How do I determine whether a video card is compatible with my motherboard?

[Eclectic_Loner]

Newb to building here.

How do I know whether my motherboard can support a video card I'm going to buy?

Edit: Oh and what are the possible bugs after installing a video card? Is it recommended that I uninstall the old video card's drivers or will it overwrite itself?

[Duffman]

Uninstall the old drivers, and look up the model number of your motherboard to fidn out if you have onboard graphics, agp graphics or pci, and most importantly, if you have an agp slot.

[zaphodiv]

If the board has onboard graphics and no AGP slot you need to check that there is an empty pci slot to put a graphics card in. All the pci slots might be full of other cards.

[Darth Sushi]

NO AGP and PCI slots? Dude, just ID your board before you start asking 20 questions. Otherwise, all answers are just theoritical since you have a very weird mb.

[Eclectic_Loner]

This is my board: http://ph.asus.com/products.aspx?l1=3&l2=12&l3=41&model=198&modelmenu=1

Anyway I guess I'll start with the 20 questions now.

You mind enlightening me to how a motherboard works without a AGP and PCI slots? Is it a new version of a board or something? and how good are onboard graphics?

My only experience with building mother boards are ones with AGP and PCI slots.

What's the difference between putting a video card on the AGP slot from a PCI slot?

and AGP slot is the slot besides the PCI right not the slots where you put your memory thingy in?

[Virtualbody1234]

I won't answer all your questions but your board has "1 x AGP 4X"

The slot is the black one to the right of the 4 white PCI slots in the picture below:

http://ph.asus.com/630/images/products/198/198_l.jpg

So you would need to find an AGP 4X graphics card.


What is currently there?

[Eclectic_Loner]

I didn't quite understand your question. If you mean what's currently my video card, I have the Geforce4 MX 4000 and I'm planning to switching into a 6600

[Virtualbody1234]

I think that would be a waste with that motherboard.

AGP 4X is outdated.

[Seedler]

I think that would be a waste with that motherboard.

AGP 4X is outdated.

Yep, get a new comp cuz with that mobo, 6600 will still lag because it's a 8X AGP card.

[Eclectic_Loner]

Ah crap. I can only afford a video card.

Too bad

Edit: What's the best motherboard currently out there and how much is it?

[Virtualbody1234]

Ah crap. I can only afford a video card.

Too bad

Edit: What's the best motherboard currently out there and how much is it?
You seem to like to toss out huge questions.

It would be similar to asking what is the best car and how much is it?

Unanswerable. There is a thing called the internet that you can use to study the situation at length.

[Eclectic_Loner]

Yeah, never mind the stupid newbie question I asked.

What do you think of this: http://www.epinions.com/Gigabyte_GA_7N400SL_Socket_A_nForce_2_Ultra_AGP_8x_ATX_GA7N400SL_Motherboard/display_~full_specs

Personally with 0 knowledge of technology, I'm just trying to avoid a case where I spend thousands and find out that the board is outdated by the time I buy it and I have to go get a new board to support the high spec games.

[Virtualbody1234]

I have built a few systems with that board. I liked it quite a lot.

But again, that was a while ago (maybe 2 years ago) that is also quite outdated when it comes to computers.

[Eclectic_Loner]

How about this? http://www.pcstats.com/articleview.cfm?articleID=1735

Edit: btw is the 6600 a decent video card or is it considered an above average by today's standards?

[Seedler]

Ah crap. I can only afford a video card.

Too bad

Edit: What's the best motherboard currently out there and how much is it?

http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/Category/category_tlc.asp?CatId=14&CMP=ILC-FPM10

check this mobo+cpu, its a killer mobo and cpu for a very low price

[Eclectic_Loner]

Which one of those boards are you referring to?

Edit: Are those Canadian dollars or US dollars?

After doing a search for the most expensive boards available in my country on this site, this is what I got: http://www.hardwarezone.com.ph/priceguide/info.php?cid=266&id=7543

Is it any good?

Looks similar to my old board only it's 8x. I don't understand the rest of the specs.

