Hi there - please help a 2nd time builder - who has just realised how little he knows nowadays! I have ~£500 to spend, but want good long term value for money.
I have a P4 3.2 Northwood (socket 478), 9800 Pro AGP system. I'd like to upgrade to get a nicer look at Oblivion - ideally just the graphics card, but since I'm on AGP still, it's tricky to decide:
- In the UK, I can't find a new motherboard to allow me to upgrade to PCI-E... there are some from Hong Kong on ebay, but they cost £12 for p&p and I think you have to pay import tax - nightmare!
- What is a Micro ATX vs ATX form factor? I have ATX case and mobo at the moment. The only PCI-E mobo I can find is micro ATX - will it fit my case?
- I like the look of the new Core 2 Duos - if I am forced to upgrade my mobo then why don't I just upgrade my processor too? that way it will be more "futureproofed" too, rather than buying a dead-end socket 478 mobo for PCI-E only... Or would this be a waste of money? After all my processor works fine still. No processor bottlenecks that I know of.
- If I get an AGP graphics card, I don't seem to be able to find a good 7600 GS for less than £200 in the UK... and since that's a dead-end AGP graphics card, that seems a LOT to pay for me... would you agree? Is there a good AGP graphics card for less than £100 I can get in the meantime?
- There is talk of a new set of video cards coming out - dx10... When are these coming out? They will make everything cheaper clearly... whether I stay AGP or go to PCI-E... But will it suddenly be NECESSARY to have a dx10 card? Surely there are some cards worth buying now?
Lots of dilemmas - your thoughts most welcome. There must be LOADS of people with AGP systems going through the same problems.
Thanks for your help!
Gearoi.
I have a P4 3.2 Northwood (socket 478), 9800 Pro AGP system. I'd like to upgrade to get a nicer look at Oblivion - ideally just the graphics card, but since I'm on AGP still, it's tricky to decide:
- In the UK, I can't find a new motherboard to allow me to upgrade to PCI-E... there are some from Hong Kong on ebay, but they cost £12 for p&p and I think you have to pay import tax - nightmare!
- What is a Micro ATX vs ATX form factor? I have ATX case and mobo at the moment. The only PCI-E mobo I can find is micro ATX - will it fit my case?
- I like the look of the new Core 2 Duos - if I am forced to upgrade my mobo then why don't I just upgrade my processor too? that way it will be more "futureproofed" too, rather than buying a dead-end socket 478 mobo for PCI-E only... Or would this be a waste of money? After all my processor works fine still. No processor bottlenecks that I know of.
- If I get an AGP graphics card, I don't seem to be able to find a good 7600 GS for less than £200 in the UK... and since that's a dead-end AGP graphics card, that seems a LOT to pay for me... would you agree? Is there a good AGP graphics card for less than £100 I can get in the meantime?
- There is talk of a new set of video cards coming out - dx10... When are these coming out? They will make everything cheaper clearly... whether I stay AGP or go to PCI-E... But will it suddenly be NECESSARY to have a dx10 card? Surely there are some cards worth buying now?
Lots of dilemmas - your thoughts most welcome. There must be LOADS of people with AGP systems going through the same problems.
Thanks for your help!
Gearoi.