that, (this board only has 2PCI slots)?

[Banti]

Most of these all in ones have jumpers to disable the built-ins. Honestly, with only two PCI solts to upgrade, I would drop that board like a bad habit. This board would make a great PC for a family member that needs a network PC.

My advice is to look at what hardware you could salvage, what you would like to have, your available funds, and decide how you want to spend the money.

If you like you can post here for help in purchasing...

If you want to keep the board, I would leave the audio as is and upgrade the video. Maybe a noce Voodoo 3 card. You could also get a HollyWood Decoder card for DVD.

BTW how old is this comp??

Banti

[800XL]

Many boards with onboard video will disable it when a PCI card is installed, but I would look for a jumper to disable it. You could start with a good PCI video card, then move up to a new motherboard. I'm with Banti on dropping the board you have. Two PCI slots is just too limiting. Personally, I'd start socking away cash and get a motherboard, sound, video, and so forth all at the same time, but you go for a couple pieces to start and work towards another board.

DVD is a tough one. You could get a decoder card and use up one PCI slot for it. On the other hand, with enough CPU horsepower a software decoder could work. What are you running for a CPU now?

[Peter M]

Hi!

The 598LMR's onboard video unit has DVD decoder hardware already, no need to upgrade for that purpose. You just can't see it as the driver installation silently replaces some software decoding drivers with its own hardware assisted ones. But if you want to upgrade, you need to buy a PCI graphics card. The onboard VGA is multi-monitor capable, and you'll then have the choice of which of the two becomes the primary display - they'll both stay enabled.

The modem is already on the board as well, the DAA module is just the digital/analog adapter bit that changes from country to country (that's why they didn't put the modem analog telephone line interface part onto the mainboard).

The shop where you got the 598LMR from should be able to get you one suitable for where you live (besides, the LMR models come with the modem DAA _included_ if the shop didn't take it out of the box to charge extra for it ...). For Europe, I'd have a few pointers for you where the DAA can be purchased separately.

Regards, Peter

[Lovely Girl]

I have really bad experiences with Amptron motherboard.
What attracted me was the onboard sound, vga, modem but I found out that after buying one it was bad quality.
So I returned this one.
I realize that trying to save some money on this all in one motherboard was more trouble then it's worth.
I also bought another Amptron MB model 9900
with just onboard sound it got fryed after 1 month of use and I wasn't overclocking at all. I lost everything on my C drive and also my backup was also corrupted because at the time I backup the computer was already fryed.
Amptron MB in term of performance is poor
because I still have my old Abit Motherboard
that performed much better.
I am now using AmdK6 233mhz with it.
I last have 450 AMDK6-2 with amptron.
When I do upgrade again I will get
Abit MB with Celeron 533mhz.
Like they say, you get what you paid for.

[Gimoney]

Thanks for everything guys. Peter Missel
please give me more insight on the onboard video decoder. Where can I find info on this? Having trouble putting in a Creative Labs 8X DVD. What can I do?

[Peter M]

What to do? Install the drive, check that the IDE/ATAPI driver sees it.

Install the graphics drivers for the SiS 530, and then check in Multimedia properties that the Microsoft DVD decoder got replaced by SiS' hardware assisted one, and there you go.

Regards, Peter

[deep_sky]

i have the m599lmr and i have found that the built-in nic flat out wont network. I tried to plug into a lan at a friend's house and though the other computers could detect me at times, they could not get to my computer at all and i could not see the network at all. all drivers were installed and working correctly. so if you want to utilize the nic possibilities, get another card.

overall, i have found my board to be a pain in the ****, but if you do not play with your hardware at all, then the all-in-one is okay for normal use....