Should I go PCI-E or stay AGP?!

[ufheh123]

I am currently in the middle of building a new computer. I have the following picked out so far:

- AMD 64 3500+
- 1gb Corsair XMS Extreme 3200
- Antec Tru 480w
- Thermal Take Tsunami Case
- Sony DVD-rom
- 36gb WD Raptor 10000rpm - for OS and games
- 160gb Hitachi SATA
- 19" Samsung or Viewsonic - not sure which yet

I am currently stuck on whether or not I should buy a PCI-Express board or an AGP one. I currently have a 9800pro which of course is AGP. I am mainly building this comp to play Counter Strike: Source with high FPS. My main concern is if I go PCI-E is that there are not really any really high end PCI-E cards out as of now. If I stay AGP I will most likely upgrade in a couple months to either a 6800 Ultra or whatever the best card out then. I am stuck, I need your help :

Thanks

 

[kindest]

there are tons of high end pci-e cards out ............... 6800's , 6600's, x800s
i would go pci-e since it is the wave of the future. hold out a little longer for the msi k8 nforce4 board.

 

[flyingdagger]

I would go for the PCI-Express...especially for the SLI technology from NVidia. If you are a gamer, got to go with the 6800 Ultra PCI-Express . But i saw it on one website..it costs $1000 bucks. ..Ouch!

 

[hundesau]

well, not an easy question cuz ur right there really are not many highend cards for pcie out there at this point, maybe the x850XL will change that in soon future, look if u can find some rumours when it will come via googel. Furthermore ur right, a 98pro can be the bottleneck for CSS if u want high fps cuz its speed is close to the 6600gt and both are mid-end cards, highend is everything above like 6800. 6800gt and x800 series.
now 2 things about css: 1. CSS is not very well programmed, eg u can have the best hardware and u will still have moments especially when a lot of action is goin on ingame, when u have ur fps go down to 25. Cant change that. 2. CSS is very CPU limited. In yur case that wont become a probleme, the 3500+ is vg.
Ok, one guy mentioned the SLI thing. In your case that could be a way. But Problem with SLI is that instead of buying 2 6600gt`s for pcie u can buy a single 6800GT for AGP (the pcie version still not out), which will be cheaper and even slightly faster. SLI suffers from the problem that its still more reasonable to buy one card instead of 2 concerning price and performance not to mention the extra noise.
what was my point...ye, tough decision if u have the cash go for pcie, buy a 6600gt and sell the 9800pro via ebay, people still sell more than 150,- for an 98pro there. In some months when there are more pcie cards out u throw out the 66gt again (ebay) and get a better card. how does that sound to you?

 

[ts3433]

Flip a coin; cards higher than the 6600GT are currently usually more expensive for PCIe, and there's also not as much board selection for NF4 yet. Going PCIe now would seem to give you some peace of mind in that you're absolutely certain you'll be able to upgrade the graphics card later on. If you upgrade to something high-end on AGP, I'd expect it to last quite a while, and midrange support should be good for a little bit longer. (If you go PCIe, don't get an SLI board; get an NF4 Ultra-based board with one PCIe slot. The Chaintech VNF4/Ultra is out now and is supposed to be pretty good, but I'd wait for more selection.)

I also have a few suggestions for other parts of your system:
-Don't get fancy RAM like XMS; value RAM is good even for overclocking the CPU (see sticky in the CPU/OC forum).
-IIRC, the 36GB Raptor didn't increase performance over 7200RPM drives nearly as much as its 74GB brother.

 

[Insomniak]

If you're upgrading now, I say go ahead and make the jump to PCIe - it gives you upgrade options for the future, the boards and cards are available and pretty comparably priced....there's really no reason not to.

 

[ufheh123]

Thanks for all your input guys, but I am still stuck. I currently still play cs1.6 24/7 and im not really going to play CS:Source until everything switches to it around june/july. That is why I was going to go AGP for now so I could just use my 9800pro and then get the best card that is out for AGP when they switch. Or if I had money just upgrade to PCI-E then. I dunno if this is a good way to go or not. I need to order this computer within the next couple days.

Thanks again

 

[shinotenshi]

The problem is most of the new chipsets are going to be for agp after this generation. for instance ATI only releases 3 agp cards the whole year. Both companies have already stated that PCI-E will come first. Given that AGP is moving into the budget sector pretty much by default, its dobutful that after x800xl(if its ever actually released in AGP or the 6800 series) then AGP will have any new chipset. As bought nvidia and ATI will be able to satisfiy the budget oem martket by just recycleing chipsets like what they do in the pci market

 

[Sniper82]

I'd still go NF4. Sell that 9800 pro on these forums for $140 or so and add another $40 and get a brand new 6600GT PCI-E which it a bit faster. Then upgrade it in 5-6 months.

 

[hundesau]

i already gave him that advice

 

[bap4201]

pci-e...next

 

[ufheh123]

Ok you guys are beautiful, I love you all. You have persuaded me to get PCI-E. Now I just need to know which is the best board out right now. I will go and research myself but I want to buy my system today so if you got any suggestions it would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks once again

 

[bap4201]

if you are going to moderately oc, then asus a8n-sli.

it is available today.

 

[Sniper82]

Originally posted by: hundesau
i already gave him that advice

didnt see it

I am going NF4 and 6600GT. I just hate it that Chaintech is the only Ultra option and you can't find it on newegg. Once other Ultras come they will sell quick aswell.

 

[nealh]

I had similar decision and went Neo2 Plat...and stayed agp..too much of a price premium for a high end video card...I got a BFG 6800OC when they were selling it with half life 2....after selling HL2...the card will coast around $200

I will wait for NF4 to mature and videocards to reduce in price..ridicluous what the high end cards are going for...

 

[Insomniak]

A8N-SLI is the best NF4 board currently out, but it also costs the most dollars. DFI and MSI are supposed to be releasing their boards very soon, it would probably be worth your while to wait and see what they bring to the table.

 

[ufheh123]

ya I was looking to get the MSI K8N-SLI once it comes to NewEgg. I am also waiting for BestBuy to get 6600gt PCI-E cards so i can just exchange my 9800pro for that. So BestBuy and NewEgg need to hurry up, damn them.

 

[LouPoir]

Originally posted by: ^Sniper^
I'd still go NF4. Sell that 9800 pro on these forums for $140 or so and add another $40 and get a brand new 6600GT PCI-E which it a bit faster. Then upgrade it in 5-6 months.

Bingo - I agree

 

[nycdude]

Originally posted by: nealh
I had similar decision and went Neo2 Plat...and stayed agp..too much of a price premium for a high end video card...I got a BFG 6800OC when they were selling it with half life 2....after selling HL2...the card will coast around $200

I will wait for NF4 to mature and videocards to reduce in price..ridicluous what the high end cards are going for...

Its amazing what people will pay for video cards. Unbelievable. I will also wait for NF4 tech to mature and the prices to come down. In the meantime, I will stick with AGP.