NVIDIA nForceTM 4 SLI X16 MCP

deathbyginger · 30 Jan 2011 at 17:55

hi all
I have a NVIDIA nForceTM 4 SLI X16 MCP in my dell xps 600 and i am going through an insurance claim and been offered ASUS P7P55D-E PRO is this as good as it seems only to support dual x8 not x16 and if anybody knows what asus board would match it that would be great
thanks ginger

cmndr_andi · 30 Jan 2011 at 17:57

Hi there, is that a Nforce 4 board you are going from? What CPU did this system have?

deathbyginger · 30 Jan 2011 at 18:00

yes Nforce 4 pentium 4 950 dual 3.4ghz they want to replace that with a i3 540 ?

cmndr_andi · 30 Jan 2011 at 18:04

Ah, yes. Well first, the Pentium D 950 is absolutely obliterated by the i3 540. Have a look at this comparison (had to pick the faster Pentium D 955 - as the 950 was not available).

Also, your old system uses PCIE version 1, while a board like the P7P55D-E PRO uses version 2 - where there is double the bandwidth per lane. Hence, x8/x8 on this new board offers just as much bandwidth as x16/x16 on the older board.

Sounds like you are getting a good deal.

deathbyginger · 30 Jan 2011 at 18:07

ok I think I understand so I can except the new board from them and all will be as good as the old one then

deathbyginger · 30 Jan 2011 at 18:09

thank you for your help

cmndr_andi · 30 Jan 2011 at 18:09

deathbyginger said:
ok I think I understand so I can except the new board from them and all will be as good as the old one then

Yes, I would suggest that.

You are getting a system that has is significantly better than the old one, both in terms of features and performance.

Just make sure that you get a good quality PSU if you do plan to run modern cards in SLI.

deathbyginger · 30 Jan 2011 at 18:11

It's the OCZ 700W PSU - MODXSTREAM PRO

cmndr_andi · 30 Jan 2011 at 18:15

To be honest - that isn't the PSU I would go for with a system I plan to run in SLI - for one thing it only has two PCIe power connections and each modern top-end graphics card uses two - so when connecting two cards in SLI you need four power connections.

For almost the same money you can get this PSU which is better quality, more efficient and has four PCIe power connections.

deathbyginger · 30 Jan 2011 at 18:18

I am glad I joined this site thank you so much I will contact the insurance tomorrow and tell them

deathbyginger · 30 Jan 2011 at 18:48

hi again i got this from website it says sli is this not the case then ?
500W - 700W Connectors:
1 x 20/24-pin ATX
1 x 8-pin CPU
1x 4-pin CPU

Modular
1 x 6-pin PCI-E
1 x 6+2-pin PCI-E
4 x Peripheral
2 x Floppy
6 x SATA

cmndr_andi · 30 Jan 2011 at 18:54

Aye, it can do SLI - but SLI just means that you can connect up two Nvidia graphics cards. For the modern high-end cards (like the GTX 570), each card has two 6 pin PCIE power connections that need to be hooked up to the PSU. When using two of these cards in SLI you need a total of four 6 pin PCIE power connections from the PSU.

The OCZ doesn't have this - so when buying new I would not suggest going with this PSU. It may well work OK by connecting additional PCIE adapter to the molex connections - but this doesn't inspire confidence in the PSU (if the manufacturers were confident that it could handle dual 2x6pin cards then you would have expected them to include the connections) and looks messy.

pastymuncher · 30 Jan 2011 at 21:03

I have the Asus and it's a good board. What you will end up with is a massive upgrade.

deathbyginger · 5 Feb 2011 at 00:45

Hi all again
sorry to ask but just need to know is the stock heatsink on the i3 540 good for the above as the one on my dell xps 600 is very big and has two fans on it
thanks

pastymuncher · 5 Feb 2011 at 13:39

I don't think the Dell cooler would fit anyway. The stock heatsink would be ok for running at stock speeds but you will need a better one if you will be clocking it. It would be a waste not to as it's a excellent board.

deathbyginger · 5 Feb 2011 at 23:04

hi thanks for coming back to me sorry just one more question I have ocz gold 800mhz ddr2 4gb in my pc the one that is replacing it they have offered this as a like for like is this ok? KINGSTON 2GB 1333MHz PC3-10600 DDR3 CL9 DIMM MEMORY x2