Should I upgrade my Mobo to a PCI-e one?

[00maxse]

I built my first computer about a year ago and I didn't know the difference between PCI-E and AGP, so I bought an AGP motherboard. I have the Athlon 64 3000+ chip and a Nvidia 6600GT videocard (AGP of course)

Should I buy a new motherboard that has PCI-E? I know that AGP isn't really being supported much anymore and I want to be able to upgrade my videocard in the future for gaming.

Also, if I DO get a new motherboard, will I have to reformat my hard drives when I switch everything over? I'm running XP Professional.

Thanks guys 8)

 

[p8ntslinger676]

Hey dont be so pesemistic, there are still some really good grafics cards coming out for AGP, most recently being the 7800 GS which is going to have a AGP version, and acctually there is an article up right now in HARDWARE about it so why dont you look at that first then make your decision.

 

[chuckshissle]

Upgrading to a PCI-Express board is good idea. Although Nvidia has launch the 7800 GS for AGP for around $350-$400. Upgrading to a Pci-e system would cost you the same price as the 7800 GS.

SLI mobo around $100-$200

Graphics card ( Pci-e) 6800 GT $230 or 7800 GT $290.

 

[p8ntslinger676]

First of all if you are running a AMD cpu you might want to for the socket M2 mobos to come out theyre gunna be coming out late spring to early summer and then you would be set for later cpus cus they wont be changing sockets like from the socket 754 to the 939, there will be more expandability in the future. Otherwise if your running a P4 it is up to you cus i have no clue about pentium products. :?

 

[00maxse]

Cool, like I said I'm running the Athlon 64 3000+ right now. How much is this M2 going to cost?

The reason I was wanting to do this now is so that I can still get a reasonable amount of money from selling my current mobo, cpu, and video card on like eBay or something. The longer I wait, the less $ I could get for them no?

 

[ak47is1337]

00MaxSE, my friend made the same mistake buying an AGP board. This really comes down to just how much gaming performance do you need. Really the best AGP card out IMO is the 6800gt/ultra, as another forum post says that their 7800gs is having problems, as it is in serious lack of pipelines. Right now, the best bang for the buck is certainly the 7800gt not gs. I would get a good asus/dfi board and just overclock that nice little 3000 to 2.7 and buy a 6800gs/7800gt to suit things for a time to come. Don't buy into AM2, just like everything late and great it will be expensive and you won't be able to re-use that fine cpu or memory. You probably won't need to reformat that drive when you get a new mobo, but you will definately need to re-activate windows (i have to reactivate every time i switch some wires lol). but to be safe, you ought to back up DEFINATELY. by the way, is overclocking important to you? if it is, i might recommend that motherboard below me.

 

[00maxse]

Thankyou for your advice. I'll definately do some research before I decide what I want to do in the end. I was looking into the Asus A8N motherboard maybe.

 

[ak47is1337]

yes, that is a very good series of ASUS boards.

 

[00maxse]

yes, that is a very good series of ASUS boards.

Is this the board YOU have?
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813136159

Someone in the review said you can't use value ram with this board. I have Corsair Value Select DDR400 PC3200 CAS2.5. Will that work?

Thanks for your help :lol:

EDIT: also, the board I have now, the K8N-E Deluxe is a 20 power pin, so I guess my power supply is 20? Will that not work with a 24 pin board then?

 

[ak47is1337]

no, that is nf-d. mine is ultra-d. there IS A DIFFERENCE!

 

[00maxse]

Oh, I see. what about the power pins I mentioned above? :?:

 

[ak47is1337]

00MaxSE, the 20-24 power switch should happen with almost all pci-express motherboards. Your options are: a, just plug in 20 pins (highly unrecommended) b, get a 20-24 pin converter cable (i had one of these they are massive and aren't recommended for total stability) or c. buy a new power supply. c would definately be your best option for an Ultra-D considering how picky they are with power supplies. If you want, I can link you to a massive page of recommended power supplies by DFI engineers.

 

[00maxse]

Sure, I'd like to see the list. I bought my case off of eBay over a year ago and they didn't specify the pins that came with the power supply. So, if I ended up buying a PCI-E mobo in the first place, I would've been screwed huh? :x

 

[ak47is1337]

o noes a generic psu....that will fuck you in the ass eventually. anyway, heres the site: http://www.dfi-street.com/forum/showthread.php?t=10854&highlight=recommended+power

 

[00maxse]

Cool thanks. hmm, some of those are kinda expensive. Will the ram that I mentioned work with the motherboard you have?

 

[ak47is1337]

i have no reason to believe otherwise. although obviously ultra-d would prefer high-voltage high-performance ram, it is more than likely capable of handling value select corsair (which from a review i read will oc to 220 at 2.5 cas) and if it doesn't, newegg will give you a full refund.