What motherboard and video card? (I returned my x1950)

[7earitup]

Hello again,

I recently purchased a Visiontek x1950Pro AGP card and it was by far one of the worst cards I have owned. It played most things fine, but World of Warcraft performed slow and so did some other older games. The software is just not there for ATI.

So I want to move on, I am going to get a refund of said card and I want to drop some more money on being able to get something decent, however I have some strict requirements. I need a motherboard that has a PCIe 16 slot on it but also supports Socket 939 and DDR400 ram.

I was looking at a 8800GT, but they say it is PCIe 2.0. Is there a motherboard I can buy with socket 939 and DDR400 ram so I can use that card?

I only want recommendations on the NVIDIA side this time please, ATI has failed me yet again.


Thanks, as always, for ALL of you guys' help!

 

[chinaman1472]

I run the 8800 GT fine on my system (check the sig). I'll actually be selling it pretty soon in a few weeks when I upgrade to a Penryn system.

 

[Syntax Error]

8800GT.

 

[7earitup]

So just because it says PCIe 2.0 it doesn't mean I can't run it on a standard PCIe 16x slot? What motherboard do you guys recommend for around 60-70 bucks for socket 939 and DDR400?

 

[chinaman1472]

The problem is 939 is last generation. I remember the ASUS A8N (and variations of) were pretty good.

 

[7earitup]

Are these type of boards still made? I can't find any with big name brands like Gigabyte, ASUS, MSI, etc. Any thing you can link me to would be appreciated.

 

[7earitup]

I was looking at this:
http://www.tigerdirect.com/app...=2604788&sku=M450-2402

And this:
http://www.tigerdirect.com/app...=3538922&sku=E145-8832


What do you think?

 

[hclarkjr]

Originally posted by: 7earitup
Are these type of boards still made? I can't find any with big name brands like Gigabyte, ASUS, MSI, etc. Any thing you can link me to would be appreciated.

socket 939 is end of life, you would be better off spending the money and getting new system and right now that would be intel. i recently switched from a socket 939 FX-60 system to the system that is in my signature listed below. i bought new motherboard, cpu and memory for $300. there are no 939 boards for sale anymore from the top line makers. and with new 45nm chips being released soon by intel prices will be coming down even more on core 2 duo chips. but if you want to stay 939 look in the for sale forums here as there are some still for sale in there

 

[happy medium]

I'm going to give you some good advice.Your socket 939 is worth about 110.00$ on Ebay.
Sell it and buy a 85.00$ 2160 Mo stepping Intel cpu. You just made 25.00$.

Now go buy yourself a nice overclocking core 2 duo motherboard (p35) for about 100.00$
Make sure the board will accept a new Penryn Quad core cpu in the future.

Sell your old Corsair 2gb memory. You will get about 90.00$ easy.

Buy 2gb of ddr2 memory. This is cheap at most 90.00$

So far your still 25.00$ up. (you were going to buy a motherboard anyway).

This process should take you about 2 weeks.

By this time the new 8800gs will be out and prices on other 8800's will have stabilized.

Use the 25.oo$ towards a new video card.

Overclock the cpu to 3.0 and you now have a upgradable Intel core 2 / or quad system with a new 8800 series card thats much faster then your old Amd crap.:thumbsup:

 

[hclarkjr]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16820231098
http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16813128059
http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16819115029
there are my suggestions, notice the memory is only $45 for 2gb.

 

[taltamir]

Originally posted by: 7earitup
Hello again,

I recently purchased a Visiontek x1950Pro AGP card and it was by far one of the worst cards I have owned. It played most things fine, but World of Warcraft performed slow and so did some other older games. The software is just not there for ATI.

So I want to move on, I am going to get a refund of said card and I want to drop some more money on being able to get something decent, however I have some strict requirements. I need a motherboard that has a PCIe 16 slot on it but also supports Socket 939 and DDR400 ram.

I was looking at a 8800GT, but they say it is PCIe 2.0. Is there a motherboard I can buy with socket 939 and DDR400 ram so I can use that card?

I only want recommendations on the NVIDIA side this time please, ATI has failed me yet again.


Thanks, as always, for ALL of you guys' help!

