Old Pentium 3 mobo with new video card?

[pistachi0]

Hi guys, I am confused about my situation. I have a pentium 3 (450 MHz) computer with 16 mb video card. I want to make it as a living room pc, so I can watch dvd on my tv. My current video card doesn't have tv out, so I want to buy another video card. However I am a little bit concerned about the compatibility issue with my motherboard. Since I am not a tech savvy, I don't know about AGP 2/4/8x. Is the new video card (such as 64MB GeForce 4 MX440 or 128MB Ti4200) able to work in my pentium 3 motherboard? And how fast it's gonna be? And can I use one of those video cards for tv out?

Many thanks.

 

[cdogg]

pistachi0:

Here's where you have to be careful - good thing you asked.

The Pentium III motherboards came in two main flavors - slot and socket CPU's. The slot CPU versions where the early P-III's that started at 400MHz I believe. Those motherboards did not have AGP slots (the 810 chipset didn't last long). Shortly after, the Intel 815 chipsets came out and supported socket CPU's and came with AGP 4x slots.

So, you need to find out which motherboard you have. If it's the 815 chipset, then you're in luck and can grab any AGP 4x or 8x card out there. If not, then you're going to be stuck with a PCI card, the fastest one being the GeForce2 MX440.

The last thing you need to take into account is your CPU speed. At 450MHz, it's still going to be the biggest bottleneck next to RAM and hard drive after upgrading your video card. So you don't want to overkill it. You probably won't need to go any higher than a GeForce4 Ti4200 unless you upgrade your CPU first.


~cdogg
[tab]"The secret to creativity is knowing how to hide your sources"
[tab][tab]- A. Einstein

 

[KimLeece]

Download/install and run AIDA32:

http://www.aida32.hu/aida32.php

Then check the information in the Motherboard - Chipset section. It will tell you what you need to know.

Kim.

'Everybody is ignorant - only on different subjects.'
Will Rogers.

 

[TheGoatMan]

Uh you can get a slot one board with agp. I've got a slot one P3 500 with a ti4400. Don't forget about the 440bx chipset. I've got a soyo board with a 2x agp slot and my friend has a supermicro dual slot one with agp also. My system runs superb for being as old as it is. But its true that the ram and cpu will botleneck your abilities. I'll bet you can get enough out of selling your PC to start on a new one if you can. Otherwise if you have an agp slot get the ti4200.

 

[cdogg]

GoatMan,
Ahhh yes, good catch! I'm always thinking in official Intel terms of support, and when they released the PIII, I just remembered how much they tried to tout the 810 as the ultimate chipset. At the time, the 440BX did support the PIII, but only at 100MHz FSB and not officially meant to by Intel.

But yes, it is possible that some older PIII's out there are running on the older 440BX 100MHz FSB with an AGP slot instead of at the PIII's intended 133.


~cdogg
[tab]"The secret to creativity is knowing how to hide your sources"
[tab][tab]- A. Einstein

 

[TheGoatMan]

Thats odd. From what I understand the 440bx is a 100mhz fsb. But mine goes to 112 and 133mhz. Isn't that weird?

 

[dementg]

Since you're going to be CPU bound anyway, you can take advantage of the opportunity to get a low voltage, fanless GPU. This would be desirable for a living room PC. I'm not sure if the GPU's you mention can run fanless, but if you can find something decent that can that's what I'd get. According to a review I read recently, I believe the GF4 MX does accelerate MPEG-2 video decoding.

I have a P2-450, and am CPU bound with a Geforce2 MX. Nice thing about it is it runs fine with just a heatsink, never had a hint of anything close to overheating and it's probably as fast as anything the system can make use of. I've noticed that a DX7 game runs the same speed no matter what video mode I'm in, so that's a sign the GPU is on cruise control. I play DVD's full screen on this computer as well, it runs fine with no CPU load or stuttering issues. I haven't seen benchmarks, but I would guess that the GF4 MX 440 you mention would saturate the P3-450 CPU. I could be wrong though.

Some of the early AGP motherboards from the early P3 era weren't able to handle the amperage of some of the heavier video cards at the time. A friend of mine had his Abit P3-700 motherboard die 3 times (each time replaced under warranty). I'm convinced that it was because of his heavy video card. At the time, some motherboard makers didn't realize how rapidly the electrical load of video cards was increasing, and they cut corners on the AGP electrical specs. Due to heat, noise, and possible electrical concerns, its better to get a lightweight modern GPU rather than an old hotrod GPU.

AGP 4X cards are generally compatible with AGP 2X and 1X systems. I don't know about AGP 8X. The reason I say "generally" is because they may advertise that the card requires some particular AGP revision, and an older board might not have it. But it still has a good chance of working anyway. That's what happened to me with the GF2MX.

 

[TheGoatMan]

Your best bet is the FX5200. No fan and its 2x compatible.

 

[braddds]

I Agree with TheGoatMan!

I have a similar setup in my living room for watching DVD's and downloaded movies. I use the FX5200 vid card on an old Abit BH6 440bx motherboard (PIII 500) 384 mb ram - Win2000. Runs pretty good some glitching (stutters) in the films but this seems to have more to do with the way it was encoded! Runs DVD's perfectly.

Hope this helps!

Cheers

 

[pistachi0]

Thanks guys.
Conversely, I have AMD Athlon XP 2000 with Gigabyte motherboard GA-7VA, I think I'm gonna swap its video card (GeForce4 MX440) with the old one (Riva TNT2) for my Pentium 3 system. Can I do that? Will there be any incompatibility with old and new system? What do you think?

 

[cdogg]

You still haven't told us what PIII motherboard you're using.

But from the looks of it, I doubt you'll have any problems swapping card. It just depends whether the PIII mobo has an AGP 2x or 4x slot. If it's a 2x slot, then there's no guarantee because the connector may not fit and voltages were different.


~cdogg
[tab]"The secret to creativity is knowing how to hide your sources"
[tab][tab]- A. Einstein

 

[pistachi0]

Hi guys,
Sorry for my incomplete information. The thing is, I just bought that computer for a crazy price, however I needed some time to fix the shipping and handling. I just received it couple days ago. OK, here's the specs: mobo Gigabyte BX2000, video card 3D Savage4, Pentium 3 500 MHz, 458MB RAM. I've checked Gigabyte website about the mobo, but I couldn't find enough information about the AGP slot. Can I actually put 64MB GeForce4 MX400 4XAGP to this mobo? And can I put 3D Blaster Savage4 to my current mobo, GA-7VA?

Many thanks...

 

[cdogg]

According to one site I came across, that board only supports AGP 1x/2x. Even though AGP 4x cards are backwards compatible to run at AGP 1x or 2x, the slot on the motherboard may or may not be compatible with the AGP connector on the card.

I suggest you do more research on the net by doing a google search for AGP Gigabyte BX2000.


~cdogg
[tab]"The secret to creativity is knowing how to hide your sources"
[tab][tab]- A. Einstein

 

[SYAR2003]

I don't understand this thread.
Why not just buy a cheap home dvd player .
This one is 52$

http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=82-101-008&catalog=336&depa=10

 

[cdogg]

SYAR,
That's what I thought at first too, but perhaps he has a wireless network or some other reason to have a PC in his living room, and not just a standalone DVD player.

 

[SYAR2003]

Well oh yes ,Wireless keyboad , mouse ,
surfing tek-tips from the sofa .

 

[TheGoatMan]

Yeah forget watching a t.v. Thats time spent away from the computer.

 

[pistachi0]

Yes, and compared to buy a DVD player, my computer is not much of a different at only $70.