Socket 775/AGP MB recommendation?

[Scrumhalf]

I am intending to build my next system around a 3.6GHz Prescott
processor (Socket 775). I however would like to use my old Matrox
G450 dual head video card in the system.

The catch is that the G450 is an AGP card and most Socket 775 MBs seem
to be based on PCI Express and not have an AGP slot on board. The
only boards I could find that meets this bill are the Abit AS8 and the
Asus PSP800, although for about the same price, the Abit seems to be
much more feature packed (SATA, Firewire, etc.).

I would appreciate any recommendations for any other choices or
comments on the two above.

I intend to run a Debian Linux distro on it - any info on system
stability with Linux on any of these MBs would be useful as well.

Thanks!

 

[Dave C.]

I am intending to build my next system around a 3.6GHz Prescott
processor (Socket 775). I however would like to use my old Matrox
G450 dual head video card in the system.

The catch is that the G450 is an AGP card and most Socket 775 MBs seem
to be based on PCI Express and not have an AGP slot on board. The
only boards I could find that meets this bill are the Abit AS8 and the
Asus PSP800, although for about the same price, the Abit seems to be
much more feature packed (SATA, Firewire, etc.).

I would appreciate any recommendations for any other choices or
comments on the two above.

I intend to run a Debian Linux distro on it - any info on system
stability with Linux on any of these MBs would be useful as well.

Thanks!

Check the voltage of that video card. You are putting a 4X (max) AGP card
in an 8X slot. It might work, but I suspect it won't. It might be time to
consider a PCI Express solution. -Dave

 

[Scrumhalf]

Check the voltage of that video card. You are putting a 4X (max) AGP card
in an 8X slot. It might work, but I suspect it won't. It might be time to
consider a PCI Express solution. -Dave

The AS8 MB specs say that it is 8X/4X (0.8V and 1.5V). The G450 is
1X/2X/4X. I have another 2.4GHz Northwood machine that is using an
Asus P4S800 MB (AGP 1.5V ONLY) in which I stuck another G450 and it
works like a champ, so I am fairly sure the AS8 should work fine here
as well.

I really like the Matrox. I don't do any gaming - the machine will
only do work -related stuff and the card has excellent 2D performance,
more than enough for my needs. This will be the 3rd system that card
will be in - a 1GHz Coppermine machine running Win98, followed by a
1.2GHz Tualatin running Win2K Server, and now a 3.6GHz Linux
machine.....as you can see, my OS tastes are also getting increasingly
refined

Hate to drop premium $s on a PCI express dual head card and not use it
for anything but programming