Up to this point is ok, but quite frankly, the rest of this is total bollocks.Originally Posted by harrycary
The interface is simpler which reduces costs. Worth getting on that basis alone.As far as PCI Express is concerned, it is the future but right now there are no video games that even take full advantage of its' throughput speed. I mean, there are other bottlenecks in a system that negate any performance gains to be had.
The PCI-Express graphics slot is just as capable of providing power to the card as AGP. Only the top end cards need extra power connectors, and that's just as much true for AGP as it is for PCI-Express.Also, a PCI-Express video card requires a seperate power connector as it doesn't get it's power from the mobo but directly from the power supply. This means buying a power supply with this capability($$).
Nearly ALL the new graphics cards worth buying are PCI-Express. Sure, the old models are still available and will be for some time, but in your first paragraph you were talking about getting socket 939 for future-proofing. The same applies to graphics cards. If you want to be able to go for the latest cards then PCI-Express is the way to go, even if you don't care about cost.For 99% of users out there, a mobo with an 8X AGP slot will be fine for many years to come.
As I stated earlier, the April issue of MaximumPC magazines addresses these very issues and most certainly is worth reading.
Maxtor and Western Digital SATA drives will accept power from conventional connectors or the new SATA power connectors. Seagate only allow SATA power connectors. Others (including early Maxtor and WD SATA drives) only have conventional connectors. A power supply which has both has great benefits.SATA, Serial ATA(as opposed to parallel ATA) is a different protocol of data transfer. The hard-drive you choose must be of the serial type and the mobo must be compatible with it. The power connector used is uniquely different then current parallel ATA hard-drives as well.
SATA drives are now VERY common, and are available in exactly the same capacities as conventional Parallel ATA drives. There are a few expensive 10000 rpm drives (such as WDC Raptor) which have comparatively limited capacity, but that isn't the norm.But, SATA drives are not very common yet and quite expensive relative to size. The only true performance benefit is a boot time in mere seconds and maybe faster video processing when editing. This is not to mention their much smaller capacity(the largest 10,000 rpm SATA drive is only 74Gb).
Please try to avoid posting things which are factually incorrect, it just causes confusion.
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