let me get straigth to the questions right away:

1.
I have a Asrock AM2XLI-eSATA2 link motherboard. I plan to get an 8800 GT. Will it be compatible or not, seeing it is an older board, and apparetly 8800GT is a PCI-E 1.1 card,while my mobo is an PCI-E 1.0. Or have I got it all mixed up?

2.

Since the CPU I was thinking to get, was an AMD Athlon 6000+ X2, I'll have to flash the BIOS to a newer version. On the Asrock support site there is an windows utility for flashing, and there is also an DOS version of it. Which one is better to use, and If I were to use the windows one, the best would be to use it in safe mode, with all unecesarry programs off(i.e kill the firewall, antivirus).right? or leave that to the pros(This one is the most likely one probably)?

Thanks in advance.

1. Yes, it is compatible. PCI-E 2.0 (which is what the 8800GT is) is backwards compatible all the way back to PCI-E 1.0.

2. Why would you need to flash your BIOS to use a newer chip? I understand flashing the BIOS with the latest firmware IS good practice, but why is it necessary for you to use a 6000+? You may be right, but I wouldn't think that would be necessary.

Quote from Stang70Fastback :

1. Yes, it is compatible. PCI-E 2.0 (which is what the 8800GT is) is backwards compatible all the way back to PCI-E 1.0.

2. Why would you need to flash your BIOS to use a newer chip? I understand flashing the BIOS with the latest firmware IS good practice, but why is it necessary for you to use a 6000+? You may be right, but I wouldn't think that would be necessary.

My mobo's BIOS is version v1.20, and 6000+ is supported since v1.40.

Ah, alright. I always thought that if a motherboard was AM2, then any AM2 chip would run.

IIRC the board uses an old chip version that has been tweaked to run the AM2 chips......or it may be the architecture changing.......now im just spouting rubbish as i have nothing better to do

Old chip of what exactly?

ASRock boards... ew...

i think i got confused with their 1st 775 socket MB. uses an old chipset that wasnt made for core2duo's or something.