motherboard crunch time

[scylla]

It's time to make my decision on what mobo to buy for a fresh computer build. My sticking point is pci express or agp. It seems the powers that be have decided that pci-e is the new standard for video acceleration, and I don't want to be left behind. I intend to have this computer for a resonable length of time while still being able to play the games that I'm sure are in the pipeline. Is the agp technology research being cast aside for advances in pci-e or will I still be able to, say 2 years from now, buy cutting edge agp cards for my mobo? Better yet, has anyone heard, or maybe can envision an adaptor to install a pci-e card in a agp mobo?

[saphalline]

PCIe is definitely something you should get on your new mobo. It might cost a bit more now to go for PCIe, but chances are your future upgrades will be cheaper (or at least better ;) ) in the end. PCIe and AGP are both receiving the same amount of research right now in terms of native I/O support for graphics chipsets, but as 2005 unfurls, PCIe will be dominant. So future versions of vid cards will be released first as PCIe, then translated into APG (thereby making them potentially more expensive). While AGP will still be alive and kicking for at least the next year, there will undoubtedly be disadvantages in the near future for those who still use AGP. And no, there will be no AGP/PCIe converters made. Not for the slot anyway, as the PCIe-to-AGP conversion is built into the vid card itself, if at all.

[scylla]

Keeping your recommendation for PCIe in mind, are the mobos with PCIe inferior in any way compared to agp mobo's? What I mean is, are the PCIe mobos lacking in any way {bios,stability,quality,etc.} due to the rush to PCIe?

[saphalline]

Well, stability of features is always a concern among those who like to wait for the tech to mature, but I haven't heard any horror stories about PCIe. At least, not from a standard mobo. There's a thread around here about Dell's problems moving to PCIe, but that's to be expected since they got their hands on it before the enthusiast online market. As it stands now, PCIe is really safe for a new I/O slot!

I myself used to be wary of early adoption, but then I tried it. I got my current mobo based on the i865PE chipset about two weeks after they showed up on Newegg, and until recently I was still using the factory-fresh first BIOS version. While the new BIOS version added some cool features, I can honestly say that my computer has never crashed once because of a BIOS fault. It's always been Windows!! My so-called untested mobo has always been rock solid with no hiccups.

In essence, I think the major companies have learned that solid chipsets upon release equals more money for all. And with PCIe, I think we've witnessed the absolute smoothest roll-out of new PC tech in history!

[Jhorner1]

If you are worried about AGP being phased out, you might want to look at a board like this (http://www.ecsusa.com/products/915p-a.html). It has both AGP and PCIe x16