New mobo advice please

in10sive · Jun 15, 2005, 10:43 PM

Hi I am hoping you guys can help me with some advice.

I have an AMD Sempron 2800+ ,Radeon X800XT PE AGP and 3X 512meg DDR 400 ram.
I want to upgrade my mobo but don't know what would be a good choice performance wise,price is not much of an issue here.
It must have at least 3 DIMM slots and at least one serial port as my UPS uses one.
I like to keep upto date with all the latest products but unfortunatly I don't do that with motherboards as it does not need to be upgraded that often.
I would't have to now but after checking the mobo book I discovered my current board only supports up to 266 ram so I am losing out on performance.

So can anyone tell me what would would be good for my current setup?

Thanks in advance.

jasonbourne · Jun 16, 2005, 05:41 AM

The Problem Is That U Have Agp Video Card And A Sempron Processor.maybe U Should Think About Selling Ur Stuff On Ebay And Get A Pci Express Motherboard With 939 Sockete.

Yousaif · Jun 16, 2005, 06:10 AM

Try checking the mobo out in my sig.

in10sive · Jun 16, 2005, 07:40 AM

Selling on ebay is not that good an option as I will lose quite a bit of money on the deal.

Yousaif youre board looks like it might be the one to get,after checking the abit site it looks like it has 3 DIMM slots but it makes no mention of serial ports on the back which is somthing I must have.

Matth · Jun 16, 2005, 01:24 PM

If you have legacy serial devices, some (not all) will work acceptably over Serial to USB converters.

One review for the Abit NF7-S V2 puts it as being equipped with 2 serial and 1 parallel.

If you want performance, and don't want to replace that overpowered AGP graphics card, then I'd suggest going to a Socket 754 Athlon "754, am I mad?!" - well, the motherboards tend to be cheaper, the chips tend to be cheaper, and it seems both will be phased out for a new socket ... and by the time that gets interesting, it won't be available with AGP, so it's a solution for NOW, not for later - and you won't get dual channel advantages with 3 DIMMs.

If the current motherboard only supports 266 RAM, is it running the Sempron at full speed (I thought they were 333FSB).

A mammoth graphics, and a weedy Sempron CPU (the 2800+ Sempron is a step or 2 back from a 2800+ Athlon, as they changed the point of reference) - seems a bit of a mismatch, though some things are more dependent on GPU horsepower than CPU.

Zelig · Jun 16, 2005, 03:22 PM

Some of the Semprons can overclock massively though. (~1 GHz)

in10sive · Jun 16, 2005, 05:53 PM

Well I guess I will look into getting an Athlon 64 chip and board even though I have no problems running games at full spec with my "weedy"

chip a short term solution is no good.
if I am going to spend the money i want to see it in my benchmarks.

Lowfat · Jun 16, 2005, 10:58 PM

You never said if the chip was a Socket A or 754 sempron....

IF Socket A, my vote goes for the DFI Ultra Infinity NF2 board. It takes a lot of time to set up correctly and working well. but it is by far the best Socket A board for overclocking.

in10sive · Jun 16, 2005, 11:50 PM

It is socket A but that is all irrelevent now as it is clearly not worht it so I have decided to get the Athlone 64,earlier than I had planned as I had hoped to wait a while till they made a faster chip.
Anyway the Chaintech S1689 seems to cover all my needs,i just hope it has decent performance.

Matth · Jun 17, 2005, 11:05 AM

Well heatsinked and overclocked (on a board capable of taking it from 333 to 400FSB) , ths SoA Sempron woul be quite a beast.

The case FOR a Socket A Motherboard upgrade - it's the cheapest option, and it would certainly match an AGP card that would be looking less than exciting within a year - given the price of even pretty good SoA boards, it could provide a small kick for a mall price, and serve as a stopgap, though the future of 64bit+AGP looks shaky for later - I suppose they's still be making 64 bit motherboards with AGP chipsets for a while, but I doubt that any new AMD socket boards will arrive as anything other than PCI-E.

With 20:20 hindsight, and the progress of PCI-E as a graphics platform if nothing else, they didn't really do anyone any favours by bringing the Radeon X-series to AGP - a powerful card for a dying platform.

Funny, I'd expected myself to be backing AGP for longer - but only to a degree - heck, there are still people putting powerful graphics on PCI - and while PCI-E is not the huge power boost that AGP is over PCI, PCI-E is where all the power will soon be going.

in10sive · Jun 17, 2005, 07:26 PM

The sad thing is I bought the AGP card only to hear about PCI a few weeks later.
Re selling the card would have resulted in a loss of money and the expense of changing my mobo which I could not afford at the time as i was saving up for a deposit on a new car.
Thems the breaks.

