Help pls - AGP or PCIe & what Mobo is best??/

[gingarman]

Hi all, new to this forum, so please excuse any mistakes... Anyway i'm in need of some advice. I used to have a good pc system with the following:
Mobo= ABIT 3rd Eye
RAM= CORSAIR DDR SDRAM,Capacity 2 x 512 Mb,Clock Frequency 400 MHz,1 Gb (2x512Mb) PC3200
CPU= Athlon 64 3200+ 2000 MHz 512 KiB 1000 MHz 10x 1.35/1.40 V 67 W Socket
GPU=NVIDIA GeForce 6200 AGP8x 512mb DDR2 TV DVI
PSU= X-POWER 450W
So i had this set up for about 8 months or so when i had a fualt on the Mobo. Sent it to Ebuyer and they just returned my money.
So now i left with all the bits but no Mobo.
My question is what Mobo should i buy now? Should i stay AGP or go PCIe??
I'm dont do much except play BF2 online and a few other games and the rest is just normal pc usage. I'm not into Overclocking so really looking for a Mobo thats good fast and handle what i like, without fussying about with it.
Sorry to drag this out- thought the info the better you can help. Many thanks.

 

[jaguarskx]

I would recommend the ASRock 939Dual-VSTA motherboard since it supports both AGP and PCI-e. Therefore when you upgrade your video card later on you can buy a PCI-e version.

Just to make sure, your Athlon 64 3200+ is socket 939, not socket 754, right?

 

[gingarman]

Hi and yes its a 939, i read a report on that board which didn't really give it much to talk about?? They said it didn't stand up to other boards - but then again u cant seem to get another board like that one - plus i dont think i've seen it on sale in the UK?? many thanks again for quick reply!

 

[jaguarskx]

The ASRock 939Dual-VSTA is really the ASRock 939Dual-SATA2 that has been renamed. VSTA is short for MS Windows Vista so that people won't think this is an obsolete mobo. Click below for a review from Sept 2005:

http://www.anandtech.com/mb/showdoc.aspx?i=2524

 

[jaguarskx]

plus i dont think i've seen it on sale in the UK??

Yeah, it seems you may need to buy this mobo from eBay if you want it.

 

[madmurph]

Or, you could ditch the AGP card altogether (sell it on e-bay) and get a M/B with integrated video and a PCI-Ex16 slot for future upgrading, such as these:

http://www.mwave.com/mwave/viewspec.hmx?scriteria=BA21924

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813131069

Just my humble opinion.