Upgrade Questions AMD? AM2? 939? AGP?

[goexplodex4]

Ok, heres the thing. Ive got a lot of questions.

First of all I currently run a Pentium 4 Prescott 3.0E. With all the price cuts going on I was looking into getting an AMD 4200+ X2. My first questions, is that a significant enough upgrade (I have a hard time with the clock speed and AMD)

Second question.
I have an AGP gfx card but i wanted to be able to upgrade to pci-e. Is there an AM2 or 939 board out there that takes both. My idea situation is an AM2 board with AGP and PCIE but i have never seen one. I also wanted the board to have firewire as well as support for 4 front usb ports, but Id live without those.

 

[Dan1317]

What kind of RAM do you have? If it's DDR and you don't want to upgrade then you will need to get 939. But if it isn't or you are goin to buy DDR2 then I would go AM2. I kind of doubt there will be a AM2 with AGP. Here are some that are on newegg (So it's USD)

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813135212
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813187012
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813157081
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813138270

These are all 939 boards and some are a little crappy.

Hope this helps

 

[Vein]

Generally speaking, the crossover boards (AGP + PCI-E) are going to be very basic in nature. Oftentimes, the PCI-E slot is only 4x as well. So, if you are intending to do any sort of gaming or overclocking or anything that will require a lot from the motherboard, you might have to look elsewhere .
How old is your AGP card? If it is fairly old, say a fx 5200 like I had at one point (ugh), you can find PCI-E cards in the $50 range or less on places like newegg/tigerdirect that will at the very least match the performance of your current card, if not exceed them. Then, when you have some cash saved up and have researched a card that you think you want, buy it. In the end, you'll end up with a better system that will likely (hopefully) have more longevity.

 

[ZimboBEAR]

I have seen an Asrock board (Asrock 775 DUAL-VSTA VIA PT880) for the new Core 2 Duo chips that retails at a very very low price, which has AGP and PCI express, also it has slots for DDR or DDR2, but because of that you are limited to 2GB of either DDR or DDR2... it might be an option to get the E6300 and this board for the time being.

 

[RichPLS]

AsRock makes a Conroe board which will Crossfire video cards... looks good as a transition board for $85 at NewEgg...

http://www.asrock.com/product/ConRoeXFire-eSATA2.htm

 

[chewbenator]

But doesn't it operate on one 16x slot and 1 4x slot? I wouldn't recommend getting a "transition board" unless you are moving all your components to a new system. Even then you will be behind the curve, and when you upgrade, still be behind it.

 

[BaronMatrix]

Ok, heres the thing. Ive got a lot of questions.

First of all I currently run a Pentium 4 Prescott 3.0E. With all the price cuts going on I was looking into getting an AMD 4200+ X2. My first questions, is that a significant enough upgrade (I have a hard time with the clock speed and AMD)

Second question.
I have an AGP gfx card but i wanted to be able to upgrade to pci-e. Is there an AM2 or 939 board out there that takes both. My idea situation is an AM2 board with AGP and PCIE but i have never seen one. I also wanted the board to have firewire as well as support for 4 front usb ports, but Id live without those.

First, That will eb a slight upgrade. If you have the right board you can get a Core 2 6300 which would be a better upgrade.

Second if you get a cheap ASRock I think they have AGP and support Core 2 for under $100. I hear it only has PATA, though.