Motherboard dilemna

[Howling Wolf]

Hello everybody, it's been a while since I last wrote something here; please forgive me.

I have an Asus x850 XT *AGP* I'd like to keep (cost me dear) and at the same time I'd like to upgrade to an AM2 motherboard compatible with Athlon 64 and and Athlon 64 dual core (possible), with an AGP slot (and why not a pci-e x16 also)

I'm an Asus addict, but no MB available, there's an Asrock available but know nothing about this brand, any suggestion ?

 

[American Zombie]

I think Asrock is owned by the same company that own Asus.

 

[LordOfLA]

Asus owns Asus and ASRock is their budget brand,

AM2 boards worth having do not have AGP on them. You'll want to pick up an equivalent or better pci-e card and get a decent pci-e am2 board or even look into core 2 (lower end)

 

[LeeJend]

The only dual AGP/PCI-e MB that really works is an ASROCK and it works well. The one I am familiar with is the older socket 939. I could not find an AM2 socket MB with an AGP and a PCI-e video option.

Having said that. Why waste the money going to AM2?
-You will have to shell out $200 for new DDR2 memory sticks.
-The AM2 DDR2 memory interface is not much faster based on what I have seen.
-AMD has no announced plans for a single socket quad CPU. Their quad core approach requirs a 2 socket MB.
-You can get dual core AMD CPUs cheap now that Intel has beaten AMD speed and power consumption.
-The 850 XT was a classic and still performs well.
-The AM2 socket repalcement is already been announced so it's another dead ended line for AMD.

With the major investment you have made in your 850XT stay with what you have now and if you must upgrade get a dual core 939 CPU cheap.

DO NOT get an AGP only MB!!!!!! The most likely component to fail in a system is the video card due to the high thermal levels they run the chips at. The 850XT was a very hot beast. There is no cost effective upgrade path from where you are now with an AGP socket MB.

Wait for your 850 XT to die then do a cost performance trade on what is out there at the time. If I had to buy right now I'd be seriously looking at an 8800GTS and an Intel Core 2. Memory would be a toss up depending on if I had any money left over.

Welcome back, and quit being a stranger.

 

[Howling Wolf]

Well, I'm going to wait a few more months and change everything but hdds and soundcard (Audigy2 ZS) and ram if possible (2x512 DDR 2700): go for a pci-e graphics card (Ati addicted: my ax850 XT being my seventh one, never had any nVidia and won't have one in this life).
The question now is: do I really need a dual core cpu and DDR2 going with it ? What's the best AMD socket for single core cpu ? 939 (compatible with dual core, no ?) ? From Athlon 2600+ (set as a 2800+, 2.09Ghz) to Athlon 64 3800+ or 4000+ seems like a fair upgrade, performance and time wise, isn't it ?

LeeJend: "quit being a stranger", I'm no stranger, the truth is I have a full time job (9h a day, mon-fri) leaving me like an empty shell at the end of the day, week after week.

Thank you for your suggestions and comments !

 

[ElementalDragon]

uuh.... Lee.... AMD DID announce plans for a quad-core CPU.

http://www.realworldtech.com/page.cfm?ArticleID=RWT060206035626

AMD's K8L is supposed to be the competitor against Core 2 Duo when it comes out, and will feature a true quad-core CPU in it's lineup, unlike Intel's Core 2 Quad, which is basically two dual core CPU dies slapped together to creat a quad-core CPU.

 

[LordOfLA]

Last I heard AMD had only announced dual, dual cores on a board... and that link doesn't mention quad core either specifically...

 

[ElementalDragon]

uuh.... Lord.... look at the picture.... the floor plan for K8L. if actually SEEING the 4 cores on the die isn't enough, it even says next to the picture "True quad-core die"

and about dual dual cores.... that's already out.... the 4x4 platform. bad thing is it only works with Athlon 64 FX's of a new socket type, each costing at least $350, then another $400 for the motherboard.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813131146 = motherboard

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...0001028+1051727346&Submit=ENE&SubCategory=343 = compatible processor list

 

[LordOfLA]

Well based on the not so grat performance of my athlon 64 as a windows server and the even worse performance of the 80+ dual opterons at work I'll reserve judgement on AMD's viability as a server.

It would be nice to see HyperTransport being fukky utilised though. I had been expecting that to give AMD an edge over ther Core 2 marchitecture. I was rather suprised that it didnt.

 

[Howling Wolf]

Well, I'm going to wait a few more months and change everything but hdds and soundcard (Audigy2 ZS) and ram if possible (2x512 DDR 2700): go for a pci-e graphics card (Ati addicted: my ax850 XT being my seventh one, never had any nVidia and won't have one in this life).
The question now is: do I really need a dual core cpu and DDR2 going with it ? What's the best AMD socket for single core cpu ? 939 (compatible with dual core, no ?) ? From Athlon 2600+ (set as a 2800+, 2.09Ghz) to Athlon 64 3800+ or 4000+ seems like a fair upgrade, performance and time wise, isn't it ?

LeeJend: "quit being a stranger", I'm no stranger, the truth is I have a full time job (9h a day, mon-fri) leaving me like an empty shell at the end of the day, week after week.

Thank you for your suggestions and comments !

Any answers for my remaining questions ?