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Old October 9th 04, 09:21 PM
John Lewis
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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