Is GIGABYTE GA-M55plus-S3G motherboard a good choice?

Hello,

I am planning to upgrade my old motherboard, CPU, Quantum 15 GB IDE HDD,
and video card in a few weeks because newer and upcoming games are slow
and choppy. http://alpha.zimage.com/~ant/antfarm.../computers.txt
shows what my current primary/gaming computer is using. I am of thinking
of getting an AMD Athlon 64 X2 CPU (939) and GIGABYTE GA-M55plus-S3G,
and reusing old parts (case, 2 GB of RAM, sound card, two TV tuner
cards, two old IDE HDDs (one is replaced with a new and fast SATA 320 GB
HDD), DVD-ROM drive, CD burner, etc.). I also will not be overclocking.
Notice I am not the type of guy who gets the latest stuff.

I was going to go Intel, but it costs a lot more and I didn't not want
to spend a lot of money on this upgrade. I am going to keep using
Windows XP Pro. SP2 (32-bit). Who knows when I will get Vista. Maybe not
for a long time. Linux/Debian will be later on though (a few years)
when I put in my other mid-tower ATX case.

Plan to get:
1. A GIGABYTE GA-M55plus-S3G motherboard.
2. An AMD Athlon 64 X2 (939) CPU -- probably 4600+ speed.
3. A NVIDIA GeForce 79xx PCIe card (no SLI).
4. A Seagate 320 GB SATA HDD (3 Gb/sec).
5. A PCI IDE Controller for two more IDE ports for two old IDE HDDs, CD,
and DVD drives.

What do you think? Any problems with this setup? Thank you in advance.

--
"Thanks for giving me the courage to eat all those ants." --unknown
/\___/\
/ /\ /\ \ Phillip (Ant) @ http://antfarm.ma.cx (Personal Web Site)
| |o o| | Ant's Quality Foraged Links (AQFL): http://aqfl.net
\ _ / Please remove ANT if replying by e-mail.
( )

On Thu, 14 Dec 2006 10:48:47 -0600, ANTant wrote:

Plan to get:
1. A GIGABYTE GA-M55plus-S3G motherboard.

That's an AM2 MB. And there's actually 3 diferent revs, each with a
different Nvidia chipset.

2. An AMD Athlon 64 X2 (939) CPU -- probably 4600+ speed.

Get an AM2 3800+ and set the FSB to 233 or higher.

3. A NVIDIA GeForce 79xx PCIe card (no SLI).

Then you don't want a board with on board video.

4. A Seagate 320 GB SATA HDD (3 Gb/sec).
5. A PCI IDE Controller for two more IDE ports for two old IDE HDDs, CD,
and DVD drives.

What do you think? Any problems with this setup? Thank you in advance.

Big problems. If you really want to stick with AMD, then go AM2, not 939,
It's dead, and the CPU's for it are much higher than the AM2 models. You
can get a decent AM2 MB and X2 3800+ for under $200. The 939 X2 3800+ will
cost you that much alone at this time. If you really wnat to stay with
939, a big mistake IMO, then look for a 939 board without on board video.
there's no sense in paying for it if you aren't going to use it.

--
Want the ultimate in free OTA SD/HDTV Recorder? http://mythtv.org
http://mysettopbox.tv/knoppmyth.html Usenet alt.video.ptv.mythtv
My server http://wesnewell.no-ip.com/cpu.php
HD Tivo S3 compared http://wesnewell.no-ip.com/mythtivo.htm

Wes Newell wrote:
On Thu, 14 Dec 2006 10:48:47 -0600, ANTant wrote:

Plan to get:
1. A GIGABYTE GA-M55plus-S3G motherboard.

That's an AM2 MB. And there's actually 3 diferent revs, each with a
different Nvidia chipset.

DOH! Which one do I want for 939 then? I didn't know there were
different revisions. I thought BIOS updates added CPU support.


2. An AMD Athlon 64 X2 (939) CPU -- probably 4600+ speed.

Get an AM2 3800+ and set the FSB to 233 or higher.

Then, I can't reuse my old RAM. I cannot spend a lot of money to
upgrade.


3. A NVIDIA GeForce 79xx PCIe card (no SLI).

Then you don't want a board with on board video.

Ah OK. This upgrade is mainly for games (new ones).


4. A Seagate 320 GB SATA HDD (3 Gb/sec).
5. A PCI IDE Controller for two more IDE ports for two old IDE HDDs, CD,
and DVD drives.

What do you think? Any problems with this setup? Thank you in advance.

