PCI Express worth my wait?

[pr0digy]

I'm getting very close to building my athlon 64 rig -- probably by the end of this month. One question that has been haunting me the past few weeks is whether or not I should continue my wait in hopes that PCI express will be released soon. I've been told that I should just hold off on buying a socket 939 mobo until pci-express is supported, but I can't curb my enthusiasm to have a machine that can finally run the games that I've been dying to play. Other people I have talked to have said that PCI express won't even reach main-stream status until 1Q 2005. I'm just stuck right now whether to hold off until PCI-Ex or go ahead and build now and upgrade when necessary in the future. I figured that if anyone would know the right thing to do, it would be you guys. Thanks in advance for any info that you can pass on.

 

[Ned_Flanders]

at the moment PCIe doesnt offer an advantage over AGP (FPS wise), in the years to come it will. PCIe graphics cards and mobos are costly. Just buy now, and upgrage in 2006 when PCIe will be mainstream and usefull

My dick is so big, that my dick has a dick. And my dicks' dick is bigger than yours.

 

[gothitbycar]

PCI express has a while to go until it gets mainstream. Their may still be one or two more generations of high-end graphics cards that will still run of the AGP bus. By the time you should need a new card and only PCI express is available you'll need a new computer.

There are no perfomance benifits of PCI express and with Nvidia's PCI express bridge there is a lose in perfomance.

In your situation I'd go ahead and buy an athlon 64 rig as soon as I could.

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[mind went blank]

 

[pr0digy]

Thanks for the help guys. One more quick question, is it better to go with a nforce chipset or a via?

 

[Spitfire_x86]

nForce is better

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[Crashman]

nForce3 250 is at least 1000% better than VIA K8T800. Maybe 2000%.

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[endyen]

Okay Crashman. Which is better, a via mobo or a poke in the eye with a sharp stick. The stick wins.

 

[Crashman]

If it weren't for VIA I would have never learned how to solve the problems I solve every day...because I would have encountered them too infrequently. Owning VIA is like boot camp for PC technicians!

<font color=blue>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to a hero as big as Crashman!</font color=blue>
<font color=red>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to an ego as large as Crashman's!</font color=red>

 

[gobeavers]

Thanks for the insight!

"This means that you can play over a network, just not with each other."-PC GAMER review

 

[TheRod]

is it better to go with a nforce chipset or a via?

To be realist... and not FanBoy we have to say that both VIA K8T800 and nForce3 250 are good chipsets.

If you don't plan to overclock your system, both chipsets will perform equally. So you should consider MB that have the features you want or are better priced.

If you plan to overclock, you should buy an nForce3 250 based MB. The VIA K8T800 PRO have soem issue with their PCI/AGP lock. So they are not the best option for overclocking.

I personnaly plan to buy a Chaintech VNF3-250 (based on nForce3 250), it's a "plain" board, it don't have load of features, but I don't need SATA, FireWire, Wireless, RAID, etc... Why I would pay for more than I need?

--
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[coylter]

..................................SLi
SLi..................................

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Radeon 9800pro (oc: 410/360)
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[etp777]

Crash isn't being a fanb9oy, it's just simple fact that probalby 50% of money I've made, and most othe rPC techs, over last 5 years or so is directly and completely related and because of Via products. I don't like AMds in general now because of the past experience with their supporting chipsets(amd and via), and I'd still suggest Nvidia over Via any day of the week. I'd suggest SiS over Via too.

 

[endyen]

SLI will be big, when dual PCI-16 boards become available. Give it 3 to 4 months. I cant see anyone waiting that long esp since the boards will start at $250+.