Socket 939 boards with PCI Express

[Redfoot]

Please forgive my ignorance, just getting back into hardware after an unforseen absence. I am looking for a mid priced board to support a socket 939 Athlon so I can run a 6600 GT and leave myself an avenue for upgradeability and not incur a price penalty. Background is that I am running a slow as hell computer (PIII 600, 384 and radeon 7200) and I wish to run CS: Source at medium Quality with a decent framerate (steady 40-50). I read the sticky at the top of the mboard section, and I do not wish to spend 220 on an ASUS mboard, though if that is the only option available within a month I just might have to.

I welcome reccomendations for a good system for $950 or under that will fullfill my needs. www.cyberpowerpc.com seems to be the best bang for the buck, but I am open to reccomendations.

Thanks for reading, and have a great day!

-Redfoot

 

[slash196]

I suggest taking about a week to get re-acquianted with the situation here in Whooville. Long story short, nForce 4 Ultra probably next month, 150 or so, wait till after Christmas when the prices settle down.

 

[klah]

I would wait a month or so in order to pick up an nforce4 PCIe board. It seems that Intel is pushing PCIe pretty hard which is forcing Ati and Nvidia to produce these cards for Dell et al. and pretty much ignore AGP. For example of the last 7 gpus Ati has released only 1 is AGP, and they don't have a PCIe->AGP bridge chip yet to offer AGP versions of the other 6 chips. And even with a bridge available the Nvidia AGP bridged cards barely start trickling in several months after release. Since you seem to keep systems for many years waiting for an PCIe AMD motherboard would probably be prudent.

You should read though the gamers buying guide: http://www.anandtech.com/guide...oc.aspx?i=2282&p=1
to get a pretty good idea of what components to use. Just assume the an NF4-Ultra motherboard will run ~$150... when they are finally available in good supply in a month or possibly longer.

 

[imported_johnson]

I am going to wait for the nforce4 boards to shake out. Via is also coming forth with their new chip. But I have settled on the nforce4. If you keep waiting on the latest creation you never buy anything. I will be replacing my mb, ram, vid card, cpu and cpu heat sink/fan. If you are looking to do the same your budget is adequate. Since you are getting a 6600gt and a new mb, I would definitely recommend you go the PCIe route. Take some time and explore the roadmaps for various chip makers. In addition to the forum, there are timely articles here at Anandtech and the news editors do excellent work in sifting though the www. to assist you.

 

[Redfoot]

As always, you guys are awesome!! I can wait another month (and save more money in the meantime!), and after reading this the chance to future proof my PC would be worth it. Normally I am a Toms Hardware kind of guy, and I do actually try to research a bit before posting, but I was unable to find much at first.

Thanks for your time and happy fragging!

-Redfoot