[OpenIndiana-discuss] General question about motherboards

[Harry Putnam]

A few words from experienced people would be helpful on motherboard
choice.

I've been running osol on this hardware:

        cpu: AMD Athlon 64, 2200 MHz (11 x 200) 3400+
motherboard: AOpen AK86-L  (5 PCI, 1 AGP, 3 DDR DIMM
hard drives: 2 IDE 500GB, 2 sata 500GB, 2 sata 750GB  

The motherboard has given up the ghost.

I want to replace it, but at the same time do some kind of light
upgrade. 

I'd like to find a replacement motherboard that will take more ram.
The one above is maxed at 3GB.

I doubt it would work to use 2gb sticks in a new similar board but I'm
not sure if that is the case.

I haven't really noticed a crying need for more cpu since my usage is
light compared to many here.... just a home zfs lan server.  Mostly
for backup of video editing projects and the C drive of several
windows machines.

But always a good idea to increase cpu during an upgrade. Maybe moving
into multiple core territory as well

Probably will necessitate a new powersupply as well.  The current one
is 400 watts.  Probably too weak and maybe doesn't have the newer
connections that might be needed.

I'm not looking for the latest and greatest, but thinking there is
some milder upgrade board that has plenty of sata ports and will take
at least 6 GB ram

I'm sorry to report being so lazy but the idea of trying to sort
through the thousands of googled hits it's ... well its daunting.  It
would seem to require a considerably greater knowledge of specs and
such than have.

I hoped to hear from someone who actually has experience with
something that fills the bill.

I'm thinking older motherboards but newer than the one above.

Can anyone here vouch for something that fits the bill?