Upgrade dilemma-- get AGP 8x or PCI Express?
 

I'm debating whether I should buy a PCI Express motherboard (and new
graphics card), or upgrade to an AGP motherboard and stick with my FX5700
for a bit.

I'd be happy with PCI Express, except I'd also like an Athlon 64 processor,
and there don't seem to be any AMD/PCI Express motherboards out yet, nor
will there be any until Q1 2005 I hear. On the other hand, if I buy an AGP
motherboard and decide to upgrade my card in a year, will Nvidia have
stopped making AGP cards by then? Does anyone know what Nvidia's plans are
for AGP the next year or two? Thanks for the advice and any discussion.

Jim Bancroft wrote:


I'm debating whether I should buy a PCI Express motherboard (and new
graphics card), or upgrade to an AGP motherboard and stick with my FX5700
for a bit.

I'd be happy with PCI Express, except I'd also like an Athlon 64
processor, and there don't seem to be any AMD/PCI Express motherboards out
yet, nor
will there be any until Q1 2005 I hear. On the other hand, if I buy an
AGP motherboard and decide to upgrade my card in a year, will Nvidia have
stopped making AGP cards by then? Does anyone know what Nvidia's plans
are
for AGP the next year or two? Thanks for the advice and any discussion.

You won't find any Athlon 64 PCI Express machines until the Nforce 4 chipset
ships.

Personally I'd hold off on PCI Express until the second generation of PCI
Express hardware ships--bound to be bugs in the first generation. It's
unlikely in the extreme that nvidia will cease to produce AGP hardware in
the next year or so.

--
--John
Reply to jclarke at ae tee tee global dot net
(was jclarke at eye bee em dot net)

On Sat, 09 Oct 2004 05:55:01 GMT, "Jim Bancroft"
wrote:


I'm debating whether I should buy a PCI Express motherboard (and new
graphics card), or upgrade to an AGP motherboard and stick with my FX5700
for a bit.

I'd be happy with PCI Express, except I'd also like an Athlon 64 processor,
and there don't seem to be any AMD/PCI Express motherboards out yet, nor
will there be any until Q1 2005 I hear. On the other hand, if I buy an AGP
motherboard and decide to upgrade my card in a year, will Nvidia have
stopped making AGP cards by then? Does anyone know what Nvidia's plans are
for AGP the next year or two? Thanks for the advice and any discussion.


No fear. The peripheral upgrade market is vast, and many people
are holding off buying PCI Express until the prices fall to reasonable
levels.

Dunno what you already have, but here is a steal while
you are waiting for full-fledged PCI Express at economic
prices (-- middle to end of next year probably.):-

At Fry's this weekend there is a sale of the 3.2GHz Prescott
(478-pin, boxed) and the ECS 848P-A motherboard bundled for $189.

The ECS 848P-A in the bundle is Prescott-compatible -- there
is a large label on the box saying "Intel Prescott CPU Support"
Don't let anybody pawn off an older version. 2-channel SATA
(non-RAID) and normal dual-channel PATA ( up to 4 devices)
It should also include 10/100LAN and integrated Realtek audio.
Check the label on the side of the box for these includes.

The Intel 848 is the single-channel DDR version of the 865 chip-set,
and the board will only accommodate 2 DIMM, so do not
get a DIMM of size less than 512Meg --- Kingston Value-ram
PC3200 512Meg, normally $79.99, goes on sale frequently
@ $59.99 after mail-in rebate. Since the board is single-channel,
you only need buy 1 DIMM to start.

I got this bundle 3 weeks ago ( on sale at $199 then) to upgrade
a computer for my son. Works like a dream. You may need to
upgrade your power-supply for Prescott, particularly the +12V,
which should not be less than 18A total for CPU, GPU and
peripheral demands. And if you ever intend to upgrade to the
6800, get a PS with at least 20amps available on +12V.

You will need a power-supply with the +12V 4-pin square
Molex connector to supply the CPU regulator power.

John Lewis

"Jim Bancroft" wrote in message
...

I'm debating whether I should buy a PCI Express motherboard (and new
graphics card), or upgrade to an AGP motherboard and stick with my FX5700
for a bit.

I'd be happy with PCI Express, except I'd also like an Athlon 64
processor,
and there don't seem to be any AMD/PCI Express motherboards out yet, nor
will there be any until Q1 2005 I hear. On the other hand, if I buy an
AGP
motherboard and decide to upgrade my card in a year, will Nvidia have
stopped making AGP cards by then? Does anyone know what Nvidia's plans
are
for AGP the next year or two? Thanks for the advice and any discussion.




AGP will co-exist with PCI-E. Majority of the market still in AGP bandwagen.

CapFusion,...

John, I also got one of these boards (848P-A) with a 3.00G (Prescott)
P4 and it is working OK with some irritating problems. One, I cannot
get USB2 installed on Win2000 SP3. The supplied CD just won't install
for the USB2 drivers. Their website (www.ecs.com.tw) has new drivers
for Win98 or WinME only, and I am wondering if there is any way at all
to get USB2 to work. I tried to use the USB that is working with a
USB2 device (an IDE-USB2 adapter),
but it wouldn't work). If you are able to get USB2 working, either on
Win2000 or on Win98SE, please tell me how. I also couldn't find any
writeups on how to interpret the bootup beeps (I had trouble at first
with boot up beeps - I never figured out what it was, but, after
re-inserting everything they went away) - I emailed ECS but so far no
response. Do you know where they tell about the bootup error beep
codes? Any experience you have with this board - I am all ears -
littleberry


(John Lewis) wrote in message ...


