Abit AV8 K8T800 and Athlon 64 3500 (939)

[Hansaman]

I am looking at getting this combination from Monarch (www.monarchcomputer.com). I am looking to upgrade from my AthlonXP system to 64bit architecture. Both this board and the Asus A8V look to be good boards. Any opinions? Thanks!

[bluegreenshxt]

i like the abit board...though a lot of other people are bound to suggest the nforce3 msi neo 2 platinum

[Avid6eek]

That Abit board would be a great board if you were running at stock speeds. With 90nm Athlon 64's now available, you should be overclocking that CPU. Last time I read a review on that board, it did not have an AGP/PCI lock. I would check to see if they have a BIOS update that locks those buses, or I would look for a board that has them locked.

[Hansaman]

What does AGP/PCI lock do? Also, I am currently running an AthlonXP 2600 on an Abit NF7-S Rev. 2 with 1.5GB of PC2700 RAM. If I upgrade to the 64bit Athlon (with a new board), I will have to keep my existing RAM (for the time being). I may also have to rethink the processor and consider the Athlon 64 2800. How much performance improvement will I gain with this upgrade over what I am currently running, and how much more of a boost will the 3500 give me. I am not a big-time game (mostly flight simulators and a couple of WWII games).

Thanks!

[Avid6eek]

If your don't overclock your system, then the PCI/AGP lock means nothing to you. Running at stock speeds, that is a great motherboard. There isn't a huge difference between the 2800 and 3500 in terms of performance, but if you play CPU intensive games, it's enough that you'll notice. I would suggest you get the new 90nm Athlon 64 3200 for your socket 939 board. It's quite a bit cheaper than the 3500, and it runs at cooler temps.

[Juan]

I am buying the MSI Neo 2 Plat with the 3200+ 90nm here in a couple weeks since I just sold my current MB and processor.

[bluegreenshxt]

the abit board is k8t800 pro...so it should have an agp/pci lock...dont remember if they were working or not..:p