What SB Mobo ? and Keep my G-card?

Randall8686

Randall8686

Randall8686

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Hi All

Im currently running a very old rig 4 years ish i guess but its been fab for what i use it for (FSX mainly) (flight sim) the setup i have at the moment is

Antec 300
P5Q pro
E somthing Processor lol Overclocked to 4ghz 2.66 stock (dual core)
9800GTX graphics card
64gb SSD OS drive
couple of 1TB drives
650watt psu (corsair i think)
4gb 1066 dominator ram

there is nothing wrong with it but i need more Horsepower for the Sim, im thinking of changing the mobo ram and CPU and keeping the graphics card for now as FSX is mainly CPU hungry rather than GPU, i play no other games on this machine. so SB seems the way to go and im thinking i5 ?
My question is what mobo should i go for ? budget about 100 but its not all that important if it goes over, i want to Overclock the CPU as much as possible (prefer to stay air cooling) also will my graphics card still be ok with this setup ?

Also is any of my old gear worth anything ? as in mobo ram and cpu and poss graphics card ? if i could get somthing for that lot i could upgrade the GPU too :o) but i guess its pretty worthless.

Im sure the questiuon has been asked before but things change so fast i just wanna make sure i get what i need and not a mobo that wont OC etc etc,
any help and advise welcome

thanks All :o)

Oh and i forgot to ass im a bit of a Asus fan boy so there mobo's win my heart but im willing to hop ship if the benefits are that great
 
well you want a B3 revision P67 mobo if you want to overclock, as the H67 boards don't support overclocking. budget wise £105 - £125 will get you a good solid board that will do the job.

MSI P67A-C45 Intel P67 **B3 Revision** £104.99 click me
or
Asus P8P67 Intel P67 **B3 Revision** £124.99 click me

add to your mobo of choice an i5 2500K & 4GB ( 2x2 ) of low voltage PC3-12800C 1600MHz ram plus a decent cooler, & you'll be looking at a minimum of 4.4GHz, unless you've got a total duffer of a chip, which seems to be incredibley rare with i5's.

you should be able to raise some money from the sale of your old kit, maybe £100 - £130 if your lucky. if you can, it would also be a good idea to invest in a new gfx card as well tbh.
 
Cheers VoG

Thats been really helpfull, Any chance you could suggest a cooler and some ram ? Cheeky i know but im a little out of touch, i will go for the Asus board i see there is a bundle with the CPU and Board :D just need the Ram and cooler and im away. I will sell the old stuff once i get the new then upgrade the GPU maybe next month so any suggestions on a GPU for about £160-200 mark would be great too,
 
Corsair XMS3 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit £35.99 inc VAT click me

Akasa AK-CCX-4002HP Venom CPU Cooler £36.98 inc VAT click me

both of those will do the job nicely, i5's run cool so there's no need to go ott with the cooler. graphics wise, depends on whether you have a preference for ATI or NV.
 
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well i have always lent towards NV but never not liked ATI so what ever gives best bang for buck i guess, as said i only run FSX graphics wise so does not need to be crazy
 
Randall8686 said:
also that Ram is super cheap i was intending on spending £100 on ram should i go for 8gb ?
Click to expand...

the good thing with i5's is you don't need to spend an arm & a leg on ram, as for how much to get, well for a game like FSX it couldn't hurt to have 8GB, i use 8GB in my P8P67, & it's certainly helped games like X3:TC ( space sim with huuuuuuuuge sectors/draw distances ).
 
VoG said:
the good thing with i5's is you don't need to spend an arm & a leg on ram
Click to expand...

Do you mean that superfast (1866MHz+) ram shows minimal benefit, or just that ram is dirt cheap?

I'm planning a P67/i5 build, and noticed the big price jump when you go over 1600MHz, virtually double the price for ~20% faster ram. Should I be using "standard" (1600MHz) and spending my beer tokens elsewhere (eg SSD)?
 
DennisMenace said:
Do you mean that superfast (1866MHz+) ram shows minimal benefit, or just that ram is dirt cheap?

I'm planning a P67/i5 build, and noticed the big price jump when you go over 1600MHz, virtually double the price for ~20% faster ram. Should I be using "standard" (1600MHz) and spending my beer tokens elsewhere (eg SSD)?
Click to expand...

apart from benching you'd be hard pressed to notice the difference, 1600MHz ram & an SSD is where the smart money goes.
 
Cheers VoG for your help, im going to go for the Asus board and the cooler you suggested i think all seems to get good reviews on the Net, Keeping current case as i love the 300 (personal taste i know) and my psu should be fine too.
 
Randall8686 said:
one last question is any of that stuff going to stop me from hitting 5ghz ? i really want to get over the 5ghz
Click to expand...

i think you need to be a bit more realistic in what you can expect from a 2500K set up, take a look at this thread

it takes a good 2500K to hit 5GHz, and an exceptional 2500K to hit 5+GHz, & thats just for benching, running 24/7?, i don't think it would have much of a lifespan...
 
ok maybe a little keen then how much of a increase in performance do you think i would get from a C2D running at 4ghz ? again this is just for FSX so it does support multiple cores. i dont want to throw money away for a couple of FPS
 
VoG said:
the good thing with i5's is you don't need to spend an arm & a leg on ram, as for how much to get, well for a game like FSX it couldn't hurt to have 8GB, i use 8GB in my P8P67, & it's certainly helped games like X3:TC ( space sim with huuuuuuuuge sectors/draw distances ).
Click to expand...

Is it still possible to get a solid 4.4ghz from an i5 when you bump up to 8gb (using four sticks, of course) ?
 
Randall8686 said:
how much of a increase in performance do you think i would get from a C2D running at 4ghz ? again this is just for FSX so it does support multiple cores. i dont want to throw money away for a couple of FPS
Click to expand...

i can't answer that i'm afraid as i'm not familiar with the game, how ever, i would be amazed if you didn't get an appreciable ( & i suspect obvious ) performance boost in FSX from a quad core i5 at 4.5GHz with 8GB of ram, especially if you upgrade your GFX at a later date.
 
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