To AGP or not to AGP?

[IEC]

Let's make this short:

I have a Radeon 9700 Pro AGP video card.

I plan to build a SFF using a Chenming 118 mATX chassis.

I plan to use an A64-based platform, either s754 or s939.

The less I spend, the better - but gaming is still important.

The question:

Should I go s754 and keep my AGP card? I believe the 9700 Pro will kill just about anything <$150 PCI-E-wise.

Or, is there a worthwhile PCI-E video card that isn't too expensive? And a good mATX motherboard to go with it? If I were to go PCI-E I was thinking an X700 Pro or 6600GT, but the 6600 GT is a bit pricey. I'm not sure if the money would be worth it for a <30% increase in performance compared to my Radeon 9700 Pro. Help me decide.

TIA,
AF

 

[MDE]

6600GT is about as low as I would go for PCIe. Newegg has an eVGA 6600GT for $159 after rebate. Not too shabby.

 

[BFG10K]

If you run the nForce 3 Ultra you can do socket 939 and still keep AGP.

Regardless, you should go with PCIe and upgrade that video card of yours.

 

[rise]

Originally posted by: BFG10K
If you run the nForce 3 Ultra you can do socket 939 and still keep AGP.

Regardless, you should go with PCIe and upgrade that video card of yours.

 

[ddogg]

yup go PCI-e and get a 6600GT for about $150...should whip the 9700Pro

 

[xxxAgentxxx]

Originally posted by: ddogg
yup go PCI-e and get a 6600GT for about $150...should whip the 9700Pro

will whip the 9700 pro, but not by a whole lot. Personally, if I was going to upgrade to pci-e, I'd snag an x800-XL for $250. Add $100 but double the performance, especially in DX games.

Honestly, I don't think now is a good time to go PCI-E, I would wait until ATI and NVidia release their next gen GPU's which hopefully will be happening as early as July. Once the new flagships come out, everything currently out will plummet in price.

I'm kindof in luck as far as gaming rigs go, I've had this P4C800-E for over a year now, been thinking about upgrading to venice core / NF4 alot lately, until I saw Dothan... wow... I won't even start on that one

but yea, my advice is to wait and see, alot of interesting things will be happening summer/fall, things that you won't like to see after upgrading NOW. Don't forget AMD and Intel and dualcore, thats another big reason to kindof wait on upgrading, as single core counterparts will likely drop in price after the dualcores reach wide availability.

and get a 939, don't waste your money on 754, new dual core cpu's wont run on it, its limited to single channel memory interface, and is highly debated as *DEAD* by the AMD community.

 

[windoze9x]

x800-xl for 250$?? link?

 

[Bateluer]

Go PCIe if you are building a new machine. s939 and NF4 is a great platform.

 

[coomar]

269 oem at monarch

 

[BillyBobJoel71]

prices have gone down in the past week or something...

 

[IEC]

Okay, sounds like PCI-E is the way to go. But what mATX motherboard to go with it? That is the question...

 

[VIAN]

Idk about manufacturer, but make sure the chipset is either SiS or Nvidia. Although I think Nvidia is a bit overkill.

 

[apoppin]

EVGA 6600 GT PCIX $138 AR Shipped/no tax!

Go PCIe