Whats a good motherboard these days?

New boards have PCI-e video slots, which would not be compatible if your 9600 is AGP or PCI.

Tom's Hardware Guide has a lot of info about new motherboards:
http://www.tomshardware.com/motherboard/index.html

anything that supports: SLI/crossfire, DDR2 Ram, and most preferably has the newest intel socket, wish i had one but i'm stuck with a AMD 939.

Ouch! That's crap, why do they have to make the new generation incompatable suddenly?? The last time they changed the video slot standard, you could still use older cards.

Now i have to buy a shit but compatable graphics card and throw it in the bin when i buy my good one, all the while i will have my perfectly good NVIDIA card sitting on the shelf gathering dust.

Thanks for the link!

Actually, if your current card is PCI it would probably still work, since new motherboards still have PCI slots. It is the AGP that can not be used, because both PCI-e and AGP are dedicated video busses and no boards will have both.

You could also get a board with onboard video. Then you would not have to buy a new card, and you would just disable the onboard video in the bios when you buy the new card.

Radeon 9600 cards were never made in PCI flavor, so he's stuck.

Thats a good idea! if it isn't much of a limiting factor.

Incorrect, actually: PCI-E is not a dedicated video bus. It can be used for non-video purposes, just like PCI. It is, however, a replacement for AGP.



I don't think any graphics card compatible with PCI-E can be qualified as "shit." nVidia doesn't offer anything below a 6800 for PCI-E, and their best card (the 8800) is only available for PCI-E. I'm sure the same is true for the equivalent ATI cards.



Why did they have to make AGP incompatible with PCI?

The biggest thing they wanted to do with PCI-E was to upgrade the old PCI bus to the latest technology, not just to offer a replacement for AGP (which it does as well). Eventually, future computers will be offering more PCI-E slots, and manufacturers other than video card manufacturers will be offering PCI-E cards.

I'm suprised really, especially when you consider how long it took for the old black pci slots to dissapear from motherboards!

Anyhow, i'm still not sure what is a good motherboard? I don't wan't the best motherboard money can buy, but i do want the best motherboard 'for its cost',,,, You know, the motherboard with the best cost to power/features ratio.

I am no longer interested in the upgradability of a motherboard, the last time i was able to upgrade a motherboard was like 5 years ago! nowdays bulshit like the above mentioned graphics issue make upgrading a thing of the past.

Any suggestions most appreciated?

Hi,

You might think about waiting a little longer. What are your plans
and what type CPU you planning on getting?

The type of CPU you get will make a big difference ..

If you are going to low cost, but good value ...

I would get a AMD CPU ... the new AM2 socket ..
If you do that you will need new memory DDR2 ...
You should be using SATA 2 hard drives


So you will be dropping around $800 - $1000 US dollars ..

Asus mother board $130
AMD 3800+ X2 OEM $100
memory 2GB DDR2 $200
DVD drive $20
DVD +- RW drive $60
Case + 600W PSU $130
floppy $20
SATA2 HD 320GB $100
OS WinXP Pro OEM $140
video card PCI-e $160


If you aren't looking for name brand hardware, you might
be able to drop a few hundred of the numbers...

In the last 10 years, I've always build my on systems. I
also, built most of my friends systems and for a few other
people that asked for systems. Building PCs isn't hard to do,
but the more you build the better you'll get at it ..

In the long run, it's better for you. If something goes
wrong. You will be able to resolve it and get more out of
it in the long run.


Good luck with your new system ...

Thanks

yes i used to build my own systems but i do not do that anymor simply because i cannot beat the prices of pre made systems.

I have discovered a thing called a 'bare bones system'. This is indeed the super cheapest way to upgrade these days... in consideration of the fact that compatability of older hardware has been completely flushed down the toiled in the last five years.

So you know your going to have to get a new motherboard, processor, power supply and graphics card evry time you 'upgrade' wheather you like it or not.

any other good systems worth considering?

Those were ISA slots



There are so many out there, the simplest advice is to just go look. For example, at newegg I'd just use power search to find boards with the features I want, and go with the best rated board in an acceptable price range provided outside reviews say it's good as well.

Yes but PCI slot no longer means just what it stands for... it also means 'the things you plug cards into' ISA slots being the same hehehe

Strange that i have such a board then (ASROCK dual-sata2).. It's like 2-3 years old but they have recent model(s) with AGP and PCI-E too.. really great motherboards and very cheap too.

