Which processor & graphics card?

[Razorsidewalk]

I want to upgrade my processor and graphics card so i can run Call of Duty 4 in higher spec than i currently have.

Atm i have the following processor and GFX card:
Processor: AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core Processor 3600+, 2.01 GHz
Graphics Card: Radeon X1550 (512mb) AGP

I have had a look around and found some upgrades, but im not sure if they are compatible with my mobo (which is an ASRock am2nf3-vsta)

[unauthorized links removed by admin]
discriptions from vendor site.

AMD X2 Dual Core AM2 Athlon 64 6000 3.0GHz 2x1MB Socket AM2 90nm
AMD X2 Dual Core AM2 Athlon 64 5200 2.7GHz 2x512K Socket AM2 65nm
AMD X2 Dual Core AM2 Athlon 64 5200 2.6Ghz 2x1MB Socket AM2 90nm

Novatech GeForce 7900GS 512MB DDR3 DUAL DVI, TV Out, AGP OEM
Novatech X1950 Pro 512MB GDDR3 AGP TV Out Dual DVI

Can some please tell me if the following processors & GFX cards are compatible.
If u need any other info, then please let me know.

Thnx

Razor

[cauzomb]

Here is the MFG support page listing that motherboards features, system compatability references, notes on CPU support etc...

- Socket AM2 for AMD Phenom™ X4* / X2, Athlon 64FX / 64X2 / X2 / 64 and Sempron processors
- Supports AMD's Cool 'n' Quiet Technology
- Supports Untied Overclocking Technology
- Supports Hyper-Transport Technology

*If you adopt AMD Phenom™ X4 AM2+ CPU on this motherboard with AGP VGA cards, please click here for AGP VGA Card support list.

**If you use AM2+ CPU on AM2 chipset motherboard, the system bus speed will downgrade from HT3.0 (5200 MT/s) to HT1.0 (2000 MT/s), but the CPU frequency will not be influenced

AM2NF3-VSTA CPU SUPPORT LIST

Reading through the downloads and bios revision notes, I don't see anything covering specific graphics cards. AM2NF3-VSTA DOWNLOADS

A quick glance at the AM2NF3-VSTA OVERVIEW shows that it has one 8x agp slot. Your graphics card selection is going to be limmited to an 8x AGP graphics card, or PCI, not to be confused with PCI-E. Preference should go to an AGP graphics card, and weather or not you can get AGP graphics card drivers for your opperating system.

Besides needing an adequate power supply, and being on the "phenom" VGA compatability list, and needing card specific drivers for your OS, the two cards that you listed, should work with your motherboard. I couldn't find any specific info on the AGP port's Voltage support. You need to know if it's 1.5 volts or 3.3 volts or both, and it DOES matter. Some AGP graphics cards do not support one or the other and may cause damage to the board and the graphics card or any other component that's fitted when you power it on.. That is if the graphics card physically fits in the slot, but is not compatible with the motherboard voltage wise.

[Razorsidewalk]

Quote "I couldn't find any specific info on the AGP port's Voltage support. You need to know if it's 1.5 volts or 3.3 volts or both, and it DOES matter."

Can u explain this in more detail and how i can finf out this info?

Also my current power supply if this helps is:
Power Supply: JeanTEch - Model HPC-300-202 - 300w

Also are the processors i listed compatible?

Thnx

Razor

[cauzomb]

Did you check to see if they are on the ASrocks list of compatible CPU's? Your motherboard manual may contain the information regarding what voltage the agp port supports. If you don't have it, you can download it from Asrocks website. Also, regarding CPU support, it's an AMD am2 board, any x2 amd 64 for the am2? even phenom is listed as supported, you have to follow their compatability list, based on the bios version, or risk having it be incompatible.

[Razorsidewalk]

I have looked at my manual and from what i can see the AGP slot is a 1.5v

It does have a a caution next to this saying "Do NOT use a 3.3v AGP card on the AGP slot of this motherboard! It may cause permanent damage.

[cauzomb]

That's the propper warning; it cannot use a 3.3 volt AGP card, you will have to contact the vendor/mfg or download the manual/specs for the particular agp card that you are interested in, to ensure that it is an agp 8x, 1.5 volt card. The two graphics cards that you listed in question; x1950 and 7900GS, don't have the voltage/power specs listed on the vendors site. I can't make a recomendation for either due to the risk involved, incase they are not compatible. They do say agp 8x, and it should be standard, but there are some agp cards that will fit in the agp slot and be the wrong voltage, that is why they have the warning.

