Upgrading from AGP to PCIX

RussInFrance

RussInFrance

RussInFrance

Associate
Joined
15 Jan 2005
Posts
29
Hi guys,

I currently have the following :

AMD Athlon 64 3500+ Winchester socket 939
XFX 6600 GT Graphics Card
Asus A8V Rev.2 Deluxe Motherboard
Corsair 1GB DDR XMS3200C2PT TwinX RAM

I want to upgrade to PCI Express to be able to take advantage of the new graphics cards now and in the future. Does anybody have any recommendations for a motherboard and graphics card to keep me going for quite a while. I hope that all I need to change is the motherboard and graphics card. I'm happy to spend up to 400 UK pounds and then hope I can get some back with selling my old card and board.

Cheers, Russell
 
I would possibly buy the Connect3D ATI Radeon X1900 XT-X 512MB from overclockers. At £375 thats a steal.

Then concentrate on getting yourself a decet board. Something like the Asus A8N-E nForce4 Ultra at £72 is a good board and has good OC potential. MSI also do some good boards.

Depends on how much extra you can afford. With that type of GFX card I doubt you will want to go Crossfire. One PCI Express slot will be sufficient.
 
RussInFrance said:
Hi guys,

I currently have the following :

AMD Athlon 64 3500+ Winchester socket 939
XFX 6600 GT Graphics Card
Asus A8V Rev.2 Deluxe Motherboard
Corsair 1GB DDR XMS3200C2PT TwinX RAM

I want to upgrade to PCI Express to be able to take advantage of the new graphics cards now and in the future. Does anybody have any recommendations for a motherboard and graphics card to keep me going for quite a while. I hope that all I need to change is the motherboard and graphics card. I'm happy to spend up to 400 UK pounds and then hope I can get some back with selling my old card and board.

Cheers, Russell
Click to expand...

It does depend on whether or not you're going to clock your setup. If you're clocking something like the DFI nF4 Ultra-D would be much better, if not clocking then go for something like the Asus A8N-E nF4 Ultra istead.

While you're at it you may want to think about selling your ram and upgrading to 2gb.
 
Hope you don't mind me jumping in RussInFrance; I am in a similar situation as you, same mobo, similar specs and looking to upgrade to PCIX.

That Connect3D ATI Radeon X1900 XT-X 512MB from OCUK does indeed look very tempting indeed :)

I am running an 146 Opteron OC @ 2.8 so will need a suitible mobo.

My questions are:

1) What's the deal with the Crossfire? Is it worth investing in mobo that caters for it and for what possible gains in GPU speeds?

Is the Connect card of good quality (memory, noise, warrantee etc)?


My main concerns are the ability to run games as near to my screen's native res (Dell 24" 1920x1200) at good minimum and average frames rates.

Cheers
 
Last edited:
Monstermunch said:
IMO crossfire is fairly new & untested compared to the trusty nF4 mobo's, I would stick with something like the DFI nF4 boards for clocking!
Click to expand...
Whilst it's true the Radeon boards are much newer than the NF4 boards I personally have had MUCH less hassle with them than my NF4 board(s).

The Asus IMO is a good solid board and has reasonable overclocking potential ( although not perhaps up to utter bleeding edge overclocking ) - I'm running my system quite happily at 2.2ghz without any issues ( not bothered about going faster ) and in fact the RAM (2gig Geil) is running tighter than spec.

As for the future Crossfire looks to be designed better than SLI and if you ever think about going for a dual graphics system it's the option I would advise thinking about.
 
If you can stretch the budget a little then I'd get the components below. If however you need a new PSU for the ATX2.0 compliance or don't want to go over your budget then I'd get an X1800XT as I doubt that you will miss the extra speed that much especially coming from a 6600gt.

MB-129-AS Asus A8R-MVP Crossfire (Socket 939) PCI-Express Motherboard (MB-129-AS)
£69.95 £69.95
GX-112-SP Sapphire ATI Radeon X1900 XT 512MB GDDR3 AVIVO TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (GX-112-SP)
£294.95 £294.95
Subtotal £364.90
VAT £63.86
Total £428.76
 
Slap said:
1) What's the deal with the Crossfire? Is it worth investing in mobo that caters for it and for what possible gains in GPU speeds?
Click to expand...

BigDom has answered most about Crossfire but also look to speeduk's post in this thread for a bit more infomation about gains in speed etc.

Slap said:
Is the Connect card of good quality (memory, noise, warrantee etc)?
Click to expand...

Connect3D are a major ATI partner so the quality will be good, I don't know about the noise levels or the warranty but I'd suspect warranty will be 1 year RTB at a guess :)
 
Thanks for the help guys. I'm not so worried about overclocking, but just to get something that's going to last for a little while anyway. I'll let you know how I get on.

Cheers, Russell
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom