I need to get a new graphics card, however for the model I'm looking at, the only options are PCI-X. Now I have a Gigabyte Motherboard with a Via K8VT800 chipset which only has AGP. It is running an AMD Athlon 64 3200+ Socket 754. Now all I want to do is replace the graphics card an the motherboard, but if I replace the motherboard, I would like to upgrade to Socket 939 so that in the future I can upgrade my processor. I remember with the release of 939 that there was some sort of connector someone could buy that would allow them to put a 754 chip into a 939 motherboard. Is this a false memory, or is there really such a thing? Also, if there is such a thing, what is it called, who makes and sells them and how much do they cost? Any help would be very much appreciated.
First off PCI-X is NOT PCI Express. PCI-X is a 64-bit PCI slot found on server motherboards. PCI Express is totally different in design, and is denoted PCIe or PCI-E. Not your fault, since the guys that came up with the name didn't seem to think in through that well. There's no card for motherboards that allows you do make a 939 CPU work on a 754 socket. ECS PF88 was specially designed to accept a card (designed and produced by ECS) that could use different CPU's. The PF88 motherboard alone supports Intel CPU's, but the upgrade cards allow for an AMD CPU to be added in and run in lieu of the CPU. However, the cost of the motherboard and card together runs $150-200, and you can get a cheaper S939 motherboard. There might be some odd-ball niche market board from some industrial company out there, but those solutions tend to get rather pricey (think several $100). *edit* I ran across this Jetway motherboard. The only issue I can see is that the nForce 4 doesn't natively support AGP, so the AGP slot on that motherboard is likely a hack-job tied into the PCI bus---and that will kill your graphics performance. Additionally, you can snag regular S939 boards for the same price or less, like this Asus A8N5X. I've not really heard much about Jetway, so I'm hesistant to recommend jumping on that motherboard. I remember ASrock having a 939/754 board, but I think that was AGP only. These nice market motherboards generally are hit or miss with a lot of folks. I'd personally wait until you can snag a 939 chip instead of going with a hack-job motherboard just to save a few bucks. Plus, in the wait period, prices will drop.
I've heard of them, but I've seen very, very few reviews of any of their products, and not even on a regular basis. A website here and there might get one, and while I don't remember there being anything negative about the stability, they didn't have the highest performance either. It probably isn't a bad board, but I try to avoid recommending people buy a brand I've never personally worked with before.