The other thing is that the CPU's that you listed in question do not show up in the compatability list at Asrock.com, based on the part number.

You can select and copy the part number of one of the x2's on their list, then search for that part number on reputable vendor site to find one available, then you need to ensure that you have the latest bios installed to support that CPU, and that you have the correct OS/CARD/DRIVER combo to be fully compatible..

In order to be certain that your PSU has the right amount of amperage and total power available for all your components at full laod, you need the power specs of all your components, add up the wattage, amperage requirements on each voltage line, 5 volt, 2.2 volt, 3 volt 12 volt etc.. It can be a tough job, but it's the only way to know for sure that your PSU has enough total wattage/amperage for each of the voltage lines.

Some graphics cards need their own Power tap directly from the Power supply and can use alot of power, I burnt out a 400 watt p4/amd 12volt certified PSU using a radeon x850pro, has it's own 4 pin molex directly to the Power supply, and in combination with an amd xp2500+, and several hard drives, it worked for a while, but finally decided that it would not turn on, I am now using a corsair hx520watt modular PSU on an agp 8x board, with the same number of drives, CPU/video card combo, without issues..

For what it is worth, the corsair hx520 PSU is amd certified for use with HD3850 series cards, and there are some available for AGP 8x

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/...gp,1939-4.html

[Razorsidewalk]

Don't know if this will help u, but ive added a report to this post of my PC.

[cauzomb]

Here's a small graphic at xbit labs showing the actual power consumption on the various voltage lines, of an ati x1950 pro reference board, while being used. http://www.xbitlabs.com/misc/picture...r_full.gif&1=1

Peak load while in 3D mode is showing 65.7 watts, note that +12 volt reading of 34.7 watts being drawn from the agp slot, that's about 2.8 Amps, and +12 volt EXT. 25.4 watts being drawn from the direct power supply connection is about 2.11 Amps. Total of about 4.9 Amps from the 12 volt rail. About 1.6 amps from the +3.3 volt rail.

Add these values to the total PEAK draw of each voltage line for all of the motherboard and all the other parts in your system, including the NEW CPU, and the chassis fans, then check the power supply's available power for each of those voltage lines to see if you are within the specs of the power supply.

Your deskstar hard drive power consumption specs show a peak load of 1.72Amps on the +12V line and .68Amps on the +5V line. This translates to 20 Watts on the +12V line, and 3.4Watts on the +5V line.

Typical lite on optical drive power draw: 1.5 amps on +12V line, 1.5Amps on +5V line. This translates to 18Watts on the +12V line and 7.5Watts on the 5 volt line.


Max power draw from a compatible ADO5200IAA5DD amd x2 64 5200 processor is 47.7Amps at 1.3 to 1.35Volts, this translates to an average of 63.2 Watts.


For reference, the HD3850 AGP card has a suggestion to have atleast a 450Watt PSU, or greater, with atleast 30Amps on the +12 volt line, and the card requires (two) 4 pin molex connectors directly from the PSU, these are the same connectors that plug into the hard drives [edit] I found the graphic for the HD 3850 but it doesn't mention if it's AGP or PCI-E, power consumption should be close between the two; Peak watts at 63.1, Drawing around 32.4 from the card interface, total of around 2.7Amps, and 28 watts from the +12V line directly from the power supply, total of around 2.4Amps, and 1.76Watts from the 3.3V olt line, for a total of around .53Amps..

.http://www.xbitlabs.com/misc/picture...r_full.gif&1=1



Here's an interesting post related to issues regarding your motherboard with the use of a phenom processor, and incompatible vga card http://209.85.173.104/search?q=cache...lnk&cd=6&gl=us

Refrences made to the agp cards not functioning properly in 8x mode, hardware failure etc.. This goes a little ways to backing up the importance of following their compatability list. Also some insite into how things might turn out worse even if the compatability list is followed, mostly regarding using the phenom based CPU though.

[ionus]

id not get the x1950 in fact id jump to an HD card if u havent already a cheap on is the ati radeon hd 4550 (same size n shape as a 2400 pro omg) for about $90 and supposedly its not bad just..theres alot of better options

[reckbates]

sorry for bumping old thread but since it's topic of graphics card which is best under 100$