Matth · Jun 19, 2005, 10:31 AM

The only certainty in computing, is that there will NEVER be a good time to buy anything, since it will either get cheaper, or be superceded.

So what is the deal with the motherboard you have?
A Sempron 2800+ is a 333FSB processor and if the motherboard is only 266, it won't be full speed - unless it's ... no, the previous Athlon 2800+ was a 333 as well.

If the current setup under-runs the CPU by 20%, then the kick from a new socket A board would be well worth having - never seen any boards that run the FSB higher than the maximum for the RAM, not without extreme overclocking settings

brutusmaximus · Jun 19, 2005, 11:25 AM

id go for an asus motherboard in your price range. they generally are the best built IMO.

waterloo · Jun 20, 2005, 12:21 AM

SIS 741GX-M Budge Board. Works Nicely.
DFI NF2 Mobo?
MSI Delta 2 ?

Jun 15, 2005, 10:43 PM	#1
in10sive DriverHeaven Newbie Join Date: Jun 2005 Posts: 5 Rep Power: 0	New mobo advice please Hi I am hoping you guys can help me with some advice. I have an AMD Sempron 2800+ ,Radeon X800XT PE AGP and 3X 512meg DDR 400 ram. I want to upgrade my mobo but don't know what would be a good choice performance wise,price is not much of an issue here. It must have at least 3 DIMM slots and at least one serial port as my UPS uses one. I like to keep upto date with all the latest products but unfortunatly I don't do that with motherboards as it does not need to be upgraded that often. I would't have to now but after checking the mobo book I discovered my current board only supports up to 266 ram so I am losing out on performance. So can anyone tell me what would would be good for my current setup? Thanks in advance.

Jun 16, 2005, 05:41 AM	#2
jasonbourne DriverHeaven Senior Member Join Date: Oct 2004 Location: great yarmouth uk Posts: 1,090 Rep Power: 0	The Problem Is That U Have Agp Video Card And A Sempron Processor.maybe U Should Think About Selling Ur Stuff On Ebay And Get A Pci Express Motherboard With 939 Sockete. __________________ http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y28...asonBourne.jpg

Jun 16, 2005, 03:22 PM	#6
Zelig DriverHeaven Extreme Member Join Date: Jun 2003 Location: Canada Posts: 3,167 Rep Power: 53 System Specs	Some of the Semprons can overclock massively though. (~1 GHz) __________________ --

Jun 16, 2005, 10:58 PM	#8
Lowfat Xtreme Join Date: Oct 2003 Location: Grande Prairie, AB, Can Posts: 3,948 Rep Power: 60	You never said if the chip was a Socket A or 754 sempron.... IF Socket A, my vote goes for the DFI Ultra Infinity NF2 board. It takes a lot of time to set up correctly and working well. but it is by far the best Socket A board for overclocking. __________________ i7 920 on phase change * EX58-UD5 * 6GB @ 1600MHz * HD4550 * X25-M RAID0 * Enermax Revo 85+ 1050W * Silverstone FT01BW Q8200 @ 3GHz * P5Q Pro* 4GB @ 878MHz * 9500GT * Auzen Prelude * 30GB Vertex * 11.5TB * Seasonic 420 M12-II * Silverstone LC17B * LG GGC-H20L

Jun 20, 2005, 12:21 AM	#14
waterloo Join Date: Oct 2004 Posts: 337 Rep Power: 0	SIS 741GX-M Budge Board. Works Nicely. DFI NF2 Mobo? MSI Delta 2 ? __________________ Motherboard: DFI Lan Party UT nF4 Ultra-D Modded to SLI Bios: 07/06/05 (File name - 704-2bt) CPU Cooler: Aritc Freezer 64 CPU: AMD 64 3800 Memory: OCZ 2GB Graphics Processor: ASUS EN6200GE Hard Drives: 2 X 160 IDE Western Digital, 320 SATA, 16GB SCSI Power Supply: Enermax Noisetaker 480 Watt Case:Antec CS600 Tower Case Sound Card: M-Audio Revolution 7.1/SB LIVE/SB X-FI Optical Drive: 2 X LG GSA-4167B

Jun 16, 2005, 07:40 AM	#4
in10sive DriverHeaven Newbie Join Date: Jun 2005 Posts: 5 Rep Power: 0	Selling on ebay is not that good an option as I will lose quite a bit of money on the deal. Yousaif youre board looks like it might be the one to get,after checking the abit site it looks like it has 3 DIMM slots but it makes no mention of serial ports on the back which is somthing I must have.

