Stick with AGP or upgrade?

[CharlesMcKinney]

I had recently been having a lot of trouble with my computer lately, and have finally narrowed it down to a malfunctioning motherboard. This leaves me at a bit of a quandary, as I now have to decide whether to simply replace the motherboard with another AGP motherboard, or bite the bullet and upgrade to PCIe. I just bought an eVGA 6600GT to replace the dead 6800 in the sig, and it is AGP. So, is it worth it to upgrade to a new mobo/GPU, or stick with my 6600GT and get another AGP board...suggestions are welcome.

I'm really interested in the functionality of the nForce4 chipset, as well as the possibilities of PCIe for future expandability, however I'd like to keep the cost down to $300 for the upgrade, if I do go PCIe (excluding of course the money I'd get back from selling my current 6600GT, which I could hopefully get $150 for).


Any suggestions are welcome, I need to decide this in the next couple days, as I'm heading back to college, and need a functioning computer by then.

 

[o1die]

If the 6600gt does everything you need and runs the games you enjoy, I would stick to an agp board. They are starting to come down a little in price. Or you could try the asrock dual sata II board (about $70 at newegg). It's the only socket 939 board with true agp and pci-e slots. The other option is to sell the 6600gt, and get a pci-e board with built in video to get you started. Biostar makes a 6100 board for only $59 at newegg. It has built in video and a separate pci-e slot, and some overclocking options in the bios if needed.

 

[Wentelteefje]

Head over to the wonderful ASRock 939Dual-SATAII... Very cheap and very performant... Decent overclocker as well (with the modded BIOSes, that is )

It sports an AGP 8x slot and a PCIe 16x one... You have the ability to buy a Socket Upgrade Card, with which you can fit a Socket AM2 CPU...

It may not have features like FireWire, Dual Gigabit LAN ports, or nVidia's ActiveArmor, but it's a helluva mobo... The best alternative for people stuck between AGP and PCIe...

 

[Vette73]

^

About to say the same thing. Asrock has Dual boards for AMD and intel, so no need to have to choose between agp or pcie.

 

[PingSpike]

Asrock is the only half way decent transitionary board we've seen so far. If the video card is doing its job, no need to replace it now...when you could probably buy one for cheaper down the road.

 

[CharlesMcKinney]

Thanks for the replies guys! I'm just about ready to purchase this, only one question...will it fit my beast of an XP-120? I'd hate to have to get rid of that, and the board looks like it'll handle that, except the northbridge HS is looking kinda close...

 

[Wentelteefje]

The ThermalRight site states that for the ASRock 939Dual-SATA2, the XP-120 "requires a metal motherboard backplate"... They don't say anything about incompatibility, so my guess is it should be just fine...

EDIT: Looked for it, and SideWinder Computers has it... I would buy because things could get messy when attaching such a heatsink to the plastic backplate... Just to be sure...

 

[SynthDude2001]

Originally posted by: Wentelteefje
The ThermalRight site states that for the ASRock 939Dual-SATA2, the XP-120 "requires a metal motherboard backplate"... They don't say anything about incompatibility, so my guess is it should be just fine...

EDIT: Looked for it, and SideWinder Computers has it... I would buy because things could get messy when attaching such a heatsink to the plastic backplate... Just to be sure...

Yeah, you will need that backplate since it doesn't come with the motherboard or the heatsink. I'm using an SI-120 myself, but I've also seen pictures of an XP-120 working fine in the ASRock board. You (OP) should be fine, and I'm also recommending that you buy this board

 

[CharlesMcKinney]

Thanks for the reply guys! I guess I'll get it then!

 

[CharlesMcKinney]

Alright, so the mobo is on the way, and I'm planning on a swap tomorrow, but I have one question. I've never swapped out just a mobo on a system, and have always done a fresh install of windows with a new mobo. However, since the mobo is the only thing I'm changing out, do I have to do a fresh install of windows? I'd prefer not to do this, but of course will if it's required. Thanks for all your help!

 

[Wentelteefje]

I would do it, just for not having the risk that something could go wrong (after all, we're dealing with different Via and ULi chipsets here)... Otherwise, deleting your old chipset drivers etc. should suffice...

If your Windows has been running for the past 6 months, then I'd say it's a good opportunity to do a fresh install...

 

[CharlesMcKinney]

The install is probably 3 weeks old...it was one of the things I did to make sure the problem wasn't my hard drive or windows installation. I guess it's time to back up everything and re-install.

 

[Wentelteefje]

I'd do so too... May be a bit of work right now, but it could save you a lot of hassle...