Fake AGP gamble apparently pays off

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zandor

Supreme [H]ardness
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Dec 14, 2002
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I just built a basic rig as an X-mas present for my sister-in-law's mom and younger (13) sister out of a mix of new stuff and spare parts. Her mom isn't a gamer, and AFAIK her sister is only really interested in The Sims 2. I didn't want to stick them with an AGP system, but at the same time I was trying to stick to an ~$300 budget and didn't really have room for a vid card. I figured worst case I'd have to cough up an extra $60 or so for a PCI-e vid card.

I read a review of the mobo I used and it said a GF4 Ti4200 suffered a 10% performance hit with the fake AGP slot. Considering a 9100/8500le is a bit slower than a 4200, I figured it'd do just fine.

I gambled and built a Sempron rig with a 2600+ S754 chip and an MSI K8N NEO3-F mainboard. The board has 1 PCI-e 16x, 1 PCI-e 1x, 3 PCI, and a "fake" AGP slot. It looks to have worked out quite well. The Radeon 9100 AGP card appears to be able to handle The Sims 2 at 1280x1024 or 1024x768 w/ 2x AA, and the CPU and RAM don't seem to be hurting. I haven't tried 1280x1024 w/ AA yet, so even that may be workable.

This being the [H], I'm sure you all want to see specs, so...

New Parts
AMD Sempron 2600+ 1.6GHz Socket 754
MSI K8N Neo3-F Mainboard
512MB Kingston Valueram PC3200 DIMM
Sony 16x DVD burner (Retail... would have gotten an NEC but the Egg only had OEM & I wanted the software)
XP Home OEM
24 pin mobo - 20 pin PSU adapter I chopped up to fix a PSU.

My old parts
Monster 14 bay full tower heavy steel Antec case w/ 6 fans. (5x80 + 1x92)
Antec True550 PSU (repaired... my old mobo shorted & burnt the 5V connections on the main mobo connector. 23 solder connections later and it's now a 24-pin PSU. And yes, the MSI board can run on a 20-pin, at least in theory, so it should be fine.)
PowerColor Radeon 9100 128MB 128-bit AGP card clocked at 250/250
NEC floppy drive.

Parts salvaged from a Compaq my Sister-in-law's dad found by the curb
60GB Maxtor HD
PCI Modem

Random Spare Parts
Surpus 80 wire ATA cable. The Sony drive shipped with a 40 wire cable. One would think if Sony included it it would be sufficient, but the mobo bitched about it. Thus I tossed the 40 in my spare parts box and dug out an 80.
 
just as an FYI.. those fake AGP slots have been known to kill cards due to voltage reguation... just something to keep your head up about..
 
why not go and buy a cheap 939 CPU and get a ASRock 939SATA II boards? no fake AGP slot, and it works wonders.
 
I got a computer for my sister for the sole purpose of playing Sims 2 a little while ago. It just so happened that she made the request to me 7 hours before the CompUSA midnight madness sale. I ended up getting an Athlon 3200+ skt754 and 512mb RAM for 200$, added in a 9600pro for an additional 80. AFAIK she has had no problems with it...

What is it with these low end systems designed solely for Sims2 lol
 
I guess I must have been out of the loop when this was introduced, but wtf is a "fake" agp slot? Is it just a slot that accepts AGP cards, but is on the pci-e bus?
 
not quite. its two PCI slots combined into one with AGP connectors and a hacked voltage signaling system.

its basically a PCI-X AGP slot *rollseyes*

offers around AGP 2x bandwidth.. but without GART, its a horrible solution.
 
Actually, from what I understand the board I picked up has the "AGR" slot connected to the PCI-Express bus. So it's not a hacked PCI slot. Sounds more like they're using a PCI-e to AGP bridge chip. Hell, maybe they got it from NV for all I know.
I'm not too worried about voltage on this card. Since it's an old fashioned 8500 chip, I belive it can run in a 3.3V AGP slot.

Here's a link to the first review I found with the relevant info:
http://www.transmetazone.com/articleview.cfm?articleid=1806&page=2
 
Very interesting. definatly a different implementation than all the other PCIe/"AGP" solutions out there, beside the asrock board.
 
You mean the one with the ULI chipset with PCI-e and a real AGP port? That does sound like a nice setup for my situation. The only problem is it only comes in 939 so far, and a 939 chip would have totally blown the budget. Plus I'm a little paranoid about driver support. I'll have to do some more reading on it if I'm ever in a position to think about purchasing one. ALi/ULi has never been a big player (at least recently) so I haven't paid much attention to them and have no idea if they're any good or not. Nothing a little reading and/or talking couldn't cure of course. I'm sure there are plenty of people who've tried this board out and could give me the lowdown on how well it works.
 
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