Thats interesting!

Some of those ASROCK dual boards are an interesting choice. There are some that support AGP 8x and PCIe x16 for video, DDR2 or DDR for memory, SATA or IDE for hard drive, and socket LGA 775 for Core 2 Duo, Pentium D, P4, and Celeron processors. This could let you use your old stuff and let you progressively upgrade components later. Sometimes is better to just upgrade the whole thing.

I've got this:

Athlon XP
512MB DDR
160GB IDE
FX5200 AGP

When I upgrade, I'm better off only reusing the hard drive as a backup. If you wait 5 years like me than your stuff is ancient and not upgradeable. My opinion is to buy something current now (LGA775 or AM2) but not maxed out, and then max out your CPU/Memory/Video in a few years. Maybe a quad-core will be $100 in two years and will work in your system compared to buying it now for $1000.

It took a long time for ISA to go away and PCI will still be around for awhile. But it was surprising how quickly AGP was dropped in favor of PCIe. Just the way it is with technology. There's also a PCI-X but it only made it into the server market. PCIe makes it obsolete now.

Actually my system is getting towards 2 years old. It is an AMD 2009mhz, 1024mb ram and an nvidia (ATI) 9600 pro graphics card with 256mb ram.

It is a good system, runs galciv just fine, the only issue is that it's upgradability has been pretty much toorpedoed dead in it's tracks since all this new technology has to be incompatable.

It is absurd really, i havn't 'upgraded' a pc for about the last five years due to this constant incombatability phenomenon. I just go out and get a system, use it for a year, gets time i want to make it faster, cop a slap in the face with combatability issues and then just buy another system. And here i am again trying to upgrade and yet again compatability shoots me down.

I looked up the Asrock website and it's a total mess! I cannot make out what motherboards their currently promoting, or anything else much for that matter!

What is their official website? Is it this... http://www.asrock.com/

Because that website is a pile of shit as far as i can tell - and it is very hard to tell what the hell there doing with that one!! Whoever made that website should be shot.

I found this on the http://news.softpedia.com/news/ASRock-Introduces-ASRock-s-939-Dual-SATA2-7572.shtml

What do you guys think of this motherboard?


ASRock 939 Dual-SATA2 Specifications

For Socket 939: AMD Athlon 64FX and Athlon 64 processors
FSB 1 GHz (2.0GT/s), DDR400
HyperTransport Technology, AMD Cool'n'Quiet Technology
Hybrid Booster - ASRock Safe Overclocking Technology
PCI Express x16 slot, PCI Express x1 slot, AGP 8X slot
PCI E SATA2 controller on board, optimizing the support for SATA2 HDD
Serial ATA 1.5Gb/s, RAID 0,1,JBOD
7.1channel Superior Quality Audio, 10/100 Ethernet LAN
ASRock 8CH I/O: 4 USB2.0 ports, 7.1channel audio jack

I looked at AGP+PCIE boards myself when I was doing my last upgrade, but eventually decided against it since it was likely that 939 would be superceded by a new socket by the time I was ready to rebuild again (it was), and more so because none of the dual-slot boards got consistently reliable reviews. Lots of reports of them being flaky or one of the slots not working properly.

Mystikmind: the Dual-SATA2 is a great board, that's the one i've had for years now, i bet you'll get a more recent revision even. Didnt know you still could buy them.

here's a really great forum for AMD/asrock http://forums.ocworkbench.com/bbs/f-asrock-amd-boards--31.html/

Thanks Kryo, sound advice as always! Yea non mainstream boards or boards with unusual features can be a bugger at times. I remember when i got my first pentium2 board many years ago. I bought a special board that could fit in the old case but in the long run i ended up regretting that, because it wasn't much upgradable compared to other boards.



I didn't know the dual sata 2 board was an old one! wish i bought that when it was new. Thanks i will check out that forum.

If your going AMD get a socket AM2.

ok i found this board... any good?

