Looking for a motherboard with AGP and PCI Express?

[fatwallet]

Hi, Ifound this forum after searching Google.

I found this forum after searching Google.

I am running a MSI K8N Neo2 with a AMD 64 3500, 2 gig ram, and a Geforce 6800gt video card.

Is the Msi mother board the best solution/any others available? I'm on a budget and can't afford to replace Cpu, graphic card and ram all at the same time.

I know a little bit about pc's, so any help or advice would be gratefully received.

Thanks in advance.

[djfluff]

This one does AGP and PCI-express, DDR AND DDRII !!

I built my mediacentre PC with this motherbord. Solid

http://svp.co.uk/products-solo.php?pid=2834&ref=froogle

[djfluff]

SVP sold out. Available here for £40 + shipping.

Don't be put off by the brand (Asrock), It's actually a reliable mobo.

http://www.redstore.com/ASRMOT021

[pollaxe]

^^Ditto for the above - I've got one in an HTPC set up and it's a great board. Just fitted an 8600 GTS to it (it's been sporting a Radeon 850 XT PE on AGP for a while) and it's up and running without any issues. Cheap, cheerful and reliable - a great mobo.

[djfluff]

I run mine with this processor http://www.ebuyer.com/UK/product/121407/rb/0 (£75 delivered.)

It's rated at 1.8Ghz, but I run mine at 2.4Ghz on stock cooling!!

I found that I had performance issues playing WMV-HD files (1080p) when I ran them at 1.8ghz, but the overclock just requires 1 change in the bios . !

[djfluff]

Oh yea, and Welcome to the Hexus Forums !

[Max Tractor]

What is you actually want to upgrade? Asrock did a skt 939 agp-pcie, you might be able to pick a used board up, ASrock dual sata, another option would be to drop a x2 cpu in the msi neo 2, again it depends on what you actually want to upgrade

[Pob255]

Another vote for the ASRock 4CoreDual-VSTA it's a great board for bit by bit upgradeing. (not great for overclocking, you can get small overclocks)

ASRock did make a pci-e and agp, socket939 board as well, even did a raiser board so you could convert it to AM2 and DDR2 if I remember correctly.
The problem is that they are both no longer in production so finding them is becomeing very hard.

[EarlGrey]

Another vote for the ASRock 4CoreDual-VSTA it's a great board for bit by bit upgradeing.

Yup I just upgraded my little brother's PC with this motherboard, throwing in a 4300 or a 4400 works a treat. The cheapest upgrade path you will find with this level of performance

Note that any of the 800FSB chips (E2140 E2160 4300 4400 4500) get an extremely easy overclock as the board is designed for a 1066 bus. 33% overclock for free, guaranteed

[Pob255]

yes a 266fbs is doable, Just forget tring to get 300fsb out of it.
Like I said before small overclocks only (33% is quite small for a c2d chip)

One thing to be aware of is that the PCI-e is not a full x16 only x8 I seem to remember, but it's still enough that you will not notice much of an impact at 1280x1024 or 1440x900 (17"-19" tft screens)

[djfluff]

yes a 266fbs is doable, Just forget tring to get 300fsb out of it.
Like I said before small overclocks only (33% is quite small for a c2d chip)

One thing to be aware of is that the PCI-e is not a full x16 only x8 I seem to remember, but it's still enough that you will not notice much of an impact at 1280x1024 or 1440x900 (17"-19" tft screens)

Yea, this worried me initially, but I reasd some reviews that reckoned it made only a 2-3% difference..

[artaxerxes]

Another vote for the ASROCK 4CORE VSTA

DDR, DDR II, AGP and PCI-E, most excellent mid-grade! (only 2 mem slots for each standard, plenty of PCI ports, 2x SATA, 2 x IDE)

the E2160 might be the cheapest possible chip - with still stellar overclock and performance.

[roddines]

Does anyone know if you can use Both an AGP and a PCI-E video card at the same time on these boards?

[artaxerxes]

Yes you can - for multi-monitor madness,

http://www.asrock.com/mb/vga.asp?Mod...reDual-VSTA&s=

Not all PCI-Express cards are supported.

[Pob255]

No you cannot, as far as I remember it cannot use both at the same time.

There were modded BIOS for the 775Dual that let use both (even in a bizzar hybrid SLi) no idea if a modded BIOS exists for the 4coreDual or if the 775Dual bios would work.

[artaxerxes]

Page 20 of the Manual

2.7 Surround Display Feature

Thanks to ASRock patented PCI Express Graphics Technology, this motherboard
supports Surround Display upgrade. With the external add-on AGP VGA card and
PCI Express VGA card, you can easily enjoy the benefits of Surround Display
feature. For the detailed instruction, please refer to the document at the following
path in the Support CD: ..\ Surround Display Information

Works for me... I tried it with a 7300GT and a 9800Pro very briefly.