Chance to get PCI-e board for A64 system: should I?

Cams · Post by **Cams** » Mon Jan 17, 2005 7:08 am

Chance to get PCI-e board for A64 system: should I?

I thought I had the components for my forthcoming system finalised, however I'm wondering whether I ought to change to a PCI-e motherboards. My original choice is the Asus A8V Deluxe Motherboard (Rev2.0 / 1007) coupled with a 3500+ Winchester w/ XP-120 and passively-cooled video card. Now, however, my retailer has just got in the Asus A8N-SLI Deluxe . Their being out of stock was helping me with my decision to go for the A8V but now they are in stock, I'm wondering whether I ought to 'upgrade'.

They also have a passively-cooled PCI-e graphics card in stock (Sapphire Radeon X-300) for just slightly more than the AGP card I've chosen for the A8V system (Connect 3D Radeon 9600).

So, what, if any, would be the advantage of the PCI-e board? I'm not much of a gamer (enjoy the odd game of GTA III or Tony Hawk's Pro Skater) but consider that this might be a chance of futureproofing that bit more.

I see the A8N-SLI has a fan on it and I find that off-putting. Would it be a noise problem? If so, is it easy to mod? And how about the XP-120 – would it fit on the A8N-SLI?

I know the answers to my questions are undoubtedly already on the board, but I have limited time to research at the moment and wish to place my order in the next day or so. I want to get it right!

Thanks
Cams

Wraith · Post by **Wraith** » Mon Jan 17, 2005 10:50 am

If you're not much of a gamer, you would very likely be wasting money getting an "SLI" board - which is able to run dual graphics cards for increased graphics performance. A PCIe board that's not SLI should generally be much cheaper than an SLI version. Though 939 PCIe boards in general are few and far between, and more expensive than AGP boards.

I'm not sure how the X300 PCIe compares to the 9600 AGP, but I'm guessing the X300 won't be an improvement.

I've been considering whether to go PCIe or AGP for a 939 system. If buying today, it seems like the smart choice is to stick with AGP unless you have some extra cash to burn or demand bleeding edge graphics with SLI. Or else wait a while and see if 939 boards come down in price a bit as they become more available.

Cams · Post by **Cams** » Mon Jan 17, 2005 11:34 am

Thanks for the reply. What would an example be of a non-SLI PCIe board? I'll probably just stick with the AGP board to be honest. Cheaper and I don't plan on playing Doom 3 any time soon.

Wraith · Post by **Wraith** » Mon Jan 17, 2005 12:50 pm

What would an example be of a non-SLI PCIe board?

Well, on the nVidia side of things, there are three versions in the nForce4 line: nForce4, nForce4 Ultra, and nForce4 SLI. (Link) The nForce4 and nForce4 Ultra are non-SLI, while the nForce4 SLI is, of course, SLI. And Via's K8T890 is non-SLI, as far as I know.

Looking at Newegg, for example, the Asus nForce4 SLI board is $269, while the Gigabyte nForce4 and Chaintech nForce4 Ultra boards are $149 and $129.

v3n · Post by **v3n** » Tue Jan 18, 2005 12:14 pm

if your not a gamer its not worth going pxi-x

Yamamoto56 · Post by **Yamamoto56** » Tue Jan 18, 2005 6:36 pm

I just bought the motherboard Asus A8N-SLI Deluxe and the chipset fan is hella noisely!!!!! I still not sure what fan to replace it with...

Tzupy · Post by **Tzupy** » Wed Jan 19, 2005 10:55 am

[quote="Yamamoto56"]I just bought the motherboard Asus A8N-SLI Deluxe and the chipset fan is hella noisely!!!!! I still not sure what fan to replace it with...

[/quote]
Replace with Zalman NB47J, I've seen a picture of that on ArsTechnica forums.

Cams · Post by **Cams** » Mon Jan 24, 2005 7:44 am

I bought the A8V. Just waiting for my Nexus fans to come in and my order will ship! Getting excited - this upgrade has been a long time coming!

ronrem · Post by **ronrem** » Tue Jan 25, 2005 7:52 am

Generally the 939 socket Winchester Athlon64s are a remarkable mix of power+running cool+quiet,the 3000,as the low power Winchester, is the most logical for quiet. nForce 4 has a ton of neat features,but SLI ain't cheap and is purely for gamers-which doesn't match up to a low-end no-fan Radeon. I'm helping a guy with a build Winchester 3000,no-fan Radeon and an nForce 4 Ultra-probably the ECS-FN1 Extreme sweet at around $130-3 160gig Spinright SATAs. It will do mainly audio-video-graphics,few games,should be quiet