Motherboard and GFX CArd Help

[caveman]

I need some help with upgrading my PC...

I currentlky have an ASUS A7V333 mobo and a crappy MSI GeForce 4mx 64MB GFX card...

Thing is I'm long due an upgrade, I dont want to just update the card as the AGP slot is x4 only so it would make sense to get a new board and a new card.

Question is, shall I get a new board with agp x8 on? (If so any ideas?) or shall IU get a PCI Express board?(Again some help would be grateful) and obviously dependant on the board choice which GFX do you recommend?

Thanks in advance, your ideas will be most appreciated..

Caveman

 

[LeeJend]

There is no significant difference between AGP 4x and 8x. So upgrading to a decent video card will only be limited by your processor clock and FSB speed.

You can go top end on the video (6800GT ~$350-400) and then upgrade the MB/Proc latter as prices on 64 BIT systems fall or you could go mid range (9800 PRO ~$200) and put some money into a better MB/Proc. But, in either case you will have to upgrade your RAM too unless you already have 333 mHz RAM. And your MB only supports 266 mHz FSB which means you won't get as much benefit from a top end vid card.

List your full system specs and we can better advise you.
Proc - FSB and speed
RAM - speed and amount

Just as a guess based on what I know about your system now (and unless you want to spend $500-700) I would just add a 9800 Pro card (and if I had less than 512 Ram I would increase that too). Then the next upgrade I would do the MB and Proc up to a 64 Bit AMD socket 939 rig keeping the 9800 PRO.

Also make sure your power supply can handle the extra demand. Figure 300W minimum supply for just the video upgrade. 350W minimum if you do the MB/PROC/Video.

 

[iceman7311]

i have a question how does alien ware put pc 560 into the asus an8 nforce 4 sli mobo (the mobo only supports pc 400)

 

[fantasi]

i have a question how does alien ware put pc 560 into the asus an8 nforce 4 sli mobo (the mobo only supports pc 400)

where did u read that. well the a8n, not the an8, has the specs as below:

A8N-SLI Deluxe
-Supports AMD Socket 939 Athlon 64FX/Athlon 64
- NVIDIA nForce4 SLI
- PCI Express Architecture
- SATA 3Gb/s
- Dual RAID
- Dual Gigabit LAN & AI NET2
- NV Firewall
- AI NOS™
- AI Audio (8-channel Audio)


no p4 there. but i know there is going to be an nforce4 for the intel cpus. just not that particular one from asus.

 

[iceman7311]

yes thats the board i was talking about go to alienware.com and look at it check out the place to cutomize the ram
http://alienware.com/Configurator_Pages/Aurora_alx.aspx?SysCode=PC-AURORALX-SLI-D&SubCode=SKU-DEFAULT
look at this one

 

[iceman7311]

can u all lokk at this one plz it baffels me that they can put faster ram then th mobo allows

 

[LeeJend]

They are overclocking the systems. Many good MB allow you to set FSB and RAM to speeds even higher than anything available when the boards are released as an overclcoking and upgrade feature.

Alienware overclocks, tests and warantees the system at the higher speeds. Of course if the parts degrade from being overstressed after the warantee is up you're screwed. And if the system gets a little unstable you are screwed. And if you decide to upgrade RAM or Video in a year and it won't run overclcoked you are screwed.

Picking up a pattern with factory overclocking risks?

 

[ShepsCrook]

I think that's exactly what I posted in another one of his posts last week asking the same thing.

 

[lancer]

Alienware sucks fcking ass, they overcharge a fcking insane amount, about 200% markup on their systems. Plus why would anyone, unless you have cash to burn buy a totally o/ced system that will fail within a couple of years is beyond me. Now dell is doing it too, god they must think people are stupid, or i guess people really are cos they're still selling the crap.

 

[iceman7311]

dANG MAN I DIDN'T KNOW ONE COULD OVERCLOCK THAT FAR
ALIEN WARE MUST BE ABLE TO DO IT B/C THEY R ALL WATER COOLED SYSTEMS
OH DANG SORRY FOR ALL CAPS

 

[MUYA]

water cooled or phase change cooling?