Hi all,

I am looking to upgrade my current system in some fashion, and would
appreciate any thoughts.
I am torn between, going ahead and upgraded to a PCIe mb, or keeping my
existing Nforce3 Ultra agp mb. The main thing I want to do, is upgrade to an
AMD dual core processor, and a better video card. I prefer to stay with AMD
for the processor and ATI for the vid card...

Current specs:
MSI K8N Neo 2 Nforce3 Ultra
AMD XP3500+ ( overclocked to 2.55 ghz)
ATI 9800 Pro 128 mb agp video card
1 gb pc3200 Corsair XMS LL matched ram

My mb will support the new dual core processors with a bios update.

I am looking at getting an XP4400 dual core processor, along with say an ATI
X800xl.

Now, I am wondering if it would be best, to get say the MSI Neo4 PCIe mb
along with a PCIe video card, or stick with my current mb and just get an
agp based video card. I know agp is on the way out, and am wondering if I
should go ahead and bite the bullet and make the change to PCIe.

Also, I currently have 2 WD IDE hard drives, and currently have plenty of
capacity. Any big advantage to going ahead and upgrading to Sata hard
drives? My current board supports Sata as well, and of course a new one
would also...


Any suggestions greatly appreciated,




--
Don Burnette

"When you decide something is impossible to do, try to stay out of the way
of the person that's doing it."

Don Burnette wrote:

<snip>

as long as you are upgrading...you might as well go with the newest
technology avail viz: pci-e

even if agp and pci-e are running nose-to-nose today...
pci-e has greater future possibilites

(my 2 cents worth anyway)

John@Smith.com wrote:
<snip>



Thanks John!

My K8N Neo2 Nforce3 Ultra is a socket 939, so yes, it can accept the new
dual core with a bios update.
Thanks for all the other tips, I am leaning going ahead and going to Nforc4
PCIe at this time...


Don Burnette

Hi Don,

I have an MSI K8N Neo2 Plat (Nforce3 board) with an ATI X800XT AGP card. I
recently upgraded my CPU on this board with an AMD 4400+ 2x CPU and am very
happy with the setup. I too thought about going for an Nforce4 motherboard
with a PCI-E slot (and new graphics card), but I felt that I would have been
wasting a perfectly good AGP graphics card. So I guess in your situation,
if you already have a crappy graphics card, then it is not neseccarily a
waste for you to invest in a PCI-E capable motherboard and new graphics
card.

Shane

"Don Burnette" <d.burnette@clothes.comcast.net> wrote in message
news:xcmdnaO1EItwGgzeRVn-qw@giganews.com...

Good point, thanks Nospam.

I will be upgraded the video card, so that makes some sense...

Don



nospam wrote:

John@Smith.com wrote:

No music recording plans here, so that should not be an issue.
I may someday replace my Audigy2 ZX with an XFi, so that is good to know,
thanks - I will keep my eye out on that.



--
Don

Hi Don,
"Don Burnette" <d.burnette@clothes.comcast.net> wrote in message
news:xcmdnaO1EItwGgzeRVn-qw@giganews.com...

I'd hang on for a bit, for starters M2 is due out next year AFAIK, and thats
gonna require a cpmpletely new Mobo..

While pci-e is probably the way to go, right now that means an almost new
system, mobo, cpu, video card. None of which are particularly inexpensive:-(

Then next year along comes the M2 socket & cpu range and its time to fork
out again:-( New mobo, new cpu.... only this time you will probably be able
to hang onto the video card.. but still lodsa dosh to fork out..

RD

Don' you looking for dual core for F4:Af? Wait till the socket M2 cos the
FX-60 is the last 939 chip to be produced before the change. A mate of mine
has recently went PCIE, and whilst his rig shows a considerable improvement
over mine in some respects, he has spent a damn fortune upgrading for a
small improvement in flight sim capability. He should be flying LOMAC
anyway!