Nforce4 or is Nforce3 good enough?

[HedBang]

Building a rig from scratch and I'm debating between non-SLI Nforce4 and Nforce 3. You guys have any general recommendations to help me choose? This is primarily for gaming and I will probably try some limited overclocking. I'd like a long upgradeable lifespan so I'm leaning toward waiting for more Nforce 4 Ultras to show up. Is AGP going to die out anytime soon? If so, then it seems to be a no-brainer to go NF4.

I'm being a bit vague as I do not have other components finalized yet. CPU will probably be +3400 or in that range.

Thanks for you thoughts,
HedBang

 

[MDE]

If you're going to just build it and not touch it for a while I'd just get an nForce3 Ultra board now and be done with it. If you want to keep the thing for a couple years and upgrade as you go (especially graphics) then you may think about nForce4 but then you have to deal with the price gouging on nForce4 boards and PCI Express graphics cards that's going on now.

EDIT: Welcome to the Forums!

 

[ts3433]

I wouldn't foresee an upgrade being necessary from something like a 6800GT for quite a while... IMO, AGP is still a fine option right now. Just factor in a board swap when you go to upgrade to a new video card if they're PCIe only or prohibitively expensive in AGP form when the time rolls around. As for AGP dying out, that can't really happen for at least a year or year and a half (that's probably a more liberal estimate of the minimum).

 

[DerwenArtos12]

Well, first and foremost the 3400+ is a s754. That being said I get teh feeling you want a s939 solution. Again after deciding on this it depend on two things:
1. The urgency, if you want to do this withing the next 2 weeks I would say nf3. If you are ok to wait a month before ordering the parts, either will do and that will give you a chance to further explore which will fit you better.
2. When and how you want to upgrade. If you are looking to upgrade on a 6mont cycle and re-build at 12(yes some people actually spen this much moeny) then nf3 now and nf4 in a year. If you are like me and upgrade on a 21-18 month cycle(depending on what comes out when) and do a re-build every 2-3 years then I woud hold off for ~1 month and try to get nf4 and PCI-E as it will make your 12-18 month upgrade a lot easier if even possible.

 

[Twsmit]

I agree with what they said. But currently on of the big pluses for getting the NF4 is *if* you are looking for a 6600GT it is about 30 - 50$ less than the AGP version. Add in all the other long term upgrade benefits and the handful of new features on the NF4 and its a good deal.

Now if you are looking for a 6800GT, then it is a problem and I dont know what to say. Kinda stuck with AGP if you want a powerful card, or you will have to pay the $100+ premium for a high end PCIe card.