X1300 512mb PCI-E or keep my 6600 256mb AGP 8x

[emp]

Ok I'm in serious need for help, please bother to read the following so you understand my situation first, thanks

I am currently running on a machine with Celeron S478 2.0 Ghz (yeah I know), 1Gb Ram, and XFX GeForce 6600 256mb AGP 8x. I've been saving up for a while to get a new processor and now that Core 2 Duo are out, it's time. In order to do this, I must get a new motherboard, but the problem is that its so hard to find a Core 2 Duo supporting motherboard with AGP Slot, I, however, found one on a store in my vincinity, this ECS P4M800PRO-M for about $40 (and as you can imagine, in this case I'd get exactly what I'd pay for). Now my dilemma is the following, should I buy a motherboard that would be at its "maxed" out capabilities and then later on (maybe a year or so) have to buy another motherboard? I came up with another option, buying a new Graphics card.

I found the Sapphire Radeon X1300 512MB DDR PCI-E for about $115-120 in another shop, this along with the motherboard ASUS P5ND2-SLI for around $95. Now my options are simple, spend more and get a sort of future proof system (pretty much rebuilding my whole PC) or a Motherboard & CPU upgrade (motherboard having very limited life in the sense of being in "the cutting-edge of technology").

This is the Sapphire video card website:
Sapphire Radeon X1300 512MB DDR PCI-E

and this is my current card website:
XFX GeForce 6600 256MB AGP 8x

More than anything I wanted to know two things:

1.) which out of those two is the best video card?
2.) which of my options is the best choice given my situation?

Keep in mind the following:

-I have two exactly equal systems running as it is (celeron ones) so I have to build/upgrade two more systems (means double the money).
-Either way I'm going for a Core 2 Duo E6400
-Even though I do have the money, I wouldn't be mad if I saved a few bucks :roll:

 

[sithscout80]

I believe you have DDR RAM in your current system, with the ECS you'll be able to keep your current RAM, but if you get Asus motherboard, you'll need to get DDR2 RAM.

If you are going to get the Asus motherboard (and thus DDR2 RAM), a good PCI Express graphics card in the $115-120 range is the 7600 GT. It will out perform both the 6600 and the X1300 by a large margin.

If you can't get the Asus motherboard because you can't pay for the RAM, I would just recommend waiting till you have money.

 

[sithscout80]

Performance comparison of these cards. This X1300 is the closest I could find to the one you mentioned.

GeForce 6600 NV43, 400 MHz, 800 MHz, 128 MB DDR
Radeon X1300 Pro RV515, 601 MHz, 801 MHz, 256 MB DDR2
GeForce 7600 GS G73, 450 MHz, 800 MHz, 256 MB GDDR2
GeForce 7600 GT G73, 560 MHz, 1400 MHz, 256 GDDR3

GeForce 6600 is an average of 13.4% faster than the Radeon X1300 Pro.

I would recommend keeping your GeForce 6600. If you are looking to upgrade from your GeForce 6600, here are two cards and their relative performance increase.

GeForce 7600 GS is an average of 53.2% faster than the GeForce 6600.
GeForce 7600 GT is an average of 111.2% faster than the GeForce 6600.
(GeForce 7600 GT is an average of 37.9% faster than the GeForce 7600 GS).

These numbers are averaging all of the benchmark times from Tom's VGA Charts (excluding 3DMark scores).

 

[emp]

Thanks a lot for your feedback, but maybe I have a third choice after all (and cheapest I may add), which is to order online an ASRock 775Dual-VSTA, but does anyone have any experiences with this board, I don't want to buy it without any feedback on it

 

[redwing]

Quite a few people on these forums seem to be using ASROCK boards, and from what I've seen so far the response is positive - decent stability.
Don't expect to be able to get a good OC on these things though, of the same order as you'd get with a DS3 of P5B board ... then again maybe someone managed to do that.