AGP/PCI-E?

[Ephraim]

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!

 

[Ephraim]

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!

 

[Ephraim]

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!