Q: PII/266/AL440LX out, PIII in - need plan

[funcrew]

The original components of my 1997-vintage Packard-Bell PC are an Intel AL440LX Mobo, PII/266 CPU, RAM, and the mid-tower case. The HD, CD-ROM, sound card, and video card are newer, say 1999-2001 vintage parts.

Q: Will a PIII motherboard physically fit in my case? I assume most Mobo's are a standardized layout, but tell me if I'm wrong.

Q: If I get a good PIII/Mobo combo, will I be able to hook my HD and other components up to it, boot, and have the OS recognize the new hardware? Reason I ask is I only have an "upgrade" Win98 CD (my Packard Bell Win95 "factory restore" disk no longer works, because too many components are non-original), so can't format the HD and start over. Also someone permanently borrowed my Office97 CD, so can't re-load those, either. My HD has to remain intact for this upgrade to work.

Q: If this is do-able without loading the OS from scratch, how about PIII/Mobo recommendations and a step-by-step plan? I've gotten semi-adept at modifying & troubleshooting my one PC, but am obviously not 100% computer literate like you fellows.

Thanks!

[John Prophet]

It all depends on the type of motherboard..if it is a stadard ATX case, you are fine. It could be an AT case though, which is older and harder to find motherboards for...it could even be a weird "proprietary" PackardBell only design. I know some packardBell motherboards were pretty much non-upgradeable...or they were "nlx" or "lpx" formfactors....near impossible to do any upgrades to.

Do you have the model number off of the computer? Or a serial number or something like that? Or a link to a picture of the rear of the computer?

JP

With it being a PackardBell, you probably won't have much luck finding a motherboard that will fit it. Companies like that, Compaq, Gateway, etc . . . tended to use proprietary parts. You pretty much had to get replacements from them.

Nowadays, standard sizes are found in most mainstream PC's. Except for Gateway, they tend to try to play by their own rules.

A picture of the back of your case would give a good idea wether or not it had an actual "standard" motherboard in it. But I'm telling you now, without seeing it, I'm about 99.9% sure you would have to buy a whole new case.

You said it didn't have all the original parts, what have you upgraded?

[Nighthawk]

With Win98 you can move it to a new motherboard, but you would have to re-install Windows to get any benefit from the SSE in the Pentium 3 (if 98 even supports SSE, I'm not sure of that).

You just have to open up the device manager and remove the motherboard devices (IDE controllers, chipset drivers, and everything else).

[funcrew]

Thanks to all - I don't mind buying a new case if necessary, I would buy that locally to avoid big bucks shipping. The original case is a funky art-deco clam shaped thing from Packard Bell, so I guess I could buy a Mobo and buy a new case if it won't fit the PB.

Any recommendations on a motherboard and PIII CPU? I'm not interested in overclocking or slockets, etc., just something standard.

[John Prophet]

If you are going to spend for parts, dont even BOTHER with a P3..they are way too expensive...just go with an athlon.

JP

[carolinaguy1946]

I have the very same setup, my packard bell, has the following: 14.3 GIG HARD DRIVE, 266 MHZ, 256 MGS RAM, CD-ROM, CD-RW, floppy drive, windows pro xp, plus new case with 4 usb ports. could my pb handle the pent 3 motherboard, and how much do you think the cost would be, plus could I go a little higher on hard drive, lets say 40gig.