Big problems. If you really want to stick with AMD, then go AM2, not 939,
It's dead, and the CPU's for it are much higher than the AM2 models. You
can get a decent AM2 MB and X2 3800+ for under $200. The 939 X2 3800+ will
cost you that much alone at this time. If you really wnat to stay with
939, a big mistake IMO, then look for a 939 board without on board video.
there's no sense in paying for it if you aren't going to use it.

But I still need to buy 2 GB of RAM (yes 2 GB). That's over 200 bucks
for a good brand (never buy cheap ones). Is it really that much faster
with AM2 over X2? And yes, I want dual core.
--
"Thanks for giving me the courage to eat all those ants." --unknown
/\___/\
/ /\ /\ \ Phillip (Ant) @ http://antfarm.ma.cx (Personal Web Site)
| |o o| | Ant's Quality Foraged Links (AQFL): http://aqfl.net
\ _ / Please remove ANT if replying by e-mail.
( )

I read http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets...spx?i=2738&p=4 and
there doesn't seem to major speed differences between 939 and AM2 CPUs,
especially for newer games. A few FPS more for $200 more for new RAM
doesn't seem worth it.


Wes Newell wrote:
On Thu, 14 Dec 2006 10:48:47 -0600, ANTant wrote:

Plan to get:
1. A GIGABYTE GA-M55plus-S3G motherboard.

That's an AM2 MB. And there's actually 3 diferent revs, each with a
different Nvidia chipset.

2. An AMD Athlon 64 X2 (939) CPU -- probably 4600+ speed.

Get an AM2 3800+ and set the FSB to 233 or higher.

3. A NVIDIA GeForce 79xx PCIe card (no SLI).

Then you don't want a board with on board video.

4. A Seagate 320 GB SATA HDD (3 Gb/sec).
5. A PCI IDE Controller for two more IDE ports for two old IDE HDDs, CD,
and DVD drives.

What do you think? Any problems with this setup? Thank you in advance.

Big problems. If you really want to stick with AMD, then go AM2, not 939,
It's dead, and the CPU's for it are much higher than the AM2 models. You
can get a decent AM2 MB and X2 3800+ for under $200. The 939 X2 3800+ will
cost you that much alone at this time. If you really wnat to stay with
939, a big mistake IMO, then look for a 939 board without on board video.
there's no sense in paying for it if you aren't going to use it.


--
"Thanks for giving me the courage to eat all those ants." --unknown
/\___/\
/ /\ /\ \ Phillip (Ant) @ http://antfarm.ma.cx (Personal Web Site)
| |o o| | Ant's Quality Foraged Links (AQFL): http://aqfl.net
\ _ / Please remove ANT if replying by e-mail.
( )

In article ,
says...
Hello,

I am planning to upgrade my old motherboard, CPU, Quantum 15 GB IDE HDD,
and video card in a few weeks because newer and upcoming games are slow
and choppy. http://alpha.zimage.com/~ant/antfarm.../computers.txt
shows what my current primary/gaming computer is using. I am of thinking
of getting an AMD Athlon 64 X2 CPU (939) and GIGABYTE GA-M55plus-S3G,
and reusing old parts (case, 2 GB of RAM, sound card, two TV tuner
cards, two old IDE HDDs (one is replaced with a new and fast SATA 320 GB
HDD), DVD-ROM drive, CD burner, etc.). I also will not be overclocking.
Notice I am not the type of guy who gets the latest stuff.

I was going to go Intel, but it costs a lot more and I didn't not want
to spend a lot of money on this upgrade. I am going to keep using
Windows XP Pro. SP2 (32-bit). Who knows when I will get Vista. Maybe not
for a long time. Linux/Debian will be later on though (a few years)
when I put in my other mid-tower ATX case.

Plan to get:
1. A GIGABYTE GA-M55plus-S3G motherboard.

AM2 motherboard

2. An AMD Athlon 64 X2 (939) CPU -- probably 4600+ speed.

Socket 939 will mot work on an AM2 motherboard

3. A NVIDIA GeForce 79xx PCIe card (no SLI).
4. A Seagate 320 GB SATA HDD (3 Gb/sec).
5. A PCI IDE Controller for two more IDE ports for two old IDE HDDs, CD,
and DVD drives.

What do you think? Any problems with this setup? Thank you in advance.



