Looking for a motherboard, must have AGP

[SNGX1275]

I'm looking for a motherboard to put together a new system. I'm wanting the board to have Core2Duo support but I could go the AMD route if it comes to it.

The tricky part is that I need it to have an AGP slot. I've got an eVGA 7800GS card that is AGP and I want to carry it over to this motherboard.

I spent about 20 minutes looking today and all I can come up with is ASRock 775Dual-VSTA or a bunch of micro-atx boards. I didn't even check most of the micro boards to see if they support the Core2Duos but I don't want a micro board. The 7800 would probably hang over the edge of the board anyway, and obstruct something critical.

Anyone know of any other boards that have AGP and will work with the new Intels?

 

[JMMD]

That's going to be tough to find. There are two mATX from ECS but that's about it. You have a few choices:
Sell the card and get C2D with PCI-e
Get AMD 939 with AGP
Get a non-C2D mobo with AGP support.

 

[KingCody]

I looked around and couldn't find any mobos supporting both C2D and AGP other than what you already found. I can understand why you would like to carry over your video card, but IMHO it's just not worth it. consider this...

7800GS AGP cards are selling for over $200 on eBay. and since PCI-E cards are cheaper than AGP cards, you could sell your AGP card and buy an equal or better performing PCI-E card for less money

there are a few reviews such as this one that rate the 7800GS about the same performance-wise as a 7600GT (both cards at stock speeds).

on newegg you can get a 7900GS for around $200, a 7600GT for around $140, or a 7600GS (which can be overclocked to near GT speeds) for around $100.

so when you look at it that way, it could actually cost you more money to build a C2D/AGP system than it would to build a better performing C2D/PCI-E system.

just something else to consider, cheers :wave:

 

[SNGX1275]

Well the board I listed isn't too bad of a board actually, things are laid out decent on it. I just put it in a system I'm building for someone else.

I know its a budget board and that concerns me a bit, but I won't be overclocking, so I think it should be ok.

I don't want to get a 939 board because I don't think any processor it supports can compare to a C2D.

I want to avoid ECS boards because I imagine they are even crappier than the ASRock board.

Its not going to cost me more to build a C2D/AGP than C2D/PCI-E for a couple reasons. If I'm going to get out of the budget board market, then there is no price advantage there, also I'm 'recycling' the 7800GS from an older system, so I won't be buying a new card (except maybe a really cheap agp with tv out for the one the 7800 is in now).

Also I really don't want to give up my 7800gs because its awesome. Its the eVGA superclocked version that performs higher than even the BFG overclocked one. Although selling it on eBay is tempting. Might be hard to get a decent price on it though because I don't have much feedback and I've never sold anything.

 

[vnf4ultra]

The asrock looks like your best option.
It looks like it'd fit the bill, but I guess it'd be nicer if there was a nice higher quality asus or abit board that'd do the same.

Anandtech did a review of the board.
http://anandtech.com/mb/showdoc.aspx?i=2810

I want to avoid ECS boards because I imagine they are even crappier than the ASRock board.

QFT

 

[SNGX1275]

Thanks for the link vnf, I'll give it a read in a few min.