Jun 16, 2005, 01:24 PM	#5
Matth Flash Banner Hater Join Date: Jun 2002 Location: UK Posts: 3,202 Rep Power: 57 System Specs	If you have legacy serial devices, some (not all) will work acceptably over Serial to USB converters. One review for the Abit NF7-S V2 puts it as being equipped with 2 serial and 1 parallel. If you want performance, and don't want to replace that overpowered AGP graphics card, then I'd suggest going to a Socket 754 Athlon "754, am I mad?!" - well, the motherboards tend to be cheaper, the chips tend to be cheaper, and it seems both will be phased out for a new socket ... and by the time that gets interesting, it won't be available with AGP, so it's a solution for NOW, not for later - and you won't get dual channel advantages with 3 DIMMs. If the current motherboard only supports 266 RAM, is it running the Sempron at full speed (I thought they were 333FSB). A mammoth graphics, and a weedy Sempron CPU (the 2800+ Sempron is a step or 2 back from a 2800+ Athlon, as they changed the point of reference) - seems a bit of a mismatch, though some things are more dependent on GPU horsepower than CPU.

Jun 16, 2005, 05:53 PM	#7
in10sive DriverHeaven Newbie Join Date: Jun 2005 Posts: 5 Rep Power: 0	Well I guess I will look into getting an Athlon 64 chip and board even though I have no problems running games at full spec with my "weedy" chip a short term solution is no good. if I am going to spend the money i want to see it in my benchmarks.

Jun 16, 2005, 11:50 PM	#9
in10sive DriverHeaven Newbie Join Date: Jun 2005 Posts: 5 Rep Power: 0	It is socket A but that is all irrelevent now as it is clearly not worht it so I have decided to get the Athlone 64,earlier than I had planned as I had hoped to wait a while till they made a faster chip. Anyway the Chaintech S1689 seems to cover all my needs,i just hope it has decent performance.

Jun 17, 2005, 11:05 AM	#10
Matth Flash Banner Hater Join Date: Jun 2002 Location: UK Posts: 3,202 Rep Power: 57 System Specs	Well heatsinked and overclocked (on a board capable of taking it from 333 to 400FSB) , ths SoA Sempron woul be quite a beast. The case FOR a Socket A Motherboard upgrade - it's the cheapest option, and it would certainly match an AGP card that would be looking less than exciting within a year - given the price of even pretty good SoA boards, it could provide a small kick for a mall price, and serve as a stopgap, though the future of 64bit+AGP looks shaky for later - I suppose they's still be making 64 bit motherboards with AGP chipsets for a while, but I doubt that any new AMD socket boards will arrive as anything other than PCI-E. With 20:20 hindsight, and the progress of PCI-E as a graphics platform if nothing else, they didn't really do anyone any favours by bringing the Radeon X-series to AGP - a powerful card for a dying platform. Funny, I'd expected myself to be backing AGP for longer - but only to a degree - heck, there are still people putting powerful graphics on PCI - and while PCI-E is not the huge power boost that AGP is over PCI, PCI-E is where all the power will soon be going.

Jun 17, 2005, 07:26 PM	#11
in10sive DriverHeaven Newbie Join Date: Jun 2005 Posts: 5 Rep Power: 0	The sad thing is I bought the AGP card only to hear about PCI a few weeks later. Re selling the card would have resulted in a loss of money and the expense of changing my mobo which I could not afford at the time as i was saving up for a deposit on a new car. Thems the breaks.

Jun 19, 2005, 10:31 AM	#12
Matth Flash Banner Hater Join Date: Jun 2002 Location: UK Posts: 3,202 Rep Power: 57 System Specs	The only certainty in computing, is that there will NEVER be a good time to buy anything, since it will either get cheaper, or be superceded. So what is the deal with the motherboard you have? A Sempron 2800+ is a 333FSB processor and if the motherboard is only 266, it won't be full speed - unless it's ... no, the previous Athlon 2800+ was a 333 as well. If the current setup under-runs the CPU by 20%, then the kick from a new socket A board would be well worth having - never seen any boards that run the FSB higher than the maximum for the RAM, not without extreme overclocking settings

Jun 19, 2005, 11:25 AM	#13
brutusmaximus DriverHeaven Senior Member Join Date: Apr 2005 Posts: 525 Rep Power: 60	id go for an asus motherboard in your price range. they generally are the best built IMO.