Have you looked at:

MSI K8N Neo4-F Socket 939 NVIDIA nForce4

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813130491

I don't know how it is in the overclocking dept. though I just built a
system using the MSI K9NBPM2-FID Socket AM2 NVIDIA Quadro NVS 210S
and it has no overclocking settings in the bios whatsoever and ntune
was able to get the processor up to 230 MHz with complete stability.

Maybe ntune will work on the Neo4-F. Then you could get a

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819103542
AMD Athlon 64 X2 4400+ Toledo 2.2GHz 2 x 1MB L2 Cache Socket 939

and a

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16835185125

if you have the room, or a

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16835106055

if you don't.

Bill
--
Gmail and Google Groups. This century's answer to AOL and WebTV.

In article ,
says...
I read http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets...spx?i=2738&p=4 and
there doesn't seem to major speed differences between 939 and AM2 CPUs,
especially for newer games. A few FPS more for $200 more for new RAM
doesn't seem worth it.

snip

My rig:

Asus A8N32 SLI Deluxe
Amd Socket 939 64 X2 4600+ OC to 2.6 GHz
2 GB Corsair CMX1024-3200C2 ram
MSI NVidia 7900gt video card
Viewsonic VP930b 19" LCD 1280x1024
6 Hds coming to over 1.5 TB
2 DL DVD burners

Plays CoD2, UT2004, DOOM 3, all bells and whistles turned up with
with no stuttering. Oh, and I usually have SETI and Einstein at home
running in the background at the same time.

Windows Vista tells me my rig rates a 5.5 though I find that Vista
runs slower on my rig than WinXP SP2. Dual boots with SUSE Linux 10.1
and it runs well also.

My next major rebuild will be in a year or so when the DX10 cards and
the Quad4 processors get reasonible in price.

AM2s are nice but not necessary for a fast rig for todays games and a
fast Socket 939 will probably hold you for at least a year. IMO.

Bill
--
Gmail and Google Groups. This century's answer to AOL and WebTV.

I read http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets...spx?i=2738&p=4 and
there doesn't seem to major speed differences between 939 and AM2 CPUs,
especially for newer games. A few FPS more for $200 more for new RAM
doesn't seem worth it.

snip

My rig:

Asus A8N32 SLI Deluxe
Amd Socket 939 64 X2 4600+ OC to 2.6 GHz
2 GB Corsair CMX1024-3200C2 ram
MSI NVidia 7900gt video card
Viewsonic VP930b 19" LCD 1280x1024
6 Hds coming to over 1.5 TB
2 DL DVD burners

Plays CoD2, UT2004, DOOM 3, all bells and whistles turned up with
with no stuttering. Oh, and I usually have SETI and Einstein at home
running in the background at the same time.

Windows Vista tells me my rig rates a 5.5 though I find that Vista
runs slower on my rig than WinXP SP2. Dual boots with SUSE Linux 10.1
and it runs well also.

My next major rebuild will be in a year or so when the DX10 cards and
the Quad4 processors get reasonible in price.

AM2s are nice but not necessary for a fast rig for todays games and a
fast Socket 939 will probably hold you for at least a year. IMO.

Well, I hope it's two years for me. I never upgrade less than two years.
I do upgrade video card like once a year.
--
"Thanks for giving me the courage to eat all those ants." --unknown
/\___/\
/ /\ /\ \ Phillip (Ant) @ http://antfarm.ma.cx (Personal Web Site)
| |o o| | Ant's Quality Foraged Links (AQFL): http://aqfl.net
\ _ / Please remove ANT if replying by e-mail.
( )

Bill wrote:
In article ,
says...
Hello,

I am planning to upgrade my old motherboard, CPU, Quantum 15 GB IDE HDD,
and video card in a few weeks because newer and upcoming games are slow
and choppy. http://alpha.zimage.com/~ant/antfarm.../computers.txt
shows what my current primary/gaming computer is using. I am of thinking
of getting an AMD Athlon 64 X2 CPU (939) and GIGABYTE GA-M55plus-S3G,
and reusing old parts (case, 2 GB of RAM, sound card, two TV tuner
cards, two old IDE HDDs (one is replaced with a new and fast SATA 320 GB
HDD), DVD-ROM drive, CD burner, etc.). I also will not be overclocking.
Notice I am not the type of guy who gets the latest stuff.

I was going to go Intel, but it costs a lot more and I didn't not want
to spend a lot of money on this upgrade. I am going to keep using
Windows XP Pro. SP2 (32-bit). Who knows when I will get Vista. Maybe not
for a long time. Linux/Debian will be later on though (a few years)
when I put in my other mid-tower ATX case.

