I run four PC's on Windows 98se using a Netgear eight port hub. The MYOB Prem file is on the oldest machine, a 433 MHz Celeron with 128M of RAM. The box is a current P4 and I'm considering a P4 2.8 GHz CPU, Intel D865 M/B DDR400 x 512 to upgrade this. The HDD is a Seagate 8.4G. I thought I would probably add an 80G HDD and make the old one a "D" drive.

I'm happy with the Netgear NIC and only need basic video. I don't mind paying extra for good solid performance but tend to shy away from "all in one motherboards" Am I looking in the right direction?

Any help appreciated.

PS: I look forward to PC User every month.

Trevor Milliken, Albany, WA

Once upon a time every thing was on a separate card. Almost nothing on the mobo.

My very first computer had five slots -- all of them used.

• There was a video board with a parallel printer port on the same card.
• There was a hard disk controller card.
• There was a floppy disk controller card.
• Another board had serial ports
• Yet another board had RAM on it to bring the computer up to 640k.

All these boards cost a fortune. These days most of the functions are routinely on the motherboard. Integrating even more functions is just continuation of a trend. The chipsets they need are compact, and may only be minor functions in a multi-purpose chip. The external connectors are basically the same cost regardless of whether they are on the motherboard or on an expansion card.

I have some machines bought before LAN ports on motherboard were common, and at least one with LAN port on the motherboard. All work equally well, and have identical speeds in benchmarks.

LAN ports on motherboards mean one less slot needed for an expansion card, and better airflow with one less card installed. The additional cost of the LAN chip on motherboard should be (but not always is) cheaper than a separate card.

The same goes for other ports for external cabling. Apart from the traditional serial and parallel ports, these include USB (USB2.0 preferred), and Firewire. Whenever possible get a mobo with all of these built in.

Audio and video on motherboard are a special case. For average use, onboard audio and video will be okay.

• If your audio needs are high (surround sound, home theatre, some gaming, playing music), get an advanced audio cards.
• If you are a gamer, CAD designer, or have other high-performance or high-resolution video needs, you'll need a plug in video board rather than one built into the motherboard.
• Also, if you are getting an LCD monitor consider getting both monitor and video with DVI (a digital video connection) which will give greatly enhanced image quality.

The strategy is:

1. Choose a well-known motherboard make.
2. Select two similar mobo's - one with everything built in, the other which does not have all external ports on the mobo.
3. Check out the dimensions, feature set and so on.
4. Check out the cost of the quality board without everything on the motherboard versus a similar one from the same maker with ports on the motherboard. Also check out the cost of plug in cards. Do your sums and work out which combo is best value.
5. If you have special needs for audio or video select plug in boards for either or both of these functions.

At the end of the day, an all in one mobo is often cheaper than total cost of a similar mobo without the ports plus a full set of cards - and apart from special audio or video both will work just as well on all other functions.

John Hepworth