Upgrading My Hardware, Motherboard, Processor, and Graphic Card

Hey guys, I recently started thinking about upgrading some of my computer components. I'm planning on buying an Asrock board - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?...N82E16813157081 , an AMD Opteron 165 1GHz HT Socket 939 Dual-core Processor - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?...N82E16819103588 , and a BFG 256MB 6800GT AGP Graphic card with an aftermarket Arctic Cooling NV Silencer heatsink/fan. What kind of impression do you guys have about these products and have any of you had first/second hand experience working with or seeing these products in action? My biggest concern is the reliability, durability, and quality of the Asrock motherboard. I haven't heard much about their company and how well their motherboards are built. What do you guys think?

God Bless,
Mike

 

The newegg server is down at the moment.

Anyway, Asrock is a buget board made by ASUS.

I'd rather spend the money on an ASUS, like the A8N-VM CSM or similar.

 

the thing is, that asrock is the ONLY board that supports both AGP and PCI-E cards. I'm not going to buy a PCI-E card, all I'm wondering is whether the asrock is a legitimate board or not.

 

The only reason why I'm purchasing that board is because it supports both AGP and PCI-E graphic cards, no other company to my knowledge has a board that has both AGP and PCI-E slots on it. I'm getting a 6800GT with an aftermarket fan/heatsink and I'm getting it for cheap, that's why I'm getting this board so that I have the option of upgrading to a PCI-E card in the future. All I want to know is if it's worth the money to get that board, I currently have a Asus A7N8X-E Deluxe that works fine but I'm getting an AMD 64bit Dual-Core Operton and my board obviously doesn't use that socket.

 

MSI do a board with both AGP and PCI Xpress, and I think FoxConn (LeadTek) do as well from memory.

However, any board that has both has to make sacrifices regardless of brand.

It's up to you if you want to go down this route.


Personally, if I was building a new system, I would be getting a dedicated PCI Xpress board and selling the 6800GT or keeping it for whatever.

There's nothing wrong with the Asrock board, although I still can't check the newegg site as it's down.

 

What sacrifices do you specifically speak of?

 

I'd like to appologize about the broken links I provided you guys with. I'll replace them with the right ones sometime today. Insominac, where is this MSI board that supports both AGP + PCI-E? Thanks

 

Biostar NF4UL-A9, ECS K8T890, ULi M1695/M1567 Reference 2 and ULi AP9507A support both AGP and PCI X, but you need to check which model AGP cards etc they support.

Can't remember the MSI or Foxconn. Check their site or do a Google.


As far as sacrifices, any board that supports both isn't as good in terms of features, performance and layout as a board that just supports one.

 

If you ever plan on selling the 6800gt, id be interested in buying it. im stuck with AGP fo the time being....