Modern Mobos with AGP Slots?

[Elesirdur]

So I finally got my $1000 ecoAUTO rebate from my Yaris and I'm finally looking at upgrading my CPU and motherboard. However, there are complications which I could use a bit of advice on.

My current video card, which I'm happy with right now, is a Radeon X1600 512MB card. HOWEVER, it's an AGP card not a PCI-X card. Dumb decision I made in 2005 when I last upgraded my CPU/motherboard and didn't spend the extra $50 to buy a PCI-X mobo. Fuck.

Currently, I'm looking at this CPU - http://tinyurl.com/3a9zvv - Read good things about it and should be just fine for newer games and FFXI.

I just don't know if I can find a LGA775 (or whatever socket it is) compatible motherboard that actually comes with an AGP slot on it until I can get some more money in a few months to upgrade to a proper PCI-X graphics card.

Any suggestions? I appreciate that I may have to delay my upgrade until I can afford a PCI-X card to go with the new motherboard, but I'm hoping that someone can help me find a motherboard that meets my current needs.

[Elesirdur]

Well I feel rather retarded for posting this as it took me 5 minutes of searching to find this product that does meet my needs: http://tinyurl.com/3d27o2

I've never heard of this ASRock company, but the board does support socked 775, has a AGP and a PCI-X slot (which apparently you can run two video cards SLI or otherwise and it'll still run even though they're on different buses)

Being as cheap as it is, should it kind of suck upgrading the mobo with a new PCI-X card wouldn't be out of the question either.

[Shuemue]

ASRock are an okay, middle of the road brand. Should do a job.

[Cheerios]

If buying a mobo without a PCI-E slot was a bad idea in 2005, why would it still be a good idea in 2008? Get rid of the AGP imo!

A mobo+dual core will run you about $300, and an 8800GT isn't a wallet breaker.

[Sonomaa]

I have that mobo for my secondary machine, no you cannot run two video cards in it, one or the other, not both. It runs well, no complaints so far. I would use it with your AGP card as a tide over until you get yourself a real video card for pcix.

[Elesirdur]

Thanks for the info Sono, I appreciate the first-hand experience. In any event, I wasn't planning on doing some ghetto fab SLI thing any ways but I am on a very tight budget at the moment so a new video card - even a $150 one - is out of the question.

One last question, this time about RAM. I'm not going to be going for FBDIMM RAM so is there any benefit in buying a single 2GB stick or using two 1GB sticks? (Besides price that is)

[Shuemue]

One last question, this time about RAM. I'm not going to be going for FBDIMM RAM so is there any benefit in buying a single 2GB stick or using two 1GB sticks? (Besides price that is)

You definitely want two 1GB sticks, that board supports Dual Channel RAM, which means if you put in a matched pair it'll run faster than a single 2GB stick.

[Elesirdur]

One last question, this time about RAM. I'm not going to be going for FBDIMM RAM so is there any benefit in buying a single 2GB stick or using two 1GB sticks? (Besides price that is)

You definitely want two 1GB sticks, that board supports Dual Channel RAM, which means if you put in a matched pair it'll run faster than a single 2GB stick.

Awesome, thank you. I can even throw in a 512 stick of my old DDR1 RAM to get close to the cap I suppose.

[Robert]

Adding another stick disables dualchannel if I'm not mistaken

[Shuemue]

Depends on the board, but usually yeah. Even so, the unmatched stick would cause a bottleneck probably.

It can be worthwhile, for example I have 2x 256mb running dual channel, plus a 512mb stick unmatched simply because doubling my ram was the obvious choice.

[Elesirdur]

Ahh I see. Well it's not like 2GB of DDR2 running dual-channel won't be enough for what I have to do. Was just thinking of something to do with these 4 old sticks of DDR 400 RAM for the new unit.

[mootsfox]

Please upgrade your graphics card. You can get a HD3850 (about 8 times faster than a X1600) for $170, or a 8800GT (8-10 times faster) for like $240.

Asrock makes ok boards if you don't want to use all the features. A friend of mine had a similar case, and his ASrock would only support a very few select models of PCI-e (PCI-X is for servers) cards.

You are much better off with the C2D of your choice, a P35 motherboard, and a HD3870 or 8800GT.

[Shuemue]

You are much better off with the C2D of your choice, a P35 motherboard, and a HD3870 or 8800GT.

That's pretty much the basis of the build I want, I'm a fan of Gigabyte boards in particular.

[mootsfox]

GA-P35-DS3L

or if you want RAID

GA-P35-DS3R

I've also heard great things about the GA-EP35C-DS3R, but that might be a bit out of your price range.

Also, the E6750's is a waste of money. You might as well go 45nm: http://www.ncix.com/products/index.php? ... ture=Intel

I use ASUS's P5K-e Wifi/AP mobo: http://www.ncix.com/products/index.php? ... cture=ASUS

Something like these would be good for RAM: http://www.ncix.com/products/index.php? ... Technology

8800GT: http://www.ncix.com/products/index.php? ... cture=eVGA

[Shuemue]

Yeah I've been holding off building anything until EU has an actual supply of E8400 and E8500 so I can debate which is better for me.

GA-P35-DS3R is already in my shopping cart, if I've enough cash for decent drives I might tinker with Raid0

[mootsfox]

Yeah I've been holding off building anything until EU has an actual supply of E8400 and E8500 so I can debate which is better for me.

GA-P35-DS3R is already in my shopping cart, if I've enough cash for decent drives I might tinker with Raid0

It's fast.

If you show me an app that works with Vista 64bit, then I could so you how fast.

Based on XP speeds, I get about 120MB/s sequential read/write. Thats with two WD 250GB, 16MB cache drives on a ICH9R with 12" SATA cables (long cables do add latency).

[Shuemue]

I'd mainly run XP Pro, but I'd probably throw a partition on for Vista too. I'd thought about going with a raptor for my OS drive and then some hefty storage drives, but I think I'll get more bang for my buck if I go raid0

[mootsfox]

A set of AAKS's or seagate .11's are faster than a single raptor. The raptor will win with random reads and access time though. But considering you can get a 1TB (2*500gb) RAID 0 for roughly the same cost as a single 150GB raptor, I think the choice is clear.

I forgot that I have a 500Gb AAKS sitting in my desk drawer. Maybe I should buy another and swap out my 250's....

[Shuemue]

If I go raid0, for example a pair of 500gb drives, once I've done the raid setup, I would then partition it as if it were a single 1tb drive?

[mootsfox]

If I go raid0, for example a pair of 500gb drives, once I've done the raid setup, I would then partition it as if it were a single 1tb drive?

Yup. You'll need to hit F6 and install RAID drivers before XP, vista should have the correct ones for ICH7-9 I believe.

My OS says I have one 465GB HDD, and it's got one partition.