PC Upgrade Guide
#1
Hello Folks,

Looking for some guidance on an upgrade I wish to embark on.
The approach I wish to take is a piece meal upgrade from old to new as cash flow and part availability dictates.

Background

My current system which is my media server is from 2006

MOBO - MSI K8NGM2-FID GeForce 6150 - http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2502
RAM - 2G DDR400 2 Dual Channel (2x1GB)
CPU - AMD Athlon 64 4000+ - San Diego core, and has 128K of L1 cache and 1Mb of L2 cache. It runs at a core speed of 2.4GHz.

The rest of the setup is not important/generic 500 watt psu - sata drives etc

What I want to achieve at the end of the upgrade is a server/client arrangement that

- Runs XBMC
- Runs most games 1080p (have 42inch TV) (moderate to high - no requirement for ultra (it is a bonus)).
- Runs quiet
- Has capacity for storage (6TB).

So far I have ordered the Silverstone PS07 case - have not received this yet but it looks like this
http://www.silverstonetek.com/product.ph...14&area=en

The case was easy as all my old parts will work with this.

Problem

I need to update my graphics next as I need HDMI and this has become a bit of a sticking point.
I have decided to eventually use an APU solution from AMD but I want to wait for Trinity as it is just around the corner.
I will also use a graphics card HD7770 Factory OC in crossfire with the Trinity solution.

I was hoping that I could just get the HD7770 for now using it until Trinity but...

I have not been able to find out if it is possible for the HD7000 series PCI 3.0 to work with my current mobo. (not worried about the performance at this stage as long as HDMI and XBMC run)
If it is not then I will have to buy a cheap Graphics card to run XBMC HDMI 1080p in the interim - but again I am not sure which would work with my current mobo?.

Can someone please tell me if...

it is possible for the HD7000 series PCI 3.0 to work with my current mobo (MSI K8NGM2-FID GeForce 6150)

and if it is not possible then please recommend a card that would work with my current mobo

Looking forward to your replies
Ta

Danny

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#2
It would be compatible in theory, but there are issues with making the pre 2.0 and post 2.1 jump (bios etc). You would be rolling the dice on functionality. I would download the latest bios for your board and check out the change log to see if they mention PCIe compatibility updates.

"In August 2007, PCI-SIG announced that PCI Express 3.0 would carry a bit rate of 8 gigatransfers per second (GT/s), and that it would be backwards compatible with existing PCIe implementations."


My advice would be to put the GPU upgrade on hold until you have enough to start fresh with a modern motherboard build such as the A6 configs that are very popular around here.
HTPC: i5 3570K || Noctua NH-L12 || ASRock Z77E-ITX || 8GB Samsung Eco || Intel 330 120GB || Lian Li PC-Q09 ||
Main Desktop: i7 2600k @ 4.8Ghz || Epic 180 on Epic T1000 TIM || Asus Z68 Deluxe || 16GB Ripjaws @ 2133 ||
|| Maingear Shift || EVGA 8800GTS 640MB || OWC Mecury Electra 3G || 320GB, 2x500GB, 1.5Tb, 2x2TB ||
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#3
Thanks for that - I will wait.
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#4
Have you tried installing and running XBMC on this machine?
While you might not get HDMI,..it'll at least get your hands on XBMC and play with it for a while until you upgrade.
That's what I did,..before I built my machine.
It helped me since I wasn't afraid to "break" XBMC by playing with all the options.

Plus,...you might be pleasantly surprised to see XBMC running better than you thought it would on that machine.
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