Motherboard Died. Need Upgrade & RAID 0 Advice Please

[whoster69]

My motherboard died (an old ABIT IC7-G). I had two PATA drives stripped (RAID 0) on it and I'd like to know if I can get the data back. When I get a new motherboard and attach the new drives, will it recognize them in their current stripe configuration or will I have to reformat and start all over (thus losing all the data)?

Also, I'd like people's advice/opinions/insights on upgrading. My current system is as follows:
ABIT IC7-G MAX (this is the board that died)
Intel P4 2.8Ghz CPU
1GB of PC3500 RAM (two 512MB sticks)
ATI 9700 Pro Video Card
Antec TruePower 430 (430Watt PSU)
Two Western Digital Caviar JB 250GB PATA drives
Plextor DVD Burner

I'm trying to decide should I just replace the motherboard or upgrade the whole system?

I was planning on building a new system in June 2007. Since I have to replace the motherboard, I could upgrade to a faster CPU, a more modern motherboard, newer RAM, a faster video card and I'd probably have to replace the PSU (since it wouldn't work with PCIe based video cards). I could reuse the hard drives and the DVD burner. The total cost would probably be around $800 - $1,000.

Could I reuse any of these parts (ram, PSU, etc) or would that be foolish since I'd probably take a huge performance hit by doing so?

The cost of buying a new motherboard would only be $50 - $150. It would be about as much work putting in just a new motherboard as building a whole new system, so I'm leaning toward building a new system at this point, even if it is a year early. I really don't like the idea of spending time and money on a system that will only be running for one year.

Anyway, please give me your thoughts/suggestions/ideas. I generally like to spend a few months getting up to speed on all the latest tech before I upgrade (something I enjoy). I wouldn't have the time to do things this way since I'd need to get this computer up and running in a few weeks (2 - 4).

If I do a full upgrade, I'd probably go with an AMD based board, but I'm totally behind the curve on what AMD boards are really good right now or CPUs or video cards for that matter.

Thank you in advance for your help.

Note: I posted this here since if I do upgrade I'll be building an AMD based system.

[SpeedDMN]

decisions decisions. First I'm afraid you are going to lose your data on a striped array. Only way to retrieve it would be to use an identical board. I'm afraid also if you do a major upgrade you are not going to be able to salvage much past the dvd burner. The socket AM2 for AMD are coming out very soon and would be my choice if I was building a new machine. It will utilize DDR2 among other things. It may be a bit more than your $1000 budget though and in that case socket 939 will be getting cheaper and might be a good choice. I suggest you look around and see what's good for your budget. There are lots and lots of choices. Good bet to stay with AMD these days though

[Protoplasm72]

You really only need the same raid controller to recover your data. There are 2 controllers on your board, which are you using? The Sil3114 or the one built into the ICH5R south bridge.

[whoster69]

I'm using the ICH5R south bridge if I remember correctly.

Thanks for the help everyone.

[SpeedDMN]

Originally Posted by Protoplasm72

You really only need the same raid controller to recover your data. There are 2 controllers on your board, which are you using? The Sil3114 or the one built into the ICH5R south bridge.

I was thinking you had to boot from a raid array. You can set it up as a storage drive that you can read from without booting from?

[whoster69]

I could set it up as a storage drive yes. Would that make a difference?