So my wife's computer is pretty old, P4 1.5 GHz with 256Megs of ram, it's pretty slow to start XP compared to my machine, so I figured I'd upgrade the machine. A guy at work had some DDR2 ram for sale and I figured that for $30 bucks I'd pick it up and try it, of course that wasn't going to work, different pinout, I needed 168 pin ram.

Fine $30 is no big deal I'll read the manual, it can take up to 3 168pin using ECC or non-ECC PC100/133 dimms, max 1gig each. Ok cool so i buy this stuff (http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&item=360068114524) off ebay. It came yesterday, so I dropped them in, one long beep, no display, manual says no memory detected, WTF. Read a little more check the ebay ad, the memory I bought is 3.3 Volt, where my mainboard can use 3.4 Volt, 3.5 volt or 3.6 volt.

(Bleep) so now I just wasted $120 (actually more) on memory that won't work and to top it off I might of blown it, 0.1 volt doesn't sound like a big difference, but who knows how sensitive it is to voltage.

Anybody have a medium older P4 mainboard for sale, AGP 4x minimum (another lesson BTW) that'll take this memory?

Ron

cost wise, it will be cheaper in the long run to pick up a basic Socket LGA775 motherboard (that has onboard video) that takes DDR2 and get something like a dual core CPU. You can get these 3 items for less than $250 through places like Newegg.com
My wife had a Dell P4 1.8GHz that takes RDRAM and it was running so slow, even with a fresh windows installation so I built her a basic setup with the above mentioned parts for around $200 and it blows that P4 out of the water.

Some ideas:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813135082 - $63.99 after rebate. Includes CPU, 512MB DDR memory and motherboard (AMD Socket 754, Athlon64 3200+, DDR333 memory). The onboard nvidia 6100 will likely run circles around that AGP card (unless it is something newer then the 6100).

OR

Open Box: ASRock 4CoreDual-SATA2 LGA 775 VIA PT880 Pro/PT880 Ultra ATX Intel Motherboard (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157115R) - $40
This board includes both an AGP and a PCIe slot (but only one can be used at a time), and can take either DDR or DDR2 (2 slots for each, not at the same time).

2GB PNY DDR2-800 (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820178154) - $40

Intel E7200 2.53GHz LGA775 Dual-Core Processor (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115052) - $120 OR

Intel E2180 2.0GHz LGA775 Dualcore Processor (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819116052) - $70

Thats $200 for board, memory and E7200 or $150 with E2180.

The only other thing that is strongly suggested is a new power supply. this is the one that I used for my wifes setup (except hers was 400W on sale for this price a few months ago):
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817256019
Silverstone 350W 20+4 pin PSU - $36