Too expensive... you are not getting the bang for you buck AT ALL... Older hardware costs extra because its rare and no longer produced. Only worth it if you are replacing ONE item to fix a broken computer... not worth it at all for upgrades or getting multiple items.

Get a 60$ P35 motherboard with a nice new C2D (I recommend the E6750 for 190$)... combine that with DDR2-800 2GB (2x1 pair) which now costs about 15 dollars (after 40$ mail in rebate) anywhere from frys to newegg (massive rebates available for almost EVERY model of 2x1 GB DDR2 800 pairs). and a new video card can be a 3850, 3870, or 8800GT (256mb or 512mb versions).
Get 4GB of ram if you want to run vista.

Nothing else is worth it right now. and this upgrade method is CHEAPER then buying overpriced DDR1 ram and an overpriced 939 mobo.

Personally, if I were you. I would wait a couple of months... good things are coming in 45nm packages. and the geforce 9 is right around the corner


EDIT: the massive memory rebates from a few monthes ago seems to have ended... this is the best deal I see right now:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16820145590
25$ after rebate. (50$ before)

 

[7earitup]

I am really not aiming for a whole new package here. I have memory, I have the CPU. I just need a S939 Mobo that has a PCIe slot and a PCIe videocard to go with it all for around ~$300 if not less. Very tight budget.

 

[Skunkwourk]

hmm that card works great for me, granted Im on a slower processor and its AGP, just curious did you try the omega drivers?

EDIT: I also upgraded from my Leadtek 6800GT. With the latest omegadrivers, the visiontek was at least on par, if not better. WoW ran just fine as well.

 

[7earitup]

Originally posted by: m0mentary
hmm that card works great for me, granted Im on a slower processor and its AGP, just curious did you try the omega drivers?

EDIT: I also upgraded from my Leadtek 6800GT. With the latest omegadrivers, the visiontek was at least on par, if not better. WoW ran just fine as well.

I tried every driver there was. I could not get it perform well in WoW whatsoever.

 

[Skunkwourk]

Originally posted by: 7earitup

Originally posted by: m0mentary
hmm that card works great for me, granted Im on a slower processor and its AGP, just curious did you try the omega drivers?

EDIT: I also upgraded from my Leadtek 6800GT. With the latest omegadrivers, the visiontek was at least on par, if not better. WoW ran just fine as well.

I tried every driver there was. I could not get it perform well in WoW whatsoever.

Thats too bad, I guess the only other thing I would ask if is you used driver cleaner before you installed or maybe even formatted? Either way better luck with Nvidia, I've always prefered them as well, but I wasn't about to risk any money on their XFX agp 7900GS or 7950GT after reading too many horror stories.

 

[7earitup]

Will these work together?

http://www.tigerdirect.com/app...=2604788&sku=M450-2402

And this:
http://www.tigerdirect.com/app...=3538922&sku=E145-8832

 

[taltamir]

you could get that 300$ upgrade... or you can get 3 times the speed of everything for 400$... that was my point.

RAM: 25$
Mobo: 60$
CPU: 190$ for ideal... 100$ also good.
Video card: 170$ (HD3850) to 250$ (8800GT with 512MB ram)

Min cost: 355$ for a complete upgrade...
wait 2 or 3 months and you will have much better choices.

 

[7earitup]

Link me to a motherboard, processor, ram, and video card (preferably 8800GT) all for around 400 please.

 

[taltamir]

a proper search will take several hours... I would have to plough through newegg, tigerdirect, mwave, zipzoomfly, bestbuy, frys, NCIXUS, etc and get the best deals on parts...
A quick glance on NCIXUS showed me all the parts for a total of 500$. And thats where I am NOT cutting any corners. Getting quality everything. Getting similar or same parts after ploughing all those sites should come up as 400$.

If you keep the ram I linked before from newegg (again, not necessarily the best deal, but better then what is on NCIXUS as far as ram is concerned:
Video card:
http://www.ncixus.com/products/27516/PVT88PUDF4/XFX/
$198.13 for a GeForce 8800GT 256MB (I am assuming your monitor's native res is LESS then 1920x1200... in which case no real reason to get the 512MB version) Probably more than 3 times the performance of current video card.
http://www23.tomshardware.com/...&model2=1057&chart=318 - comparison of your current card to an OC 512MB version... notice overall FPS is almost 4 times more.

