Trying to find out what socket my Mobo is.

I have a 3 year old mini Dell computer that I gave to my friend to use. Sadly, the motherboard just broke down. I'm trying to find a motherboard to replace it with but I have no idea what to buy as a replacement. I don't know anything about the CPU just that it is different from my i7. And the only thing I know about my motherboard is that my i7 won't fit in it.

My question is how can I find out what the right replacement for the motherboard is? Is there some number I can cross-reference to see what the motherboard is? It just needs to be a mini-itx and has to fit with my CPU (which is a problem because I don't know much about the CPU either.)

@ShakeDrizzle. I love you all.

Onlinejaguar Australia. June 04 2012 11:21. Posts 2621

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best bet would be to take the CPU into a PC shop and they will be able to tell you what socket it is and which motherboards are compatible.

LJ June 04 2012 11:27. Posts 203

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You can probably find something on the motherboard to google or the original model of the computer or even the codes on the CPU. But replacing an itx motherboard is fairly costly and you might as well replace the CPU too unless you can get a really cheap second hand board. The reason I say this is because Really cheap CPU's like the Intel G530 cost next to nothing and probably vastly outperform your old CPU if it is 3 years old

HazMat United States. June 04 2012 11:28. Posts 9197

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But the mobo is broken, not the cpu. I don't want to upgrade both.

@ShakeDrizzle. I love you all.

Sprungjeezy United States. June 04 2012 11:54. Posts 1196

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It doesn't seem like you've put forth much effort to finding what kind of motherboard it is? If the only actual thing you can find out about your motherboard is your "i7 won't fit in it" then internet wizards can't magically decide what socket type it has. You can safely rule out LGA 1156 I suppose, but beyond that we'd need something. Most computers that are sold as one entire computer with RAM/mobo/cpu/gpu/psu/etc will have a name associated with them, this would likely quickly lead to the mystery being solved. Or you could open it up and look at the motherboard OR cpu, both will have several bits of information that would solve the mystery as well.

But if "my i7 won't fit in it" is all we have, your guess is as good as ours : /

HazMat United States. June 04 2012 11:59. Posts 9197

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On June 04 2012 11:54 Sprungjeezy wrote:
It doesn't seem like you've put forth much effort to finding what kind of motherboard it is? If the only actual thing you can find out about your motherboard is your "i7 won't fit in it" then internet wizards can't magically decide what socket type it has. You can safely rule out LGA 1156 I suppose, but beyond that we'd need something. Most computers that are sold as one entire computer with RAM/mobo/cpu/gpu/psu/etc will have a name associated with them, this would likely quickly lead to the mystery being solved. Or you could open it up and look at the motherboard OR cpu, both will have several bits of information that would solve the mystery as well.

But if "my i7 won't fit in it" is all we have, your guess is as good as ours : /

Well that's why I made this thread, I know nothing about the motherboard and I'm trying to find out what I can do to find out. The computer is open but I don't know what to look for. The CPU has absolutely nothing on it and I don't know what to look at on the motherboard.
edit: After further research I have found a sticker that says "intel pentium inside."

Last edit: 2012-06-04 11:59:35

@ShakeDrizzle. I love you all.

Sprungjeezy United States. June 04 2012 12:02. Posts 1196

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Well if it is true that your CPU is dead, take it out, flip it over and read the bottom of it. There should be a name etched into it.

[image loading]

Like this one.

HazMat United States. June 04 2012 12:48. Posts 9197

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Wow I'm an idiot. I was looking at the other side of the CPU because I didn't realize there's stuff under the thermal paste.
It says
Intel© '86 5300
Pentium Dual-Core
2.60 GHZ/2M/800/86
3938A683

The CPU isn't broken, the motherboard is. That said, I DO have an i3 that I can put in on this computer granted I get the right motherboard. Do they make mini-itx motherboards with slots for intel i3s? I'm bad at this slot business.

@ShakeDrizzle. I love you all.

Myrmidon United States. June 04 2012 12:53. Posts 8484

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Yeah, they make mini-ITX motherboards for i3s, but those can be socket 1156 or socket 1155. If it's an i3-5xx, it's socket 1156. Otherwise, it's 1155.

Your Pentium E5300 is socket 775.

edit: depending on the socket 775 system, it could use DDR2 or DDR3. All i3 / i5 / i7 require DDR3. Also, mini-ITX motherboards for old sockets may be difficult to find.

Last edit: 2012-06-04 12:56:24

Zariel Australia. June 04 2012 12:54. Posts 958

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Ohhhh.... your running a socket 775 processor.

Your CPU model is E5300.

Most common cheap one to buy is a G41 based chipset. In Australia, I sell this Gigabyte G41M-Combo, you could probably pick it up for like $70 USD i reckon pretty easily.

sup

HazMat United States. June 04 2012 12:57. Posts 9197

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On June 04 2012 12:53 Myrmidon wrote:
Yeah, they make mini-ITX motherboards for i3s, but those can be socket 1156 or socket 1155. If it's an i3-5xx, it's socket 1156. Otherwise, it's 1155.

Your Pentium E5300 is socket 775.

edit: depending on the socket 775 system, it could use DDR2 or DDR3. All i3 / i5 / i7 require DDR3. Also, mini-ITX motherboards for old sockets may be difficult to find.

Yeah I'll just end up getting my friend this i3. It's i3-2100, 3.10ghz so it should be a socket 1155, correct?

@ShakeDrizzle. I love you all.

HazMat United States. June 04 2012 13:41. Posts 9197

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http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813186216
Would that work?

The rest of the computer is 4gb ram and Radeon 4650 mini.

Last edit: 2012-06-04 14:00:29

@ShakeDrizzle. I love you all.

justice` June 04 2012 22:24. Posts 33

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yea it should work with i3-2100, problem is your RAM won't because it's DDR2 (you can check to be sure).
4GB DDR3 is kinda cheap so np: http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=100007611%20600006050%20600006066&IsNodeId=1&bop=And&Order=PRICE&PageSize=20

HazMat United States. June 05 2012 09:56. Posts 9197

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