advice needed on mobo/cpu upgrade for my aging system

[benjamk81]

Hi all im new here and need some advice......

My problem is that i have and old system with pci and agp expansion slots. Due to the fact i cannot afford to bite the full upgrade bullet yet i recently upgraded my system with a new agp gfx card (x1950pro) and a new 580w psu to power it. However im finding now that my inferior 1.1ghz processor and mobo are in fact the big problem so i now need a faster processor and a mobo that can support it and still alow me to plug in my agp gfx card and all my other pci expansions.

basicly my question to you guys is whats the best mobo that supports agp & old pci technology naturally i need something which can sport a reasonably good processor too.

any advice, i've tried searching but cant find the answer i want....

 

[Wolfshadw]

You're kind of stuck there. Newer motherboards (supporting newer processors) with AGP are becoming scarce.

I'd probably go with this Newegg Combo deal (see lower left for combo) for $130 or this ASRock Hybrid and an Intel Core 2 Duo processor, depending on your budget.

A couple things of note:
1) Make sure the motherboard physically fits within your case (The ASRock mobo is full ATX).
2) Make sure the power connector from your PSU is compatible with whichever board you select.
3) Regardless of which route you take, you will need to update your memory as well. Both these boards take DDR2 RAM

-Wolf sends

 

[benjamk81]

thats very helpfull thanks.

Im not looking to go ultra latest with quad core etc. so the examples you have supplied look good, much better than what i have.

So even the motherboards that support dual core processors do still (at least some of them) support old style pci and agp in addition to pci-e?

If so then that news has knocked back some of my fears

theres life in the old girl yet!

 

[benjamk81]

so i could say go for http://www.microdirect.co.uk/(23291)MSI-motherboard-K9MMV-AM2-DDR2-on-board-VGA.aspx

with a

http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/B000MNA07I/nextaguk_rt-21/ref=nosim

or

http://www.pcupgrade.co.uk/productdetails.asp?ProductID=1781&categoryid=260

with a

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CP-156-IN&groupid=701&catid=6&subcat=

would these combinations work, to my understanding the later of the two would leave me with the option to upgrade with a pci-e gfx card in the future.

While the first would be cheaper and still support my needs in the short term.

But both combinations would enable me to use my agp gfx card and pci sound card etc. with better mobos and processors - am i correct in my thinking here or have i missed something??

 

[Wolfshadw]

You're correct in your thinking, but there is more to it. First of all is compatibility.

The Intel Motherboard will not support processors with a frontside bus (FSB) over 1066. The E6850 you selected has a FSB of 1333. You'd need to drop that down to an older version of the Intel Core2Duo (like the E6300, E6400, or E6600). The other item of note with the ASRock Intel board is that the PCI-Ex16 graphics slot is hard wired to x4 speeds (1/4 normal). While this generally isn't an issue with mid-range PCI-E graphic cards and not an issue at all with you current AGP card, it may become an issue if you later want to upgrade to a high-end PCI-Ex16 card.

I'm not as sure on the AMD side. The motherboard you linked does support the 89W AM2 6000+, but not the 125W AM2 6000+. The link you provided for the processor doesn't specify which it is. (MSI CPU Compatibility List)

Also, you haven't linked in any memory upgrades as both these boards require DDR2 memory.

-Wolf sends

 

[benjamk81]

ok cheers for the heads-up im learning all the time here.

right im gonna knock the amd option on the head for the minute and look at the intel option. If i was to go with an E6600 and that board i'd be good right? - but is there a motherboard of the same type that supports maybe the bigger FSB and still offers the AGP option?

if not thats fine because that motherboard and the E6600 looks good to me. As for the ram factor i'd need to buy a couple of gig worth of DDR2 right?

Thanks for all the help your advice has been priceless so far and i hope im not pestering you to much here i just wanna make the best decision i can.

 

[Wolfshadw]

Unfortunately, there are no boards that I know of that support AGP graphics and a 1333 FSB processor. Perhaps someone else? Not that you really need worry about it. The E6600 will still be able to easily handle anything you plan on tossing at it.

As far as RAM goes, I rechecked the specs of the motherboard you selected:

Supports Dual Channel DDRII667 (DDRII x 2 DIMM slots) and DDR400 (DDR x 2 DIMM slots)

That board has both, DDR and DDR2 slots (but only 2 slots of each), so if your current memory happens to be DDR-400, you *can* use that, but if you're buying memory anyway, I'd recommend getting 2 Gig of DDR2-667. A quick check of Newegg prices shows 1 Gig (1x1024) of DDR-400 RAM at ~45USD and 2 Gig (2x1024) of DDR2-667 RAM at ~60USD.

...and no, you're not pestering me.

-Wolf sends

 

[benjamk81]

Ok great, Im gonna go with the Motherboard as its the best option available to me. The same with the E6600 processor plus like you said thats more than enough processing power.

im gonna take your advice on the RAM and although its only geared up for 2 Gig max i cant envisage that ever been to little.....

So that combination of three products should see me right, shouldn't it?

it should be a half decent rig then.....

 

[Wolfshadw]

Intel Core2Duo E6600
ATI X1950 Pro
2 Gig DDR2 RAM

Yeah... You'll be golden!

-Wolf sends

 

[benjamk81]

Great, thanks for all the help Wolf.

I know now what needs to be done!