Best P4/AMD64 AGP based board?

Hi all,

Buying new parts to completely refurbish my home system this week and I have been looking around, I have a 6800GT graphics card on AGP, and don't REALLY want to lay out another £300 for a PCI-E version for the new system, so what are the bests boards I can get for a AGP based solution, either P4, or AMD, although as this is used more as a graphics workstation I am leaning more to P4, things I need as a must, Serial ATA, as many as possible, and at least 4 dimm slots, 4 will suffice, but they will all be filled, so need dual channel support. (will be buying either patriot ram from tekheads (4 x 512mb either PC3200 or PC4000 or Geil ram same specs...)

Any suggestions?

m@

hmm ok let me pose something else, can you give me the best intel board which still takes AGP and then the best AMD64 mobo solution I can get that still takes AGP.

don;t need to know anything other than the names of the two or just one of them if you only know one, cos otherwise this could turn into a this platforms better than this one war.....

thanks.

m@

What kind of gfx stuff? If is photoshop, then the A64's poop all over the P4. However in video the P4 wins.

its graphics design, but you are the first person who I have heard say the P4 gets whooped by the AMD, I don;t encode video, but I do work on high res, large size images that struggle on this 533fsb P4 2.4 I have now....

m@

The benchmarks I have seen recently seem to support that amd 64 are faster for graphics. However a fast P4 is no slouch. Just wish I could afford to upgrade too!

Ok decided to stick with a P4 for the time being, this is the shopping list, but I need to know which board of the three to get as I am leaving for overclockers in like an hour lol

Any of these boards....

Abit AS8 or Asus P5P800 or Gigabyte GA-8IPE775 Pro

2 x GeIL 1GB (2x512MB) PC3200 Value Dual Channel Kit CAS2.5
2 x Maxtor DiamondMax Plus 10 NCQ 160GB 6B160MO SATA 8MB Cache
1 x Intel Pentium 4 540 "LGA775 Prescott" 3.2GHz (800FSB) with HT Technology - Retail
1 x NEC ND3500 16x DVD±RW Dual Layer ReWriter
1 x Antec P160 Anodized Aluminum Super Midi Tower Case - No PSU (I have a 480W Butterfly Thermaltake already)
1 x Logitech MX1000 Laser Cordless Mouse
Total - Approx £700.

Please can someone help me out here, I really need to know which is the best board of the three, tbh, I see I can only have 2 SATA channels with AGP boards as thats all people seem to do, I wanted 4 channels, but can't give up my 6800GT as the cost for a replacement is just too high.

Thanks m@

Ok one last look at 64 bit, hows about these as an alternative...

Gigabyte GA-K8NSNXP-939 nForce3 Ultra (Socket 939) Motherboard
AMD Athlon 64 3500 Newcastle 130nm (Socket 939)

Hmm help lol

m@

I'd go Athlon64 - as Menthel said, all the benchies I've seen show that they are better than P4's for graphics work.
My Pa does high res graphics stuff and that's what he'll be getting later in the year :)

hmm ok I am leaning that way, I might get the msi neo2 kn8 tho as I have MSI now and its been trully faultless, not much of a price difference between the two..just hope I can make it all go quieter than my current wind tunnel.

m@

Well if you are after 4 SATA channels then go for the Asus A8V Deluxe WiFi g which has that. (Socket 939)

None of the latest Intel boards seem to support AGP.

ok just got back from ocuk, bought a MSI K8N Neo2-54G board, but now need to find a 3500+ winny to go in it!

m@

I think microdirect and aria have them in stock.

I need the winchester core apparently, the guy at ocuk advised me it runs slightly cooler and you can see approx. 5% difference over a newcastle core, I can only find one retailer with a 3500+ in stock, but now I have the problem that I think this board won't accept the winny chip without a bios update, and how in gods name am I supposed to do one of them lol

m@

Hmm, no winny 3500+ anywhere! Hows about a 3200+ winny and give it a little tweak? Apparently they overclock well.

ARRGHHH there was one on ebuyer 15 minutes ago and now its gone :rant: :rant: :rant: :inquisiti

hmm there is one more local retailer saying regularily stocked item, all I can do is give them a call in the morning, I have the rest of the week off wrok so if they have one I will go down in the morning otherwise I will have to see and prolly go lower. The guy in ocuk did say they were in massive demand, makes me think I should have bought P4 lol

m@

How can you tell what type of core a processor has just by the code off the chip?

i.e. ADA3500DEP4AW

Does the W mean its a Winchester? I have just been to my local supplyier, apparently AMD are introducing price cuts from Monday, but I have found this chip at a price that will be the price cut due next week, but need to know if this is indeed a winchester as there is nothing on the page to say what type it is....

m@