Motherboard:
http://www.ncixus.com/products.../GA-P35-DS3L/Gigabyte/
$87.94 Gigabyte quality P35 mobo. Don't skimp on the mobo, it is NOT worth your time and effort (hours of troubleshooting, replacing incompatible hardware, etc)

CPU:
http://www.ncixus.com/products...98/BX80557E6750/Intel/
$190.70 E6750... twice (litterally) the speed of your current CPU (I wanna get that, mine is a 3800+ X2 and is SLOWER then yours, but I am waiting for wolfdale).

RAM DDR2-800:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16820145590
25$ after rebate 25$ rebate... corsair.


You can also get an E2xxx and overclock the heck out of it... but I am not that kind of guy myself (there is the E6550 for 176$ though http://www.ncixus.com/products...7/BX80557E6550/Intel/)

Total price: 502$... but if you shop around or cut corners you can make it less

 

[brencat]

Originally posted by: 7earitup
Link me to a motherboard, processor, ram, and video card (preferably 8800GT) all for around 400 please.

$256 eVGA 8800GT 512MB -- http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16814130318
$66 AR Abit IP35-E mobo -- http://www.newegg.com/Product/...16813127031&Tpk=ip35-e (be quick! comes in/out of stock fast)
$81 E2160 M0 Stepping -- http://www.clubit.com/product_...il.cfm?itemno=A1938281 (3.0 - 3.3ghz OC virtually guaranteed)
$28 AR A-Data 2 x 1gb PC2-6400 RAM -- http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16820211066

Grand total = $431

 

[taltamir]

thanks brencat... Great finds there

If he has a 19inch monitor he can shave off another 60$ by getting the 8800GT 256MB version (which performs EXACTLY the same at that resolution).
So grand total becomes 371$. Or 368$ if he can deal with mail in rebates and wants the corsair ram...

I'll be doing the same as soon as wolfdale arrives.

 

[Puffnstuff]

OP do yourself a favor and spend the little bit more to get yourself a more futureproof rig. Spending any money on s939 is like pissing in the wind. It's been a dead for some time now and as others have suggested you'll end up spending more money on it than you would just buying into a current platform. I've got one 939 system left in the house myself and just retired an am2 system because, unfortunately the 939 with the dfi/opty 175 outperformed it and it had a 5600+ on it plus 4gb of mushkin ddr2. It was replaced with a c2d on an abit ix38 quadgt which absolutely rocks and seems to perform better than my q6600/650i combo. I would encourage you to get a mb with an intel chipset for maximum performance.

 

[happy medium]

Originally posted by: happy medium
I'm going to give you some good advice.Your socket 939 is worth about 110.00$ on Ebay.
Sell it and buy a 85.00$ 2160 Mo stepping Intel cpu. You just made 25.00$.

Now go buy yourself a nice overclocking core 2 duo motherboard (p35) for about 100.00$
Make sure the board will accept a new Penryn Quad core cpu in the future.

Sell your old Corsair 2gb memory. You will get about 90.00$ easy.

Buy 2gb of ddr2 memory. This is cheap at most 90.00$

So far your still 25.00$ up. (you were going to buy a motherboard anyway).

This process should take you about 2 weeks.

By this time the new 8800gs will be out and prices on other 8800's will have stabilized.

Use the 25.oo$ towards a new video card.

Overclock the cpu to 3.0 and you now have a upgradable Intel core 2 / or quad system with a new 8800 series card thats much faster then your old Amd crap.:thumbsup:

If you sell your old stuff on Ebay, you'll make at least 200.00$ back.
Go for the full upgrade and you'll be much happier.

 

[Martimus]

Originally posted by: 7earitup
Are these type of boards still made? I can't find any with big name brands like Gigabyte, ASUS, MSI, etc. Any thing you can link me to would be appreciated.

No, but you can get them on e-bay for around 50-250 dollars. There is a big market for used S939 parts (Processors, MB's and RAM). I only know this because I was trying to fix my computer after it died on me, and I found I could sell the parts that still worked and use that money to buy a completely new system that was better than the one I already had. It is crazy how much S939 parts cost, even used.

 

[SlowSpyder]

I really don't think the problem is the video card not being able to run WOW...