Plan to get:
1. A GIGABYTE GA-M55plus-S3G motherboard.

AM2 motherboard

2. An AMD Athlon 64 X2 (939) CPU -- probably 4600+ speed.

Socket 939 will mot work on an AM2 motherboard

Ah crap. See, that is why I needed to check with the public.


3. A NVIDIA GeForce 79xx PCIe card (no SLI).
4. A Seagate 320 GB SATA HDD (3 Gb/sec).
5. A PCI IDE Controller for two more IDE ports for two old IDE HDDs, CD,
and DVD drives.

What do you think? Any problems with this setup? Thank you in advance.



Have you looked at:

MSI K8N Neo4-F Socket 939 NVIDIA nForce4

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813130491

I don't know how it is in the overclocking dept. though I just built a
system using the MSI K9NBPM2-FID Socket AM2 NVIDIA Quadro NVS 210S
and it has no overclocking settings in the bios whatsoever and ntune
was able to get the processor up to 230 MHz with complete stability.

I don't overclock so that's out of the picture.


Maybe ntune will work on the Neo4-F. Then you could get a

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819103542
AMD Athlon 64 X2 4400+ Toledo 2.2GHz 2 x 1MB L2 Cache Socket 939

and a

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16835185125

if you have the room, or a

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16835106055

if you don't.

Thanks.
--
"Thanks for giving me the courage to eat all those ants." --unknown
/\___/\
/ /\ /\ \ Phillip (Ant) @ http://antfarm.ma.cx (Personal Web Site)
| |o o| | Ant's Quality Foraged Links (AQFL): http://aqfl.net
\ _ / Please remove ANT if replying by e-mail.
( )

On Thu, 14 Dec 2006 16:48:56 -0600, ANTant wrote:

I read http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets...spx?i=2738&p=4 and
there doesn't seem to major speed differences between 939 and AM2 CPUs,
especially for newer games. A few FPS more for $200 more for new RAM
doesn't seem worth it.

Really? Look at this.

http://www23.tomshardware.com/cpu.ht...=477&chart=165

You might also note that the AM2 X2 3800+ beats the 939 X2 4600+ in this
game. Next, you can resale your old system and ram so overall, the upgrade
bottom line cost will probably be less than $200 total (MB/CPU/RAM).

Or, you could just upgrade your video card and overclock your current A64
3200+ for nothing. if you buy a new board, I'd certainly go with an AM2
board regardless of the iniital cost. You might want to upgrade the CPu
one of these days agian. You won't be able to get much out of the
discontinued 939. There's already X2 5600+'s for the AM2.

--
Want the ultimate in free OTA SD/HDTV Recorder? http://mythtv.org
http://mysettopbox.tv/knoppmyth.html Usenet alt.video.ptv.mythtv
My server http://wesnewell.no-ip.com/cpu.php
HD Tivo S3 compared http://wesnewell.no-ip.com/mythtivo.htm

In article iQqgh.7766$bj5.6141@trnddc07,
says...
On Thu, 14 Dec 2006 16:48:56 -0600, ANTant wrote:

I read http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets...spx?i=2738&p=4 and
there doesn't seem to major speed differences between 939 and AM2 CPUs,
especially for newer games. A few FPS more for $200 more for new RAM
doesn't seem worth it.

Really? Look at this.

http://www23.tomshardware.com/cpu.ht...=477&chart=165

You might also note that the AM2 X2 3800+ beats the 939 X2 4600+ in this
game.

Which game was that? I only saw the AM2 64 X2 3800+ come in tied with
the Socket 939 X2 4600+ at 127.0 fps on the CoD2 time demo and coming
in behind on the others.

Next, you can resale your old system and ram so overall, the upgrade
bottom line cost will probably be less than $200 total (MB/CPU/RAM).

That's one route, though it depends on what he can get for his old
computer.


Or, you could just upgrade your video card and overclock your current A64
3200+ for nothing. if you buy a new board, I'd certainly go with an AM2
board regardless of the iniital cost. You might want to upgrade the CPu
one of these days agian. You won't be able to get much out of the
discontinued 939. There's already X2 5600+'s for the AM2.


Yep, if I was to build a complete new one today I'd definately go for
the AM2 if I had the money and was sticking with AMD. OTOH, a few
hundred more would get a really blazing Intel Core 2 Duo system.

On a limited budget though, everything is a trade off.

Bill
--
Gmail and Google Groups. This century's answer to AOL and WebTV.