Topic: PC CHIPS LMR810 MOTHERBOARD

[CRAIGBEER]

Ok, before I knew better I bought a new computer 6 months ago with the rather naff pc chips lmr810 motherboard. This has the AGP slot fixed at the factory to 2x, and has power/freezing issues with any good graphics cards even set to 2x agp using powerstrip. I dont want to replace the board as I have 2gb of pc133 ram which I can't put in most new motherboards....

There are some new PCI graphics cards out , I am looking at the 128mb geforce fx5200....Will the motherboard power issues affect a card in the PCI slot, or will the card operate independantly?

Thanks

Craig

[Serenity]

Hi Craig    there are'nt any of our resident "Techies" around at the moment, they tend to come online around 1ish.  In the meantime can you let us know what operating system you are using.

[CRAIGBEER]

I am using xp professional

[Sandra]

Hi Craig, you should be able to run the PCI card with no problems.
The transfer speed of a PCI graphics card will run at the bus speed and not the multiples of it as a 2x, 4,x or 8x AGP card does but as you are stuck with a 2 x then you probably wont be at too big a disadvantage  

[CRAIGBEER]

Thanks for the answer and it sort of makes sense.....My question is now this...I have an Athlon XP 2000+ processor running on this board and 2gb of RAM.

I am currently having to live with a geforce 2 GTS 32mb ddr graphics card in the AGP slot running at 2x, as any bigger cards cause the motherboard to freak out.

If I put a geforce fx5200 128mb card in the PCI slot, will I see an improvement in graphics performance? I don't really understand what impact the bus speed has because I don't know what the bus speed means!

[Sandra]

I am not 100% certain on the differences between the FSB and the PCI bus speed, but they determine the speed of data transfer around the board to the CPU, the AGP transfers data at a multiple of the PCI bus speed by a factor of whatever the AGP slot and AGP card are rated at, ie 2x, 4x or 8x etc.
With a limit of a 2x AGP then obviously the difference would not be as noticeable between a good PCI card and a 2x AGP one, but the difference between a PCI card and an 8x AGP would be more noticeable.
I think that the 128mb PCI card that you are considering should be quite a bit better than your 32mb AGP card but I am sure that someone will be along soon to confirm or dispute this  

[Robotochan]

If you look at your motherboard you will find 3 capacitors just before the opening for the AGP card. My Advice is get the Asrock K7VT2 for ~£20 it can support SD or DDR ram and is the best motherboard I've had ever  

EDIT: The reason I say this is that a lot of cards will not fit with those capacitors in the way, my other PC has one of those motherboards and I could only find a Radeon 7500 to fit it

[Tony]

Robochan is right the AsRock K7VT2 is the ideal solution for your problem.  http://www.asrock.com/product/product_k7vt2.htm That way you can install a 4xAGP graphics card of your choice.

I always use AsRock Mobo's on new builds or upgrades, they are superb boards for the money.

So do yourself a favour regards the PcChips Mobo.......Ditch the Bitch   You can always flog it on Ebay  

If you opt for a new Mobo, don't forget you will need to clean the residue of the old "heat transfer pad" off the CPU and it's heatsink which is attached to the CPU cooler fan. You then need to fit a new "Heat transfer Pad" it's a simple proccess.

CCL  http://www.cclcomputers.biz/acatalog/ sell both the cleaner and pads , look under Products >System Components >Coolers > Accessories [You must use pads, as using "grease" Artic Silver and such like, nullifies you CPU warranty]

[Sandra]

Have you got the correct model number of the mobo Craig ?
Looking on the PC Chips site the only model with an AGP slot in the 810 range is M810L v9.0m  with a 4 x AGP slot  

[Robotochan]

Yey! First time I've been right  

[Adept]

Yey! First time I've been right  

Robo! 8) I'll mark it down in my little book of important dates

[ketamininja]

PCI bus runs at 33Mhz.
AGP bus runs at 66Mhz.

This is how fast the data is transferred along the "pipe" to the piece of hardware (CPU -> PCI, CPU -> AGP etc etc).

Obviously the 8xAGP cards run at a whopping 8 x 66 = 528Mhz technically!

[Simon]

I just fitted a 128mb GeForce FX5200 PCI to a friends PC, who didn't have an AGP slot, and had been putting up with the boards on board graphics, until she discovered she couldn't play any games much more advanced than Pong!  OK, slight exaggeration, but the PCI card is definitely a vast improvement on what she had.  I don't think you would get a much better PCI Graphics Card.