Finally going SB

seekdestroy

seekdestroy

seekdestroy

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Joined
9 Sep 2008
Posts
699
Well finally decided to upgrade from my E8400 to SB!

Is this set up good?

spec.jpg


I got a Noctua NH-D14, so dont need cpu cooler. got GTX 460 already and an SSD.
Also currently using corsaior 650W PSU, guessing this will still be enough?

How is the motherboard?

Wasn't sure on the RAM, wanted to upgrade from (4gb atm) to 8gb. I notice quite often I'm using 3.5gb+ so I'm thinking it would be stupid to go for 4gb again if its gna have to last 3+ years.

thoughts?
 
The PSU is more than enough, can even stick another GTX460 in there:)

The board is fine, lots of SATA3.0 ports to avoid the sandybridge current issue.

8GB is a wise move at current prices, watch out for heatsinks not fitting with the ram due to the heatspreaders, Corsair XMS3 or GEIL value will have no fitment issues.

I was going to try and talk you into buying the 2500K cpu, but cant be bothered, if you can afford it? then cool.
 
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Intel Core i5-2500K 3.30GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - OEM £165.59
(£137.99) £165.59
(£137.99)
MSI P67A-GD55 Intel P67 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard - (Sandybridge) £129.98
(£108.32) £129.98
(£108.32)
G.Skill RipJawsX 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (F3-12800CL9D-8GBXL ) £79.99
(£66.66) £79.99
(£66.66)
Sub Total : £312.97
Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
DPD Next Day Parcel
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £9.50
VAT is being charged at 20.00% VAT : £64.49
Total : £386.96

You could go this route and add another gtx 460 and your psu should handle it fine even with the second gpu
 
Hmmm, I know I couldn't decide between 2500k and 2600k. Isn't the biggest difference the lack of HT?

where is HT used? in games? I do abit of 3d work, but mostly programming and games. I do the often video transcoding. Is it work the extra money?

Does the 2500k reach the same speeds as the 2600k?


I'm always abit weary of SLI. Is there really that much of an improvement? Or would just selling my current GTX460 and getting a GTX560 be better? Or would the SLI out perform it.
Also, I have a 3D monitor and do play some games in 3D. Will SLI or 1 single card be better at 3D?

My PSU only has 2x 8pin pci-e connectors. Guessing I would have to use molex converter thing?
 
Ok a bit of research answered my question about SLI, would be quite an improvement, not double but just under. Also still an increase in 3D vision, and SLI is supported by 3D vision. and a SLI GTX460 beats GTX560 and GTX570.

Another quick question, about SLI, does the ram size on each card have to match? Does anything other than the model have to match? Atm I got a Palit 2gb GTX460.
 
No. For example, an XXXGT 512MB cannot be paired with a XXXGT 1GB in an SLI configuration

Using 180 or later graphics drivers, NVIDIA graphics cards from different manufacturers can be used together in an SLI configuration. For example, a GeForce XXXGT from manufacturer ABC can be matched with a GeForce XXXGT from manufacturer XYZ

Yes. A GeForce XXXX GTX that is overclocked can be mixed with a standard clocked GeForce XXXX GTX.

From nvidia sli zone.

Hope that ram fits under your cpu cooler ?

Edit, need a faster brain...
 
Ok, thanks for your replies, yeah I'll go with the 2500k. Just checked noctua website and gskill ripsawx ram is compatible!

Now I'll have to find a 2gb gtx460 from somewhere, I suppose there's no rush for sli though!

Oh btw, why did you recommend the msi board over the Asus? Just wanted to know the reasons!
 
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Yeah I heard about the b3 chipset. So the current problem only affects ports 2-5 on sata 2 and none of the new sata 3 ports are affected. So if I plug my 2 drives into port 0 & 1 it will be fine?

I was gna buy it today cus all the parts are on this week only offer!
 
Just found this:

In an SLI configuration, cards can be of mixed manufacturers, card model names, BIOS revisions or clock speeds. However, they must be of the same GPU series (e.g. 8600, 8800) and GPU model name (e.g. GT, GTS, GTX).[15] There are rare exceptions for "mixed SLI" configurations on some cards that only have a matching core codename (e.g. G70, G73, G80, etc.), but this is otherwise not possible, and only happens when two matched cards differ only very slightly, an example being a differing amount of video memory, stream processors, or clockspeed. In this case, the slower/lesser card becomes dominant, and the other card matches. Another exception is the GTS 250, which can SLI with the 9800 GTX+, as the GTS 250 GPU is a rebadged 9800 GTX+ GPU.
Click to expand...

Would this mean that if I did get a 1GB GTX 460 it would SLI just use the 1gb card, as it has the same stream proccessors
 
Bit more research and I found it was possible using CoolBits to have SLI for GTX265 1GB and GTX265 2GB. Ofcourse the 2gb version would go down to 1GB. I'm wondering If it worth just looking around for a 2GB version.
 
Just put an order through for the 2500k, the Asus P8P67 Pro and the G.Skill 8GB ram. But just saw on the mobo that is got 2x pci-e sockets but says (16x/1x ,8x/8x) Does that mean in SLI each card will only get a 8x lane speed?

Will this affect the SLI configuration much? I'm going to wait abit and see how my single GTX 460 does anyway.
 
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seekdestroy said:
Just put an order through for the 2500k, the Asus P8P67 Pro and the G.Skill 8GB ram. But just saw on the mobo that is got 2x pci-e sockets but says (16x/1x ,8x/8x) Does that mean in SLI each card will only get a 8x lane speed?

Will this affect the SLI configuration much? I'm going to wait abit and see how my single GTX 460 does anyway.
Click to expand...

All SB boards have that issue as the chipset only offers a total of 20 lanes.

Remember that the PCIe 2.0 specification doubled the per lane bandwidth so there shouldn't be any problems with SLI.
 
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