nForce3 vs 4 & socket 754 vs 939; upgrade confusion

[videobruce]

I curently have two nForce2 MBs'. I'm considering upgradeing one of them, but have run into confusion between nForce3 vs nForce4 chipsets, but especially this choice of 754 vs 939 pin AMD processors.

1. I read AMDs' FAQs' regarding the two sockets. Are each of the AMD 64s' available in either 745 and 939 pin?

2. Is a upgrade to the older nForce3 chipset worth it or would it be better jumping to v4? How much a difference between v2 & v3?

3. To the above question; AGP vs PCI express graphics cards; for the SAME chipset card, is there any difference?

4. I see these newer PIC express MB's only have three PCI slots. Why the change?

My situation;
Win 2k, no overclocking, very little gaming, don't need/want the latest and greatest. HD tuner card for timeshifting is the most intensive hardware application that the box sees.

Big varible; I would prefer to use my existing AGP card, but I might have to upgrade to a newer card depending on how a new (undecided) Microdisplay HDTV will work with the existing card. If I will have to upgrade it would be a 6600GT from the existing 9600Pro.

Hope all of that made sense. Thank's in advance.

[kellamne]

754 is extremely cheap; but is only single channel memory and NF3.
NF3 supports 939 and AGP and dual channel memory; I dont believe NF4 does support agp though - which is why I am using a 939 DFI_NF3 - which i am noticing is noticbly faster than my old athlon 3000 on Nf2; but is overclocked.

Im sure some1 will commment further/clarify this.

[videobruce]

nForce3 is AGP and nForce4 is PCI express AFAIK.
They both use the same memory?

[kellamne]

Regular DDR 3200 or higher (matched pairs for dual channel).

[JimF]

In my view the 754 is mainly for Semprons and low end Athlon 64's, I doubt that you'd see that much improvement on 32 bit Windows over a decent existing chipset like the ones you have.

Socket 9 does offer the dual channel memory controller on chip and this will improve performance across the board - the catch is that you need a pair of memory sticks that have similar timings/characteristics - from what I have seen some have got away with mix and match, some haven't. However most boards do seem to support single channel mode so you can use at least some of your RAM for the time being.

As even the cheap boards have gigabyte ethernet, sound, loads of USB and firewire I think cutting down on the slot count makes sense - unless you want SLI and then you get an extra slot

As you indicate AGP is another gottcha - it runs fine for now but will it plug into or support next years toys ? The GPU's are now native for PCI-E with an AGP adaptor. Onboard graphics with a PCI-E slot could be a temporary way forward.

I can't really recommend my board as its taken a while (3 weeks or more) to get it stable but the dual channel memory really is an improvement for things like video and audio editing.

[Seperah]

Originally Posted by videobruce

nForce3 is AGP and nForce4 is PCI express AFAIK.
They both use the same memory?

NF3 boards are both AGP and PCI-E based.
NF4 has only one exception, and those are hybrid boards.

NF3 is single channel 64bit.
NF4 is dual channel 128bit.

NF3 was along the lines of the KT133 or NF1....didnt overclock
very well. And the hybrid boards take advantage that AGP is an
extension of the PCI spec, therefore the AGP slot runs at .5x instead
of 4 or 8x.

Your best shot ---939

[hoinar]

Mate,

Nforce 3 is only AGP afaik (read also in Nvidia's homepage)
Nforce 4 is only PCI Express.

These are Nvidia's chipsets for A64. One can also get an ATI or a VIA chipset for his A64 cpu.

Socket 754 supports only single channel memory. (max processor is A64 3700+, if i remember well)
Socket 939 has dual channel (max processor - Fx 60..or whatever Pitch has in his backyard )

Is that simple.

[Seperah]

I'm not trying to start something, or perhaps I mis understood.
But I didnt think NF3 was AGP exclusive.