Want A 775 board with AGP , 4 PCI

[video_magic]

I hve been searching in vain for a socket 775 board which has an AGP slot (4x or 8x ) and at least 4 PCI slots, and which will support this CPU
http://processorfinder.intel.com/Details.aspx?ProcFam=0&sSpec=sl96h&OrdCode=#

I don't mind if the board doesn't specifically state 05a comptibility so long as it supports the CPU in it's CPU compatibility list.

I'd prefer it to have LAN on board, or if not then to have 5 PCI slots.

Thanks anybody who knows of such a board and tells me :)

[video_magic]

Finally found one which is Asrock ConRoe865PE

http://www.asrock.com/mb/overview.asp?Model=ConRoe865PE&s=

Not really anything significant from an overall read around, a lot of people seem to like Asrock, although I get the impression they are aimed at budget-concious buyers.

The board doesn't have SATA2 only SATA1. I don't think SATA2 makes much real-world difference on a 7200rpm drive 'though does it?
No firewire.
No Gigabit Lan, only 10/100.
It does have fancy onboard audio ALC850 7.1 , but I don't have a need for that, I use my own card.
I only want to get a new board to support the P4 as above but still keep my AGP T1-4600 and in fact my DDR1 2-2-2-5memory also. I just want some extra power for my encodes in a P4 so therefore upgrade to socket 775 but keep all my other bits.

Well, I will go for this board soon unless I read some better advice - anything helpful welcome - ThankYou.

[foxyshadis]

SATA2 only matters for RAID.

ASRock is great, they make all the goofy combination boards that no one else thinks will sell enough to be profitable.

[video_magic]

Thanks for the response foxyshadis.

I am hoping now when I get it set up that I see the main difference from the 2mb cache on the new CPU and for it to run cool as well when doing all the work.
My current 478 Prescott runs too hot, and with the summer/global warming :devil: on the way I thought it was time for a change rather than spend money on new fans.

[burfadel]

Just have to make sure with sata2 drives that they will work on sata1. it all depends on a number of factors. many sata2 drives come with a jumper on them limiting them to sata1 speeds.

The majority of people with these drives don't know any better and run their sata2 drives at sata1 speeds, lol. Very little real world difference, I think there's only a slight difference in a limited number of circumstances.

[video_magic]

I have now, finally after 10 days of trying to diagnose or at least get the 3 boards working within the 14 days of receipt - or return them for refund, got mine and two other sytems upgraded and working fine for now!

I have an SL9KF on an ASROCK 4coredual-SATA2 R2.0

I bought 3 of the boards with 3 of the SL9KF CPUs. As I mentioned it was a nightmare of getting them to work. The CPU is on their approved list, it has a PGC of 06, although the board is 04a. I believe, after my extensive diagnostics, that these Asrock boards have voltage problems of some kind and that their BIOSes are poorly written too - not least because some of the features such as 'Smart-Fan' do not appear to work.

It's not my components that have any fault. But now I have the system up and running I am fairly happy with the performance, but the noise of the CPU fan which doesn't slow down like it should on the very light load and temperature which it has is annoying!

[dat720]

Why must it have AGP, even a AU$100 pcie card is going to be faster than all but the top end agp cards, cheap pcie cards can be had for $45, you are limiting yourself masively sticking to a agp board, and may i point out the reason you are having probs finding a 775 AGP board is because 95% of 775 chipsets are pcie chipset's.

I have a PCIE ATI HD2400Pro and the same card in AGP and the AGP version is significantly slower, in 3d mark 03 it scores some 4000 points less.

[video_magic]

My AGP video card, which is a TI-4600 with 128mb, is more than adequate for my current needs, and will be for those of the next couple of years. Any games which I do play or have any interest in playing work fine with my card. I am on a low budget, and to some extent wanted to stick with some of my components which are fine for my needs, plus I avoided PCI-E because I have read of their power hungriness, misleading memory amounts being stated, and heavier system requirements being stated too.

I do appreciate advice and comments anyway, thankyou. I think I don't like the endless upgrade-upgrade-and upgrade again (basically re-buying stuff) even though it seems that computer hardware and software manufacturers always release more 'bloat' to require more purchases. At least 'free software' makers buck that trend often by putting out nice tidy, neat little apps which often get more and more optimised and feature filled for little extra bloat. :)

[dat720]

I understand what your saying there, but there a quite a number of drawbacks to your line of thinking, a TI4600 is what 8 or 9 years old? Don't be under the illusion that it is going to last for ever, it will need to be replaced and when it does with your agp board, you are mostlikely going to be stuck buing a used agp card to get you going again as AGP cards are dying out, even a $45 pcie card is going to outperform that 4600, PCIE is no more power hungry than AGP, the 2 mentioned HD2400's i have are a great example, the pcie card goes in with no extra connections required. The AGP card on the otherhand needs a additional floppy drive power cable connected to it, it all comes down to the Chipset of the card and how much power it requires, not the type of slot it goes into.

The misleading memory size you refer to is often not misleading at all. Cards like the Nvidia TC variants state on the box they use a technology called turbo cache, which if you do some research means it uses system memory to complement it's onboard memory. It is a way of making very low cost graphics cards.

The system requirements they state on the box are not really requirements they are recomendations for the games you intend on playing.

I agree constanly upgrading can be teadeous, but by the sounds of your system it has been a long time since you have had to do a upgrade... maybe it's time you bite the bullet and just spoil yourself.

Besides with the money you save on buying that AGP board, you could buy a PCIE board and card (or even a onboard GPU) for much the same price. Probably even cheaper.

And just to kinda proove my point, read this page (http://www.intel.com/products/chipsets/865PE/index.htm).... the Asrock board is based on the Intel 865PE chipset which is already an old outdated chipset (according to the wiki page i just read it was released May 2003!!!! it's already 5 Years old on it's own) designed for the socket 478 P4 CPU's with mostlikely updated bios software to allow 775 dual core cpu's, and if you ever upgrade your CPU to the newer core2 variants you will have problems as it only officially supports 800mhz fsb, 1033 by a bios hack that asrock have applied, forget about 1333mhz CPU's, if it were me i would not buy that board at all.