Socket 754 PCI-express ?

[abyssalloris]

Hi folks, first time here.

<... this is background stuff, feel free to ignore and refer to for specs alone...

I'm hoping for some reasonable advice as things are getting rapidly confusing. I've had the following system for a while: Athlon 64 3000+ (socket 754), DDR400 (single channel), nForce3-250 chipset, 2 SATA drives in RAID0 + 1 PATA drive, Radeon 9500 pro (AGP).

Everything was rosy until I caught the Oblivion bug. Previously (I dunno maybe 1.5-2 yrs back) I had changed my old system completely to run Morrowind and other stuff and have been perfectly happy until now. No compaints even with Far Cry though I don't run it much.

Now I realize my graphics card is a serious bottleneck and decided to upgrade it. It was a simple enough decision as $200 would fetch me a 6800 GS and I didn't want to spend anymore. Being an ATI guy I'd have preferred an X800GTO or somesuch but the GS is supposed to be faster and with SM 3.0, or so I figured.

Greed propelled me on to look at cards nearing the $300 range. X800XLs and XTs and even 7800 GS'es. That would let me play with some effects on. At this point I realized that many PCI-express equivalents of some AGP cards were selling for significantly lower prices. The $300 AGPs don't look like value for money. So I am faced with upgrading my mobo for PCI-express and doling out $250 for a PCI-x video card.

<.... now the question.... >

I don't want to upgrade my CPU and what not, nor do I feel I have the need to do so. Besides I can't afford it at this point. I started out at a budget of $200 if you read the above essay. So what is the best mobo option I have for socket 754 and PCI-express? Or are there no good options? I currently use a Chaintech VNF3-250. Does it make sense to look for SLI on such a combo?

Thanks for reading such a long post.

 

[Rugger]

To meet your requirements I would go with the DFi NF4X Infinity or the Gigabyte K8NE.

What I would do is upgrade to the 6800GS like you originally intended. [/shrug]

 

[parlee]

i had a similar problem on my system, socket 754 amd 3700+ with an x700pro... i decided to get oblivion and it didnt run maxxed out like i wanted... although it ran. i looked around and realized i dont really feel like ripping out my motherboard and reinstalling windows (normally u have to reinstall windows with a new mobo) so i looked at my other agp options. found the 7800gs. read a bit into it, its a decent card. pretty fast, maybe not as fast as the 7800gt on pci express, but IMO it was worth the 300 bux. im playing with high settings and HDR enabled. looks AMAZING, although id like to see it on dual 7900gtx's.

so my advise is, if u just want somthing fairly quick that will last at least a year, and get u through oblivion. 7800gs will do u fine. but remember, 754 is already dead so although finding a mobo may not be hard, there prob 50-75 bux, so to keep ur 300 dollar budget ud be stuck getting a slower pci express card, although the 7900gt is out the 7800gt is still around 289 from what ive seen, it could have dropped. plus dont forget the 7800gs overclocks pretty nice, from 400/1300 i got ~490/1.41... its plenty for me, plus 300 was my limit on a dead agp board

 

[jap0nes]

There's a legend that says AGP still has plenty of bandwidth for playing games today, and i guess it's true. So, if you've got a low budget you should pick the 6800GS AGP as you said.
BUT at the other side... IF you buy a high end card like a 7800 AGP or an ATI equivalent you are killing your upgrade path and throwing your money away. I was in the same situation as you... I had and old athlon xp and wanted to upgrade but i didnt have much money... So, in my experience i decided to buy a socket 754 mother board with PCI-E (Asus K8N4-E Deluxe). I have a 6600, but i can change for 7900 for example and it will last for a couple of years... Then if i upgrade again i can stay with my gfx and change only cpu and mother board.
If you pick AGP you would have to change your video card too.
If i were you I would wait a couple of months until socket AM2 comes out, then socket 939 prices will drop, and in the meantime you save your money and upgrade it all by then... just my opinion