Please help my friend on a new system

[Hard Ball]

My friend seems to have a fried mobo/chipset, from a Dell Dimension series purchased in 2003; with a P4C 2.8. This came with mobo beeps on boot, constant lock ups, sometime HDD access hindered, and sometimes the entire system would refuse to boot at all; this came rather suddenly, since the system had been working fine in its current configuration for a number of months (no recent hardward upgrades).

He was thinking about upgrading to dual core chips anyways, so the timing is not that bad. The catch is that he has a 7800GS, and he would like to keep it for another while, but still would like to retain the option of upgrading to PCIE next year, if new games arrive should require an upgrade. And he would also like to keep his 1.5GB Crucial PC3200 for now, and that should be adequate for a while longer I have never owned, or looked at a board with both AGP and PCIE, or for that matter, I have never looked to buy an LGA775 or S939 board before (I've had laptops and Opteron systems in the past two years).

So please let me know of any recommendations;

And if someone who has used such a board before, please share your experience; that would be much appreciated.

Thanks in advance
--HB

 

[DarkKnight69]

Umm, support for both AGP and PCIE is poor, tell him to buy a cheap AGP and keep it till he is done with AGP then upgrade mobo...

IMO!

 

[mancunian]

Originally posted by: DarkKnight69
Umm, support for both AGP and PCIE is poorIMO!

That's largely true.

There is one exception though, the Asrock Dual Sata 2 board for 939 processors.

And you asked for somebody who has used such a board for their experience. Well, I'm using one right now, prime 95 stable for 14 hours @ 2.6Ghz.

It's very stable, but may need a bit of tweaking to reach the kind of stability I'm currently enjoying.

Let's put it this way, it isn't bad at all, especially for the price. Plus it has true AGP 8X support as well as PCI-E X16. Just make sure before buying it, you download the following:

1. Chipset drivers
2. 2 or 3 latest BIOS versions (i'm using 1.80 and it's good and stable)


And before buying, read a lot of the threads here.


Good luck!

EDIT: I should also state that I'm using it with a 3200+ A64 venice chip and generic PC3200 memory.

 

[stevty2889]

Yep, the Asrock 939 dual SATA II motherboard sounds like exactly what you need.

 

[starwars7]

heard good things about that Asrock, just google it for more.

 

[CyborgNinja117]

Originally posted by: starwars7
heard good things about that Asrock, just google it for more.

they got both ddr, and ddr2 also! w/ supposely said conroe support

 

[Greenman]

The ASRock is the only choice with AGP and PCI-e.

 

[mhahnheuser]

All clear. Go Asrock dual. AGP goes flat out with no penalty, but definitely worth upgrading BIOS. Also if using X2 CPU make sure you install latest driver for this CPU from AMD as this seemed to clear any boot probs i experienced early on. Fire up and enjoy, this mobo is fast.

 

[Hard Ball]

Thanks, guys,

that Asrock indeed seems to be the answer; I have a couple more questions:

1). Do you know if the bios version that comes default on the board would support the X2 CPU?

Originally posted by: mancunian
Let's put it this way, it isn't bad at all, especially for the price. Plus it has true AGP 8X support as well as PCI-E X16. Just make sure before buying it, you download the following:

1. Chipset drivers
2. 2 or 3 latest BIOS versions (i'm using 1.80 and it's good and stable)


And before buying, read a lot of the threads here.

2) regarding mancunian's suggestions: so do you mean that the default drivers that come with the board would not work? The ULI chipset drivers, should they be better downloaded from ULI/NV site, or would I need to get that from Asrock.

Thanks a bunch
--HB

 

[stardrek]

I bought it when it was almost brand new and it supported my X2...so I doubt you would have any issues.