Asrock 4CoreDual-SATA2 PCI-e 4x Slot, too much of a bottleneck for a 9600GT / 8800GT?

Scania

Scania

Scania

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I am thinking of getting an Asrock Dual AGP / PCI-e Motherboard, but, I read its only got a PCI-e 4x slot.

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showp...(Socket 775) PCI-Express/AGP DDR2 Motherboard


Will this be a major bottleneck for an ultimate upgrade of my AGP X1950Pro 512MB AGP to a 9600GT / 8800GT to be worthwhile? - I intend to use the 1950 with this new board so I can give it a performance kick from my current A64 3000+ CPU by getting an e2200 for it.
In time, I plan to change the DDR 400 for DDR2 that this dual board supports and, logically the ultimate would be a 9600 or 8800GT to replace the 1950 (which currently suits my needs just fine)

I am assuming that despite the 4x restriction, I'd still get an improvement over the 1950AGP or am I wrong in this?

Anybody got any experience of these boards & a PCI-e card?

Any feedback appreciated. :)
 
Yeah you'd definitely get an improvement, there's no doubt about that :)
However it might be worth spending a bit more to get a motherboard with PCI-E 2, and offloading you current card, grabbing a cheap card to use as a replacement and then waiting for a bit.
 
You will get an improvement BUT the card probably wont function properly and may even make the sytem hang my 4CoreDual Sata board gave me no end of issues with a 7950GX2.
 
Expect a ~10% hit from the 4xPCI-e slot compared to a 16x system. Bear in mind most people have problems with the newer cards on this motherboard, especially 88gt's due to the gen2 BIOSes. Had various cards working on this board (AGP & PCI-e) but decided to take the plunge and get a P35 motherboard for higher CPU/RAM OCs and full 16x PCI-e. If you did the same, you'll get a decent price for your DDR on the MM, in fact it probably won't cost you anything to buy new DDR2 after you've sold yours. Also, wait a bit before you do buy another card as new ones are out in a few days....
 
Bear in mind that you may need to flash the bios on 8800gt's (not sure on the 9 series) before being able to use them on 4CoreDual boards. An 3870 for example will work straight away no probs.

Matthew
 
i agree, i have it, it makes baby jesus cry

it underclocks my Q6600 by 5% as default, and i'm too scared to OC at all
 
ROFL, at too scared to OC it at all.

It's not a performance board at all but it will overclock, just not by much.

Matthew
 
ahahah .. well some days i can get a "good" overclock somedays not.. i used to be able to get my e2180 to 2.4, but it only goes to 2.3 now.. i darent go into the bios tho.. and sometimes, like if you restart the pc it wont post and will just bleep at you..
 
I have this board, it's not great but my 2140 runs at 2.35 stable. Not going to win any prizes but aint bad for a £30 board that allowed me to upgrade my gpu and ram progressively.
 
My 3870 didn't work on that board, but with that being said, I was able to oc my e2160 by 50% which isn't bad...For the cost, you'll get a massive benefit...I went from a P4 3Ghz / 1GB ram / x1950 pro...only changed the motherboard and the CPU and my computer was SO much faster! Since then I've upgraded one part at a time (because I'm very bad at saving money) and I'm more than happy!
 
hmm fair enough.. i upgraded from my prescot 3.4 (clocked to 3.8), 2gb ddr ram system, to this with a e2180 @ 2.4 with 2gb of ddr2 667 ram.. all honesty foudn no improvement, i was even convinced that crysis was slower..
 
Thanks for the input guys, I think I'll hold fire & just go the whole hog on a full system in a little while. :)
 
ojrules said:
hmm fair enough.. i upgraded from my prescot 3.4 (clocked to 3.8), 2gb ddr ram system, to this with a e2180 @ 2.4 with 2gb of ddr2 667 ram.. all honesty foudn no improvement, i was even convinced that crysis was slower..
Click to expand...

Crysis is GPU bound, what gfx card were you using? In everyday use my E8200 feels about the same as a P4, only when things get sticky the E8200 pulls miles away. And bear in mind you do have a bit of a budget chip there, so for the price you can't go wrong.
 
ojrules said:
ahahah .. well some days i can get a "good" overclock somedays not.. i used to be able to get my e2180 to 2.4, but it only goes to 2.3 now.. i darent go into the bios tho.. and sometimes, like if you restart the pc it wont post and will just bleep at you..
Click to expand...

Had that before & it randomly loosing my sata drive until I pull the battery, this is on the 775-vsta though not the 4core.
 
Basically this is how it is:

If you have old parts from your old computer, or some lying around and can't afford to do a major upgrade all at once, then the 4CoreDual can be great for you. Just realise that you won't get the best from the components in this board, and should only realistically be seen as an transition board, until you can afford a better one.

e.g. I had AGP gfx card, ddr memory from my old athlon xp system. I sold the motherboard and chip and reused the agp card and memory, until I could afford to upgrade them. I am now running with pci-e card and ddr2 memory, so only thing stopping me from mega overclocking is the motherboard. I currently run my chip (e4300) at 2.67Ghz on the asrock, but I know that I will gain more performance if I upgrade the board. i.e. gain 16x pci-e and much better overclocking potential.

Bottom-line:
If your looking to buy this board 'just' to save money, I wouldn't really recommend it. You could buy a cheaper core2duo chip (OR buy 2nd hand!!!!) and get a better board and o/c the nuts out of the chip giving you a potentially better PC :)

Matthew
 
Well, I was in OC today and dediced "What the Hell" and bought one of these boards and a 2180 to complement it.

Currently, I'm using my 1950Pro AGP 512MB and 2GB of my old DDR400 RAM (will get some DDR2 at some stage I'm sure)

The results thus far? CRAP! :p

I'm scoring circa 20k in 3D Mark 2001 & 10k in 03! :o

My Battlefield 2 Frame rate has halved and FSX runs like a dog. :mad:

I've managed to clock the 2180 to 2.5 ghz but am seeing little if any improvement. :confused:

Any ideas?

Back to the old A64 3000+ at this rate! - I know its a relatively cheap board, but I was honestly expecting better from this with a 2180 compared to my previous nForce 3 / A64 3000+ setup! :confused::confused::confused:
 
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