Newegg.com - ASRock 4CoreDual-SATA2 LGA 775 VIA PT880 Pro/PT880 Ultra ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail

Hello, I was thinking about upgrading my mobo and I have a brand new AGP card(Radeon 1950 Pro) that I just bought, and I wanted a mobo that supports Core Duo and AGP but also has a PCI Express x16 slot if I wanted to upgrade to PCI Express later. My question is, It lists that the PCI Express slot is 16x, yet there are some reviews that say it is only x4. Is there some confirmation on if it is 16x or 4x? And if it is only 4x, can any of you recommend a motherboard that supports Intel Core 2 Duo as well as AGP 8x(and PCI Express 16x)?

Thanks,

DaveB

Hi dave. What it probably is, is that it has a physical 16x connector, but runs at PCIe 4x speed when active. In other words, way worse than even AGP 8x, so not even worth having. Not to mention, it uses a VIA chipset. New VIA chipsets are death. X_X And i cannot find any other Core2 motherboards that have AGP slots. How sure are you that you want to keep that graphics card?

Well i spent about $300 on that GC so hopefully a year or two atleast. Guess i dont have to many options.

Well, im sorry dave. I cannot find any decent AGP motherboards anywhere. I wish i could help you more. AGP is simply outdate. Lets see if we can upgrade what you have now. Tell me the rest of your system specs. (specifically motherboard)

I take that back. here is one. It has decent enough specs. I especially like it is a Standard ATX, has an Intel Chipset (i like Intel) and everything else is as good as you can get for AGP. The only thing is the lack of reviews, but i have found ECS to be a rather reliable brand. Here is a bunch of other stuff you could use to get the most out of your graphics card.

ECS 848P-A7 LGA775 Motherboard

Intel Pentium 4 530 LGA775

Wintec 2GB (2x 1GB) DDR-400 SDRAM 184pin DDR-SDRAM

Western Digital 250GB SE SATA HDD

Sound Blaster Audigy SE PCI Sound Card

Sony IDE DVD/RW Drive

Cooler Master Elite Midtower ATX Case with 350 watt PSU

ARCTIC COOLING Freezer Pro 7 (essential since it is a Prescott Pentium 4 they run HOT)

Its not the best system, but its just about the best AGP system you can build anymore. Another possibility is to sell the new graphics card, on here or on ebay or something, and build a new system from scratch.