At Fry's this weekend there is a sale of the 3.2GHz Prescott
(478-pin, boxed) and the ECS 848P-A motherboard bundled for $189.

The ECS 848P-A in the bundle is Prescott-compatible -- there
is a large label on the box saying "Intel Prescott CPU Support"
Don't let anybody pawn off an older version. 2-channel SATA
(non-RAID) and normal dual-channel PATA ( up to 4 devices)
It should also include 10/100LAN and integrated Realtek audio.
Check the label on the side of the box for these includes.

The Intel 848 is the single-channel DDR version of the 865 chip-set,
and the board will only accommodate 2 DIMM, so do not
get a DIMM of size less than 512Meg --- Kingston Value-ram
PC3200 512Meg, normally $79.99, goes on sale frequently
@ $59.99 after mail-in rebate. Since the board is single-channel,
you only need buy 1 DIMM to start.

I got this bundle 3 weeks ago ( on sale at $199 then) to upgrade
a computer for my son. Works like a dream. You may need to
upgrade your power-supply for Prescott, particularly the +12V,
which should not be less than 18A total for CPU, GPU and
peripheral demands. And if you ever intend to upgrade to the
6800, get a PS with at least 20amps available on +12V.

You will need a power-supply with the +12V 4-pin square
Molex connector to supply the CPU regulator power.

John Lewis

Install the MoBo utility driver first then the USB -
http://www.ecs.com.tw/ECSWeb/Product...ailName=Driver
and any other driver.

CapFusion,...



"Littleberry" wrote in message
m...
John, I also got one of these boards (848P-A) with a 3.00G (Prescott)
P4 and it is working OK with some irritating problems. One, I cannot
get USB2 installed on Win2000 SP3. The supplied CD just won't install
for the USB2 drivers. Their website (www.ecs.com.tw) has new drivers
for Win98 or WinME only, and I am wondering if there is any way at all
to get USB2 to work. I tried to use the USB that is working with a
USB2 device (an IDE-USB2 adapter),
but it wouldn't work). If you are able to get USB2 working, either on
Win2000 or on Win98SE, please tell me how. I also couldn't find any
writeups on how to interpret the bootup beeps (I had trouble at first
with boot up beeps - I never figured out what it was, but, after
re-inserting everything they went away) - I emailed ECS but so far no
response. Do you know where they tell about the bootup error beep
codes? Any experience you have with this board - I am all ears -
littleberry


(John Lewis) wrote in message
...


At Fry's this weekend there is a sale of the 3.2GHz Prescott
(478-pin, boxed) and the ECS 848P-A motherboard bundled for $189.

The ECS 848P-A in the bundle is Prescott-compatible -- there
is a large label on the box saying "Intel Prescott CPU Support"
Don't let anybody pawn off an older version. 2-channel SATA
(non-RAID) and normal dual-channel PATA ( up to 4 devices)
It should also include 10/100LAN and integrated Realtek audio.
Check the label on the side of the box for these includes.

The Intel 848 is the single-channel DDR version of the 865 chip-set,
and the board will only accommodate 2 DIMM, so do not
get a DIMM of size less than 512Meg --- Kingston Value-ram
PC3200 512Meg, normally $79.99, goes on sale frequently
@ $59.99 after mail-in rebate. Since the board is single-channel,
you only need buy 1 DIMM to start.

I got this bundle 3 weeks ago ( on sale at $199 then) to upgrade
a computer for my son. Works like a dream. You may need to
upgrade your power-supply for Prescott, particularly the +12V,
which should not be less than 18A total for CPU, GPU and
peripheral demands. And if you ever intend to upgrade to the
6800, get a PS with at least 20amps available on +12V.

You will need a power-supply with the +12V 4-pin square
Molex connector to supply the CPU regulator power.

John Lewis

Littleberry wrote:
John, I also got one of these boards (848P-A) with a 3.00G (Prescott)
P4 and it is working OK with some irritating problems. One, I cannot
get USB2 installed on Win2000 SP3. The supplied CD just won't install
for the USB2 drivers. Their website (www.ecs.com.tw) has new drivers
for Win98 or WinME only, and I am wondering if there is any way at all
to get USB2 to work. I tried to use the USB that is working with a
USB2 device (an IDE-USB2 adapter),
but it wouldn't work). If you are able to get USB2 working, either on
Win2000 or on Win98SE, please tell me how. I also couldn't find any
writeups on how to interpret the bootup beeps (I had trouble at first
with boot up beeps - I never figured out what it was, but, after
re-inserting everything they went away) - I emailed ECS but so far no
response. Do you know where they tell about the bootup error beep
codes? Any experience you have with this board - I am all ears -
littleberry

Windows 2000 should have built-in drivers for USB 2.0, but I believe you
may need SP4 to get support for it.

--
Robert Hancock Saskatoon, SK, Canada
To email, remove "nospam" from
Home Page: http://www.roberthancock.com/