taydan04

Hey Guys,

For the first time since Christmas I have a question involving a future build that is actually for ME for once. I have been set upon switching to Intel for months now, more specifically the Core 2 Duo E8400. Now I was originally looking at Gigabyte for one but then I looked in to the future and "Upgradeability". What I realised is that my current 9800GTX+ is SLI compatible. My card although at the moment will take more demanding games like Crysis maxed-out , but, what about GTA IV(plays ~Medium) or the real big question, What about the future release, Crysis 2. I wont be able to afford a high end single card without saving up for long enough for me to have lost patience and played it on low. So I thought longer and saw a Second 9800GTX+ being a viable option. But here's the thing; iv heard and experienced 1st hand that Nvidia Chipsets aren't the best(by that I mean their awfull drivers make them quite unstable compared to others). The P5N-D is based upon the 750i northbridge this supports 2 Graphics cards in SLI at full PCI-E 2.0 x16 speed. But there are a loss of features such as less SATA ports and less Rear USB's. also from what iv heard the reliability and overclockability are questionable. The P5Q on the other hand is based on Intel's P45 Northbridge, i have never heard a single bad comment on these chipsets, besides the lack of SLI, and although it has room for 1 graphics card it has higher Reliability and More headroom for overclocking, it also has a higher quality power circuit for the CPU, RAM and Chipsets.

Now What I would like to ask is; What Should I Go For? Is The Performance From The P45 Noticeable? Is The Overclockability That much Different? and just how much more relyable and cooler do the intel chipsets run?


Regards, Sorry For The Essay

Daniel Taylor

wrench97

SLI of two lower cards almost never equals the higher card two 9800GTX will not equal a GTX285. the extra power requirement adds to the cost.
And nivida chipsets are buggy when they work they work well but I've given up building them too many returns. The P45 is stable and fast, chipset cooling really isn't an issue with the P45 and it oc's very well.
The best alternative at this point if SLI is really important is an i7 on a X58 intel chipset that will support SLI.

taydan04

I Am Leaning Ever Closer To The P5Q (which is actually cheaper) as i just realized id have to put up with Nforce LAN, i don't think i can do that.

wrench97

A lan card will solve that, if only the rest of chipsets issues were that easly resolved.

linderman

no comparison between those two boards .................the P5Q is without compition is that battle

your current disappointment with gaming quality does not lie with the lack of horsepower of the 9800GTX ! your AMD 5000 is the culprit

the E8500 overclocked to 4.0ghz will allow the "hobbles" to be taken off your 9800 GTX !

taydan04

Are you saying the £120 E8400 wont unbottleneck my 9800GTX+? if so, ouch. so there is a large difference between the E8400 and E8500? as from what iv herd the higher clock is the only real difference. Apparently not.... Id have to tell you id be running it on stock cooling for a month or 2 so is the £144 price tag worth it on stock cooling and the frequencies i can reach with that?

Oh yes and de to your Responses I am going with the P5Q. Now I was wondering if there are downsides to the P5QC ; the version that has support for DDR3-1333, is there any noticeable performance gained from DDR2800 to DDR31333? if so this would be a good board to allow me to upgrade a bit at a time.

wrench97

There is no real difference in speed in these setups when using DDR3 and DDR3 boards can be picky about memory, it's not worth the added headaches in my opinion.

I think what linderman is saying is that your current CPU is holding the 9800GTX back not the E8400.

linderman

WRENCH read me correctly (my bad) the E8400 will also overclock to 4.0 ghz although 3.8 is alittle more reasonable for that one. but regardless, the e8400 will let your 9800GTX run to its full potential ...........you wont be looking for another video card quite so fast, I can tell ya that.

taydan04

Ah Ok so is the ~£20 jump in price worth it for the E8500 because i can do that but only if its gonna make a noticeable improvement. Pluss the idea of my 9800GTX+ being completely untapped makes it sound worth it. Its good to hear that its not just a rubbish card and that its my rubbish current CPU as iv seen it perform better on youtube ;D.

My Shopping List Will Probably Look Like This;

Intel Core 2 Duo E8500
http://www.eclipsecomputers.com/prod...code=CPI-E8500

Asus P5Q
http://www.eclipsecomputers.com/prod...x?code=MBA-P5Q

Now here comes the make or break question; Will My Current OCZ StealthXtreme 600W PSU cope with the CPU upgrade?


P.S I just realised Maplin is on the list of good distributors in the UK. I wouldn't think that is strictly true if you were to compare the prices from Eclipse you'll notice that Maplin has extreme premium price tags.

linderman

I like ebuyer.com myself also


as for the worth of the E8500 vs E8400 ...........thats a tuff call ............. IMHO, I think its worth the extra; but either way will suit you just fine! the E8400 aint no slouch for gaming and you will have new respect for the 9800GTX too!

as for the OCZ 600............ thats cutting the cheese really thin

definetly not if you want to overclock! at that point it would be the OCZ 800 or Corsiar 750-tx

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/144218



the OEM flavor doesnt come with a heat sink ............ if you need a stock heatsink let me know .......I have a pail full of them laying around; I always install an aftermarket cpu cooler like the artic freezer pro 7 to allow overclocking

taydan04

Yeah I Don't personally think the £6 price difference is worth the hassle of getting it online, But thanks for the recomendtion. Eclipse is down the road :D, also the one at eclipse is Retail so i can use that stock heatsink until i can afford an aftermarket one, in which time id probably be looking at a CoolerMaster V8 or an equivalent cooler. Do you have any recomendations for an after market cooler? like the Freezer Pro? Hold On. http://www.eclipsecomputers.com/prod...px?code=HFA-F7 This? Damp! That's Cheep! Hows the cooling on that? here's the V8; http://www.eclipsecomputers.com/prod...px?code=HFC-V8

taydan04

Am I going to run into issues with stability/reliability with my current PSU? as I cant even get close to affording those PSU's as they add ~ another £100 on to the total and effectively would cancel the upgrade.

linderman

no overclocking and excellent air flow from within the case and you should be ok for another 6 months; I would however keep the psu upgrade a focused future plan

the coolermaster V8 would be a good choice

for now; add as many fans as you can with the highest rpm you can find .........keep the internal case as cool as possible will help prolong the effectiveness of the power supply; remember the power supply gets its "cooling" air from within the case; not from outside the case!

taydan04

I'm Currently Using a AeroCool AeroEngine II Case
http://www.aerocool.com.tw/case/AE-2/ae-2-feature.htm
http://www.eclipsecomputers.com/prod...=CAA-ENGIISSPB
which a bought as it was generally considered quite a well cooled case, i have both the front fan and the rear extractor at full RPM, will adding 2 extra extractors to the side window help?

linderman

YES that would help, any added air flow in the case will prolong the life of your 600 watt which is going to feel the added burden of your upgrade