upgrading motherboards in emachines pc

[benjaminha]

Hi I own a emachines 5240 and Im looking to upgrade the motherboard to a model which has pci express. I was wondering if anybody had any knowledge of how interchangeable they are or if anybody has any advice on any particular motherboards for them.
With thanks ben.

[GroundZero3]

i believe the motherboards are built for that computer, so if you want to upgrade you will need a whole new case, maybe a new power supply too. (dont know what emachines use but im sure its nothing all that great)

[mjolnir1134]

Define your motherboard size factor, socket number of processor you use (if you plan on using same processor), intel or AMD, and RAM standard.

I have an eMachines T2958, and since I had only PCI slots to use, I changed the motherboard to get an AGP and the motherboard had the same size factor as the original (mATX size) and I didn't require a new case. It works.

Theres a a bunch of good power supplies for cheap on newegg, go for brands like ThermalTake, Antec...etc...

Oh, and you're gonna need to buy a copy of windows XP to reformat, because the useless recovery disks only match the chipset drivers on your original motherboard. When you reformat, you're gonna wipe everything in your hard drive clean, so be sure to back up stuff.

AGP motherboards are usually easier to find! Well, just a suggestion....

EDIT*******
Use everest home edition if you haven't already, its a nice little FREE program to use to tell you 100% of your computer's specs, which is useful if you want to upgrade.
http://www.lavalys.hu/products/overv...?pid=1&lang=en

[elroy]

Most micro ATX boards will fit in your case. However you may need to re-wire the LED's on the front of the case as some eMachines have proprietary wiring connections. Also your power supply will probably not provide enough power for a newer AMD board and cpu, so it may need replacing.

[#43 fan]

In other words, you're looking at almost a whole new computer.

[sr71000]

i'd recommend a new case anyways if you're getting new parts, if nothing else then for the heating issues you'll run into with a newer hotter proc!

[benjaminha]

cheers everyone,looks like its time to start spending hehe.
seriously though thanks.

[XweAponX]

i believe the motherboards are built for that computer, so if you want to upgrade you will need a whole new case, maybe a new power supply too. (dont know what emachines use but im sure its nothing all that great)

Actually, I did exactly that: I had a recent Athlon E-machines. I wanted to stick 98 SE on it and shove it onto a workstation for a shop I do business with.

The case and power supply were shite: I bought an Inwin V-style case, a small tower, the mini-version of the popular InWin Server Tower. It was kinda cute, but I shoved the E-machines MB into it, cleaned it, put new ram, new Floopy disk drive, DVD-Rom, and Hard Drive, and I ended up with a kick arse little machine.

So, Don't update the Motherboard in the E-machines case! Toss that away, the E-machines power supplies are poo poo, underpowered. The cases are junk.

Remove the E-machines case from the equation, take the MB out, clean it with the cleaner you can buy at Radio Shack, costs about 5 bucks, and it gets into all the little nooks where dust builds up. Get a new Video card or find a 2x or 4x AGP card, get new RAM, and last I looked there are plenty of placed to get good ram of all kinds, and build it into a good quality case.

Last case I bought was a Black V-Style Inwin, more modern version of the Small White Tower, and it has USB on the side.

Or, go to New-Egg, and check out the Foxxconn minitower they are selling for about 30 bucks.

Cos, I rebuilt that emachines PC 1 year ago, and I just checked it over last week: It is still chugging away and it is faster the the POS Compaq P-III they they have in the office.