What would benefit me more?

willhub

willhub

willhub

Caporegime
Joined
3 Jan 2006
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Chadderton, Oldham
I'm thinking about upgrades.

Which of these 2 would benefit me more?

1: Replacing my motherboard, and going GTX 260 SLi
2: Keeping motherboard, sticking with a single GTX260 and trying to find a Quad core for under £100?

I'm just a little scared about temps as I'd want to overclock a quad if I got one.

Currently running an E8500 @ 4GHz and 1.38V and idle it's around 40-50 degrees (depending on room temp which is about 25-30 degrees atm), and it is doing about 60-70 load. I have a TRUE 120 cooler.

Any ideas?


Thanks
Will.
 
Hey Will! :)

An E8500 @ 4GHz is still pretty pokey but it seems the very latest gaming titles are slowly starting to prefere at least a Tri/Quad-core for higher FPS . . .

You could probably swap-out your 45nm Wolfdale for a 65nm Kentsfield at little or no cost ££ if you get a decent selling price for your dual-core! :cool:
 
1: Replacing my motherboard, and going GTX 260 SLi.

The reason being you have a decent dual core CPU already and there are very few games that can take full advantage of a Quad core anyway.

This IMO of course ;)
 
But it's actually be cheaper than getting a 5850 going GTX 260 SLi.

GTX 260 - -100 quid
HD4870 sale + 50
GTX 260 = 50 quid

So for another GTX 260 that'd be about 100 quid

So 150 quid for 2 GTX 260's
And about 20 quid for the mobo once I've sold this P5Q-E

So 170 quid and it'd be faster than a 5850 for cheaper.

But it'd be even cheaper going quad which would probs make a game like GTA IV more playable than if I went GTX 260 SLi?

So hard choice I've got here.
 
willhub said:
But it's actually be cheaper than getting a 5850 going GTX 260 SLi.

GTX 260 - -100 quid
HD4870 sale + 50
GTX 260 = 50 quid

So for another GTX 260 that'd be about 100 quid

So 150 quid for 2 GTX 260's
And about 20 quid for the mobo once I've sold this P5Q-E

So 170 quid and it'd be faster than a 5850 for cheaper.

But it'd be even cheaper going quad which would probs make a game like GTA IV more playable than if I went GTX 260 SLi?

So hard choice I've got here.
Click to expand...
Thought you already own a GTX260...didn't know you have a 4870 until I read it in you sig.

Anyway, I would worry about the quality of the SLI motherboard that are priced as low as £20, and the chances are you would not be able clock your E8500 to close to your current clock speed on a SLI board.

Also like others have already mentioned, the PSU is cutting too close for a GTX260 SLI set up...you might end up damaging yout components if anything goes wrong...
 
Dunno where I'd get a board for 20 quid, I was thinking more like 80 quid when I've sold this Asus P5Q-E.

But if I go quad then no need to sell this board.
 
Right...so it's £20 on top of what you get back from selling your current board...

I dunno...it's just seem so much hassle to move from one 775 to another 775.
It might 'seem' cheaper to go GTX260 SLI than going a 5850, but you are not really factoring in the extra cost of switching motherboard, as well as the possible need of getting a higher W PSU.

True that GTX260SLI should be a bit faster than the 5850, but if your E8500's clock speed drop from 4.2GHz down to 4.0GHz on a SLI board, the E8500 at 4.0GHz would possibly not fast enough to get whatever faster speed that the GTX260SLI offer over the 5850 anyway...in fact, it might actually end up being slower than the 5850 because of the lower clock speed.

Any then there's the extra cost on the energy bill.
 
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willhub said:
I was factoring in the cost of the motherboard I even stated it.
Click to expand...
You are not factoring in the possible cost of getting a higher W PSU though...you are really risking it considering it is two GTX260, and an overclocked E8500 at 4.0GHz+.

For reference's sake:
[email protected] power consumption (load): 141W
GTX260 power consumption: 182W x2=364W

Subtotal: 505W (not yet included power consumption for other components)

Assuming your 520W PSU is 90% efficiency (which I doubt would be that high): 468W output

There's no way you can use your current PSU for a GTX260SLI set up.
 
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Where is that power usage taken from? Apparently the CPU power meter in Everest is pretty accurate and I'm using less than half of that at load.
 
willhub said:
Where is that power usage taken from? Apparently the CPU power meter in Everest is pretty accurate and I'm using less than half of that at load.
Click to expand...
E8400 4.25GHz idle: 87W, at PRIME95 SMALLFFT: 141W (quoted from Custom PC magazine)

GTX260 maximum consumption: 182W (and that's assuming nvidia not under-reporting the maximum power consumption)
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/nvidia-gtx-280,1953-25.html
"As for the maximum consumption of the cards, Nvidia claims 236 W for the GTX 280 alone and 182 W for the GTX 260."

If you won't listen to me, at least listen to NathWraith. He deals with these hardware stuffs for a living...he knows what he's talking about.
 
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