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AGP/PCI-E?

Ephraim

Ephraim

Ephraim

Associate
Joined
18 Jan 2006
Posts
209
Typically, the last time I did a system upgrade, it was just before the entire PCI-E revolution broke. Foolishly (in retrospect), I chose to go ahead with the upgrade rather than wait for the new technology. Still, hindsight is, as they say, 20/20 and I'm left in an interesting situation.

I currently have the following:

AMD Athlon 64 3400+ (Skt 939)
Asus A8V Deluxe
1024 Mb DDR Corsair Value select
Radeon 9600 Pro (with aftermarket silent heatpipe cooler)
FSP Sparkle Zen 300W
Seagate Barracuda 160Gb Sata HDD

I'm looking to upgrade the Graphics card, preferably to something silent (although I can always fit an arctic cooler or an aftermarket heatpipe cooler), and wanted some advice on the route to go.

I have about £180 to spend, and so I'm not sure whether I should replace the AGP card for another AGP card, or whether I should replace the Mobo and go for a PCI-E card. Obviously, if I replace the mobo then that reduces the amount that I can afford to spend on the gfx card. But, it seems that bang for buck, PCI-E cards are cheaper. Obviously, the amount of power available is somewhat limited, due to the low power output of the Zen, but I like the fanless design (the missus hates a loud PC), and it's a very fine PSU for stability and economy. If I'm going to change the Mobo, then I am determined that it should have SATA 2, but Sli/Crosfire is entirely unnecessary.

So, what would you do? Which products would you choose?

Thanks in advance for your help!
 
hmmmmmmmmmm you could probably do a pci-e system fairly easily actually!

now just to check is the 3400+ definately a socket 939 part cos i remember a lot of them being socket 754s?

the mobo to go for would be the dual agp+pci-e one for £42 ASRock 939DUAL-SATA2 as it had the SATA 2 mode you require and you could use your old gfx card in the meantime if you wished to save a bit first!

From my own experience these mobos are very good performers and actually really simple when it comes to clocking your CPU should you choose to do that! This will leave around £140

Then from this good site....
Sapphire ATI Radeon X800 GTO² 256MB DDR3 TV-Out/DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (GX-101-SP) at £123 (vat included again)
and this will Mod to x850pe speeds :D

All in all you'd be going just over £160 and tbh you would see a big performance hike! :D

But if ShaderMark 3.0 is a big requirement for yourself then pick yourself up a
Leadtek GeForce 7600 GT 256MB GDDR3 VIVO TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (GX-080-LT) or any other 7600GT model which can be yours from around £140 to £160!

Remember if you get thast mobo then you can always save for a bit and get some extra cash towards an even meatier card!

Hope iv been a help!

-------------------------------------

Also I'm not too sure about noise levels but you should be able to fit a new cooler to them no problem later on.
 
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Personally i would upgrade to pci-e as it works out more cost effective in the long run and if you want to upgrade the card in the future you just buy another one.

However, if you only have £180 to spend then you have little option but to stick with agp. So i suggest you get yourself a 6800GS which will give you a massive huge boost over your old 9600 pro.

Actually, it can be done on pci-e. If you get the Sapphire ATI Radeon X800 GTO² 256MB DDR3 TV-Out/DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (GX-101-SP) for £123.32 that leaves you £56.68 and you can get a pci-e mobo for that. Most of the Asrock range comes in at under that and that includes the dual sata 2 that a lot of people on here has. From a competitor it's only £43 and they have the same graphics card for only £117.85 Inc VAT which comes in under budget at £160.85 +p&p.

So go for the pci-e option. It will be better in the end. That card also unlocks to a X850 XT too. Not sure if your psu is man enough though.

Bugger!! someone beat me to it. I spent so long looking around for you. Oh well never mind. He basically says the same anyway.
 
pastymuncher said:
Personally i would upgrade to pci-e as it works out more cost effective in the long run and if you want to upgrade the card in the future you just buy another one.

However, if you only have £180 to spend then you have little option but to stick with agp. So i suggest you get yourself a 6800GS which will give you a massive huge boost over your old 9600 pro.

Actually, it can be done on pci-e. If you get the Sapphire ATI Radeon X800 GTO² 256MB DDR3 TV-Out/DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (GX-101-SP) for £123.32 that leaves you £56.68 and you can get a pci-e mobo for that. Most of the Asrock range comes in at under that and that includes the dual sata 2 that a lot of people on here has. From a competitor it's only £43 and they have the same graphics card for only £117.85 Inc VAT which comes in under budget at £160.85 +p&p.

So go for the pci-e option. It will be better in the end. That card also unlocks to a X850 XT too. Not sure if your psu is man enough though.

Bugger!! someone beat me to it. I spent so long looking around for you. Oh well never mind. He basically says the same anyway.
Click to expand...
hehe but glad to see we're both thinking around the same idea ;)
pci-e do it :P

yeha i didnt even look at his psu :S yeah that could be a problem but for any kind of more powerful card...even an agp one he'd need a new psu anwyays
 
I'm pretty sure there never has been a 3400 in socket 939 form, it has always been a socket 754 part and the AMD website can confirm this otherwise the advice is completely sound, if Ephraim has made a mistake and has either a 3200 or 3500 then ASRock dual is fine otherwise it will need to be a socket 754 PCI-E motherboard.
 
