Need advice for 939 with AGP

[Capella]

Well, my old P4 2.8 Dell Dimenstion 8300 died and I have decided to try the AMD route for my new CPU and Motherboard. I have an AGP 8X video card that is sufficient for now until I can afford to upgrade to something better, presumably a PCIe. I've been looking into options and am intrigued by the ASRock 939 Dual SATA2 board with AGP and PCIe. I have read mixed reviews on performance however and am wondering if it would be better to get an AGP board for now and then upgrade to one with PCIe when I get a new video card? Another one I've been looking into is the ASUS A8V. Is there something else that would be better?

Stability and speed are priorities. I do a lot of graphic design and photo editing work, and while I'm not a crazy hardcore gamer I do some and I'd like something that'd be at least decent. I also haven't done any overclocking before, but it's something I've looked into a lot and would like to try if it had a novice-friendly approach.

I'd like to keep it under $150... even that's pushing the limit, I just don't know if the super-budget boards end up being more trouble than they're worth?

What do you recommend?

Thanks in advance!

 

[merlin3791]

I built a new system using the Asrock board your referring to and I love my new system. Im using an AMD 64 3800+ ( 2.4Mhz stock speed, overclocked it to 2.7Mhz) Its not any harder overclocking this board than another. I bought this board so I could use my 6600gt agp card in and it worked great. I have since upgraded to a Gigabyte 7800gt PCI-e and it runs flawlessly also.

I honestly dont think you could go wrong with the Asrock 939 dual sata Its a great board at a fantastic price.

 

[Capella]

Thanks for the responses. I am now enjoying my new ASRock 939 Dual-SATA2 system with an Athlon 64 3200+! Especially considering how little I paid, I'm certainly happy with the performance so far compared to my P4. I had to wipe the hard drive and am still in the process of reinstalling everything. When I first got the internet hooked back up it became REALLY slow, almost like it was frozen, but it was just taking ages to respond. It wouldn't shut down properly and was being kind of quirky in general. The same thing kept happening after a few re-boots, but it's been geat so far today. I haven't really had the chance to put it to the test yet, but hopefully it will be okay now. Any suggestions? Very glad to have my own computer back again!