Upgrade Help

[Rumple]

I will be purchasing a EVGA 7800 GT CO next week. My main question here is that i do not want to have to upgrade my entire system at this time. The card is quite pricey ($314) so i cannot afford to get a new CPU too.

My current rig is as follows:

Amd64 3000+ skt 754
Msi K8n Neo-fsr
Corsair Value Select DDR 400 1gig x2
BFG 6800 AGP

Now i know i have to upgrade my motherboard to PCI Express. What i dont want to do is buy a skt 939 at this time. So my question is which motherboard should i get that is skt 754 and has a PCI Express slot?

I have been looking at a few different ones but im not sure which would be the best. Any opinions you guys may have would be greatly appreciated. Also if you can think of a better 7800GT than the EVGA card please say so.

Here are the few that i have been looking at:

MSI K8N Neo3-F nForce4-4X

Gigabyte GA-K8NE

ABIT NV8

DFI nF4X Infinity

ASUS K8N4-E DELUXE

Im leaning towards the Gigabyte. It supports up to 3GB. I dont think that will really be an issue since i figure by the time i need 3GB i will need a new CPU. But you never know. Ive had real good luck with MSI in the past also. Just please give me some feedback so i can make my choice this week =)

 

[Rumple]

I did have one other question. I currently have a thermaltake 420w power supply that came with my Xaser III case. Would i need to upgrade this in order to have enough power if i add the 7800GT? Or will that psu be enough?

 

[sniperruff]

i don't think the performance increase would be worth the hassle.

 

[Zap Brannigan]

If you want a quick boost grab yourself a socket 754 3700+, and another stick of 512mb ram.

 

[stevty2889]

Originally posted by: Rumple
I did have one other question. I currently have a thermaltake 420w power supply that came with my Xaser III case. Would i need to upgrade this in order to have enough power if i add the 7800GT? Or will that psu be enough?

That would be pushing it, I have a 420w thermaltake(second one actualy, since first one died after 3 days), so if it's the same one, it's got a pretty weak 12v rail(18A) and I would never feel safe using it in my main rig. I've always had good luck with my Asus boards, but definatly like my DFI.

 

[Rumple]

You dont think there would be a performance boost going from a 6800 to a 7800GT????

Are you mad? That is a huge difference. The only thing im asking is for peoples opinions on which motherboard would be best for my situation. This is a quick fix for now. I plan on upgrading in the future to a skt 939. Probably a 3700+ or possibly dual core. I have the extra cash right now to purchase the gfx card and since that is the most expensive part i can buy it with a mobo to get a quick fix for now.

I dont need more ram. 2gigs is plenty for all of todays games. And also if i add a stick of 512 it will lower my speed to 333mhz instead of 400mhz. Its pretty pointless these days to even buy 512 sticks. 1gig sticks are the way to go. I dont mean to be rude but these are all pretty poor suggestions. Why on earth would i spend money on a skt 754 3700+???? Skt 939 is the way to go. I came here because most of the things i read are pretty good suggestions. These are not.

I didnt ask if it would be worth it. I didnt ask if i needed a new CPU or more Ram. All i wanted to know is which motherboard from the list i posted you guys would feel is the best.

 

[stevty2889]

Yeah, 7800GT is definatly a big boost over a 6800, it's a lot faster than my 6800GT @ultra speeds was. I have the eVGA myself, and it works great for me. But the 420w thermaltake with only 18A on the 12v rail, probably isn't a safe bet. As for the motherboard, I like my DFI board alot, great for overclocking, and nice features.