What does it mean if it's an intel socket or an amd socket etc.? Is it just compatibility issues or does it literally mean a p4 won't fit in an AMD socket board?

Edit: Read some positive reviews though not informative for a newb like me. Is this really that great?

[lynx]

I don't know which board he was referring to, but the prices are $CDN

Your question about different chips and different sockets. Amd chips don't fit Intel sockets and vice-versa.
Not only that, Intel have more than one socket (currently Socket 478 and Socket 775) and matching chip. That also goes for Amd with Socket A, Socket 754 and Socket 939.
So you've not only got to make sure that you get an Intel chip for an Intel motherboard, or an Amd chip for an Amd motherboard, you've got to make sure that the type of motherboard socket and processor chip match too.

For Intel, Socket 478 is outdated or low budget (depending on chipset).
For Amd, Socket A is outdated, Socket 754 is very much for low budget machines.

The board you picked

is expensive
is outdated
probably has features you will never use (which bump up the price)


If you are going to change your motherboard to something more up-to-date, it probably means you will have to change your processor too. You can probably get an Amd socket 939 motherboard and matching Athlon64 3000+ for not much more than the price of that mobo. I can't see any S939 processors on that site though.

Since the objective is to improve your graphics, you may as well go straight to a pci-express motherboard. The prices are about the same as AGP 8x, both for motherboards and graphics cards, but you jump past the (already outdated) AGP 8x slot.

One other thing to consider if gaming is your objective. Look at what the motherboard offers in terms of onboard sound. Most will just offer an audio codec. That means that the chip just does the physical work but the calculations of how to produce a particular sound have to be done by your cpu, and that's quite a lot of work and reduces game performance. High end boards offer an audio processor, which means that the work is removed from the cpu. Compare the cost of a board with just a codec with the cost of one with an audio processor though. You may find that the difference is far more than the cost of adding a pci sound card.

[Eclectic_Loner]

What about this? http://www.hardwarezone.com.ph/news/view.php?id=2990&cid=4

It's PCI but I don't know if it's an audio processor or just an audio codec.

[Seedler]

What about this? http://www.hardwarezone.com.ph/news/view.php?id=2990&cid=4

It's PCI but I don't know if it's an audio processor or just an audio codec.

omg stop looking at shit ur never gonna buy and go to a real seller site like newegg.com or tigerdirect.com and fcking look up a mobo and read the fcking reviews.

[Darth Sushi]

OMG...my advice is just goto a store and buy a complete setup. You're not ready to be a builder! This is purely based on the questions you've been asking.

[Eclectic_Loner]

Gee...thanks for the support guys. Nothing says like let's flame this newb to hell just because he knows nothing based off what you two posted.

Hell let's just forget about helping him and let him waste his money off a complete setup, oh and instead of just ignoring his post, let's urge him to buy a complete setup even when he's already on a tight budget or force him to by flaming him. So much for hardware help.

[Darth Sushi]

Gee...thanks for the support guys. Nothing says like let's flame this newb to hell just because he knows nothing based off what you two posted.

Hell let's just forget about helping him and let him waste his money off a complete setup, oh and instead of just ignoring his post, let's urge him to buy a complete setup even when he's already on a tight budget or force him to by flaming him. So much for hardware help.
There's a reason why most of us are not answering all of your questions. If you don't know the difference between AGP, PCI, PCI-E, chip-set, and codecs, it going to be a very long thread.

If you still want to build, start by stating your max budget. Then state how you plan to use this computer (school reports, gamer, autoCad???). Most will try to give you the most bang for your bucks in terms of hardware suggestions. Unless, you have 3-5 thousand bucks to spend, don't ask for "what's the best mb?" When you state you want to get a 6600 vid card, the best MB question becomes totally irrelevant, which is why it was not answered. Start with your budget and go from there.

Good Luck.

[lynx]

The board you've looked at has a full audio processor, not just a codec.

However, it also has twin SLI graphics slots, so you are paying for those and you won't use them.

It also uses DDR II memory, so that would be another item you would have to replace.

Darth has a good point about telling us what you are trying to achieve. It is a lot easier to give advice when we know the endpoint.