With a budget of £180 you can go for an ATI x850XT as your system is still powerful. You'll also have to consider your power supply to make sure it will support the more powerful graphics cards and/or PCI-E as I don't think 300W will cut it.
 
There was a 939 3400+. It was a batch of 3700+ cpu's that did'nt make the grade.

Even if it was a 754 cpu the advice is the same. Just a different mobo. All the same you had better download cpu-z and see what it says. Asus A8v-Deluxe is 939 though.
 
If he's only got a 300w power supply then most of the cards mentioned are not going to be a runner. The X800 family all need more than that I think and there are few 6*** series cards that can run on a psu as low as that. The 7600s though might be a different matter. Have a check, but I think both the 7600gt and certainly gs have low power requirements.

Form an economy point of view, the best bang for your buck will be the PCI-e route, though obviously that'll require the most work too. For convenience the AGP route would be best. But i am not sure how many good AGP cards run on a 300w supply.
 
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New PSU
New Mobo
And new gfx card

I would look at stretching the budget a bit.That psu is neither use nor ornament in a gaming rig. :p
 
Apologies, my bad on the CPU... my fumble fingers were supposed to type 3500, but missed the 5 and got a 4 instead. Definitely socket 939.

I appreciate that the FSP might be underpowered, but it's efficiency/stability puts it on a par with most generic 450W supplies. I have an Antec Smartpower 350W lying around, if that would help. Or I could possibly find the cash for a higher rated PSU. How much higher, though?

The Asrock/X800GTO2 combo looks good to me... is it possible to fit a silent cooler to the card?

Thanks for all the replies, this is all helpful stuff!
 
yeha it would be possible man, that antec power supply is better as it is "true power" so it could be enough for ya :D anything meatier than the x800gto2 could be a problem though so you'll need to upgrade that psu eventually!

Otherwise that 3500+ GTO2 or 7600GT would be ideal to be honest!

Was reading the reviews of the GT and it does seem really good if you can stretch that wee bit extra. Tbh you cant go wrong with either choice if you ask me! :D

Definately possible to fit a silent cooler on the card man!
The Zalman VF900-Cu is a great cooler and fits any recent card at all! Will fit either choice! Also it runs extremely quiet and even at full speed its extremely quiet too!
 
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OK - having done some more research, I'm tempted to up my budget a little and go for the following:

Asus A8N-SLi SE nForce4 SLi Mobo
Leadtek GeForce 7600 GT 256MB GDDR3 VIVO TV-Out/Dual DVI

and fit a VF-900Cu to the 7600GT.

The 7600GT seems to have a pretty low power requirement, and so should bimble along quite happily with the Antec 350W, right? In addition, I've always had a soft spot for Asus boards, as they have always proven very reliable; and the addition of SLi should give me an upgrade opportunity later, if I want to add another 7600GT (and a new PSU).

The only thing that concerns me slightly, is that the 7600GT seems to only come with dual DVI outs. I presume that a converter will allow me to use one of these with my Samsung Syncmaster 913N, as that only has a VGA in.

So, what do people think? How will this system run, is it a good option and worth the extra cash? It always seems that every upgrde time, I start with a fixed budget and it increases every time I so much as think!

Thanks again for all your help!
 
nbkpsycho said:
You could go for the HiS X800 GTO and clock it to X850XT PE speeds and that would already have the silent cooler on it ;)
Click to expand...

He couldn't gp to SLI with that card so why bother :)
He states he would like that option.
 
He states he would like that option
Click to expand...

he acctually said "but Sli/Crosfire is entirely unnecessary"...in the op

what about 6800 ultra, have you not thought about a version of those, keep the asus board and just spend the money on a top agp card. if you dont need to go sli pci-e then dont, wait a while longer a year or two and upgrade then when it'lll proberbly be cheaper.

The only thing that concerns me slightly, is that the 7600GT seems to only come with dual DVI outs. I presume that a converter will allow me to use one of these with my Samsung Syncmaster 913N, as that only has a VGA in.
Click to expand...



yep DVI-VGA converter , just about all cards come with these in the box

bullit
 
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bullit in head said:
he acctually said "but Sli/Crosfire is entirely unnecessary"...in the op

what about 6800 ultra, have you not thought about a version of those, keep the asus board and just spend the money on a top agp card. if you dont need to go sli pci-e then dont, wait a while longer a year or two and upgrade then when it'lll proberbly be cheaper.
Click to expand...

But then he went on to say


Ephraim said:
and the addition of SLi should give me an upgrade opportunity later, if I want to add another 7600GT (and a new PSU).
Click to expand...

hence the reason to get a nvidia card over the x1800 ;)

why would he want a 6800 Ultra when the 7600 GT is faster and has the optortunity of an upgrade path?
 
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