939 PCI/AGP lock

Joined
Jun 18, 2004
Messages
33
Hey all. I'm looking for some information that I just can't seem to find anywhere. I'm looking at getting a 939 board and the 3800+. Before I get reponses telling me to "don't waste the money getting the 939" or whatever, maybe I can explain a little. I usually get a new PC once every 3+ years (I am currently running a 4+ year old PC), so I go top (or near top) of the line and then wait until I no longer can game at what *I* consider acceptable levels, and then bite the bullet and get a new machine. It's just the way I prefer to do things, so if you were about to write in that I should get a 3200+ and a 754 and OC it, that's not the route I am looking at right now. There's NOTHING wrong with that solution, it's just not the one I chose. Anyway...

Here's what I am looking for, and hopefully what you guru's of all things tech can help me with. Of the currently available (as in I can order them today / by the end of the month) MoBo's for socket 939 are there any known issues with the AGP/PCI locks? While I am not looking to OC the system right off the bat, I would like to have the option so I can extend the life of the system and try to keep a solid 3+ years of life out of it. I know that the VIA implementation of the AGP/PCI lock is kinda quirky (or was) and I am wondering if anyone knows whether that is the case with the retail boards or has it been fixed. I also was wondering about the NF3 250 and which one is the better implementation. I have heard VIA edges the NF3 250 slightly, but ONLY slightly and the NF3 250 didn't / doesn't have AGP/PCI lock problems so...

Any help would be appreciated. I have seen reviews of the sample boards, but none of the actual release boards. Can anyone point me in the right direction? Please?

Thanks,
upside down : umop apisdn
 
Well i have the ASUS A8V mobo and there arent any locks, there is a Beat Bios that people have that locks the AGP/PCI which i need to download, other then that the mobo is fantastic. Toms Hardware has a nice right up of it, out of all the new Mobos tested the A8V was compatible with almost every type of ram thrown at it, and it led the pack in almost all of the benchmarking tests.
 
So Marcdaddy what I seem to be hearing is that there is no current working AGP/PCI lock (when you get the board from the manufacturer), but it is fixable by a BIOS change which means that Asus SHOULD be able to create a patch / fix that inplements working AGP/PCI locks in a future revision, right? If that is that case, that is good to know as I don't plan on overclocking YET and if a future BIOS will fix the problem, then that's good enough for me, I guess.

If I messed up my interpretation somehow, please let me know...

thanks,
umop apisdn : upisde down

Ohh... a beta Bios is already out from Asus, thanks for the help...
 
I got Corsair XMS 3200 which works perfect, but im using Mushkin which runs at 2/2/2 but i had to manuelly set it up to get the right parameters and now its flying.
 
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