Recommend a Mobo and Processor.....

[carbolicsmokeball]

Hi all,

have deciede to swap ranks and go to AMD from Intel.

Not too gelled up on spec with AMDs, so any advice would be appreciated.

Looking for a good fast mobo, with support for my ddr 400 memory, I'd aslo like your ideas or a a decent AMD processor. As I say I dont know much about the FSB on AMDs, but they appear to be somewhat lower than intels, but perform just as well.

Looking to spend about £150ish combined.

Will be keeping my 6600gt, and other bits n bobs.

Cheers

 

[floppybootstomp]

What slot does your graphics card fit into?

 

[carbolicsmokeball]

agp , although may sell it and get a PCI-e, but that would be cost dependeant!

 

[floppybootstomp]

For £150.00, you gonna have to be a little selective.

Best stay with an NForce 4/Sckt 939 board, so:

Asus A8N-E nForce4 Ultra (Socket 939) PCI-Express Motherboard - £77.
AMD Athlon 64 3000+ Venice 90nm (Socket 939) - £87.

Total: £164.00.

And you'll need a new graphics card to go with that.

You could go for a different chipset board, Via boards are quite respectable, to save money.

And I believe Asrock (budget division of Asus) have a budget motherboard with dual PCI-E/AGP slots, which may suit you.

 

[floppybootstomp]

Here's a review of the Asrock board, not sure if it's on the market yet:

ASRock 939Dual-SATA2: First Retail ULi PCIe/AGP

 

[carbolicsmokeball]

Thanks floppy.

Do you think it would highly out perform my P4 3.06 HT 533, on an Asus P4S8X?


Final question, which of the 2 mobos has the fastest bus? Is the Asrock chipset as quick as the Asus?

 

[tomsega]

Yeah, anything with both Asus and SLI written on it should do the trick. However, is your 6600gt AGP or PCI express? If you only have an AGP card the ASROCK somebody mentioned in a previous post is the only board currently available that has 1 AGP slot and 1 PCI-e slot too - so that will leave you open to upgrade to PCI-E in the future. Check out 1megashop.co.uk - they sell pre-built barebone machines that consist of that asrock motherboard, a case, and a processor. They are about £250 quid tho, but for £400 you could get one with a 4000 processor! yay!

If you get one with SLI you will be able to add another 6600gt to that later down the line... However, be warned, even two of those combined only really produces the performance of a single 6800 ultra....So you may wanna wait and save a bit more, because the 6800ultra's will start getting CHEAP soon

 

[floppybootstomp]

Do you think it would highly out perform my P4 3.06 HT 533, on an Asus P4S8X?

To be honest - no.

I really don't see the point in changing if you only have £150.00 as a budget.

Now if you were going to buy a more expensive Motherboard, such as top of the line Asus or DFI, and go for a San Diego core AMD CPU or maybe an FX model or dual core, then I'd say it would be worth changing.

Nope, my advice would be to save up around £500.00 and then swap out mobo, CPU & Graphics card.

What you have right now is really quite good.