CPU
Socket 462 , supporting AMD Sempron™ , Athlon, Athlon XP, Duron, FSB 333/266/200 MHz

Chipset
SiS 741GX + 963L

Hybrid Booster
CPU Frequency Stepless control
CPU Multiplier
CPU Vcore adjustment
ASRock U-COP
Boot Failure Guard

Memory
Max. 2GB DDR
2 x DDR DIMM
DDR333/266

Slots
AGP 8X/4X 1.5V
PCI 2 slots, PCI 2.2
AMR 1

VGA
Integrated Mirage™ Graphics
Shared Memory Max. 64MB

Audio
AC97 CODEC
5.1 CH Audio

LAN
802.3u, 10/100 Ethernet LAN, WOL supported

Modem (optional)
MR card ( optional )

Connector
IDE 2 x ATA 133/100/66/33
Floppy 1 connector
SIR/CIR 1/0

ASROCK I/O
Keyboard PS2 x1
Mouse PS2 x1
USB2.0 4 ports default on rear panel + 2 ports upgrade via header
Serial 1COM port bracket
Parallel 1
Game/MIDI 1
LAN 1 x RJ45
Audio I/O Line In/Line Out/Mic.
VGA 1

Other Connector
CPU/Chassis FAN connectors
20 pin ATX power connector
CD/AUX/ audio in
Front panel audio connector

BIOS Feature
2Mb AMI BIOS with ACPI, SM BIOS 2.3.1, PnP

Manageability
WOL,WOR

Support CD
Drivers,
Bundle CD includes: Anti Virus Software, ASRock PC DIY Live Demo, Audio Player, etc..

Accessories
Multi-languages Quick Installation Guide
Support CD
Floppy/ATA 133/100 cables
1x COM port bracket

OS
Microsoft Windows 98SE/ME/2000/XP compliant

Form Factor
MicroATX

or this one....

CPU
- Socket 478 for Intel Pentium 4 / Celeron D (Prescott, Northwood, Willamate) processors
- FSB 800/533/400MHz
- Supports Hyper-Threading Technology
- Supports Untied Overclocking Technology

Chipset
- Northbridge: Intel 865G
- Southbridge: Intel ICH5

Hybrid Booster
- CPU Frequency Stepless Control
- ASRock U-COP
- Boot Failure Guard (B.F.G.)

Memory
- Dual Channel DDR memory technology
- 2 x DDR DIMM slots
- Supports DDR400/333/266
- Max. capacity: 2GB

Slots
- 3 x PCI slots
- 1 x AGP 8X slot
- 1 x AMR slot

VGA
- Integrated Intel Extreme Graphics 2
- DirectX 8.0
- Max. shared memory 96MB

Audio
- Cmedia 9761A 5.1 channel audio CODEC

LAN
- Realtek PCI LAN 8101L
- Speed: 10/100 Ethernet
- Supports Wake-On-LAN

Connector
- 2 x Serial ATA 1.5 Gb/s connectors
(No Support for "RAID" and "Hot Plug" functions )
- 2 x ATA100 IDE connectors (support 4 x IDE devices)
- 1 x Floppy connector
- 1 x IR header
- 1 x COM header
- CPU/Chassis FAN connectors
- 20 pin ATX power connector
- 4 pin 12V power connector
- CD in header
- AUX in header
- Front panel audio connector
- 2 x USB 2.0 headers (support 4 USB 2.0 ports; 2 of them are shared with USB4_5)

Rear Panel I/O
ASRock I/O Plus
- 1 x PS/2 Mouse Port
- 1 x PS/2 Keyboard Port
- 1 x VGA Port
- 1 x Parallel Port (ECP/EPP Support)
- 6 x Ready-to-Use USB 2.0 Ports
- 1 x RJ-45 LAN Port
- Audio Jack: Line in / Front Speaker / Microphone

BIOS Feature
- 4Mb AMI BIOS
- AMI Legal BIOS
- Supports "Plug and Play"
- ACPI 1.1 Compliance Wake Up Events
- Supports jumperfree
- SMBIOS 2.3.1 Support

Support CD
- Drivers, Utilities, AntiVirus Software (Trial Version)

Hardware Monitor
- CPU Temperature Sensing
- Chassis Temperature Sensing
- CPU Overheat Shutdown to Protect CPU Life
- CPU Fan Tachometer
- Chassis Fan Tachometer
- Voltage Monitoring: +12V, +5V, +3.3V, Vcore

Accessories
- Quick Installation Guide, I/O Shield
- Floppy/ATA 100 cables
- 1 x SATA data cable
- 1 x SATA 1 to 1 power cable
- 1 x COM port bracket
- 1 x AMR card (option)

Form Factor
- Micro ATX Form Factor: 9.6-in x 7.8-in, 24.4 cm x 19.8 cm

OS
- Microsoft Windows 98SE / ME / 2000 / XP compliant

Certifications
- FCC, CE, WHQL