Question : Problem: Compatible exchange motherboard

I`ve a Carrera Value Plus PC with Athlon 3000+ on Winfast K7NCR18D board/1024 RAM/Windows XP Home. The system is approaching a year old. I found (past tense) on booting up I was using about half the 1024 of RAM immediately. Bootng up took about 7mins!
Unfortunately i`ve overheated the PC on 3 occasions recently. I had a better CPU fan fitted but all was a bit late at this point as the PC lost power, and in the end wouldn`t re-boot - though the fan and lighting indicators worked. Thinking it was the CPU at fault I fitted it into another PC and it brought up details on the monitor.
I assume the problem lies in a board component, so I decided to upgrade and fit a better board, keeping with one of my Athlon CPU`s to save costs 3000+ Barton or earlier type 3200+.
It is very important that I don`t lose the information on my hard disk, and that I can quite easily re-boot Windows. I`ve been kindly advised by `phone by someone in a PC manufacturer`s techno team that I must keep to the same chipset (nVIDIA). I have considered the Jetway N2 PAP, but on practical price consideration the choice seems limited.  As far as I can see, the HD isn`t SATA - if that`s important?
The main use is web search for business and general office/Documents.
Which motherboards should I be looking at?  Many thanks in advance.. Shaun A Leggott

       

Answer : Problem: Compatible exchange motherboard

Here's a roundup of nForce2 motherboards: http://www.tomshardware.com/motherboard/20030721/
You can choose the DFI or Gigabyte board that came out on top, or choose the Abit or Asus board, which are the brands I personally prefer, because they put good components in them.

Even if you chose a different chipset, you generally can do a repair install (for WinXP and Win2K) when replacing a motherboard, without having to reinstall programs or losing data.