J&W MINIX 780G mini-ITX - best GPU/CPU

vipergrm

vipergrm

vipergrm

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Hi Folks,

I have the J&W MINIX 780G mini-ITX motherboard in a Silverstone Sg06 300w PSU case. I am looking to upgrade the graphics card to maybe a Radeon 5850. Also, I may consider upgrading the CPU from a AMD II X3 400e (45w) to something more substantial like maybe the AMD II X4 960T BE (95w). I realise that I am squeezing the life out of this board so I would probably therefore underclock the CPU a little. I've read on other forums that other folk were able to successfully run a higher end graphics card with the same case so I'm hoping I'll be alright.

I am currently using a Radeon HD 5450 (fanless) which is great for video but sucks for games at 1080p resolution. Basically I would like to use my HTPC a bit more for gaming now and was hoping I could do it without buying a whole new machine.

Thanks for any suggestions folks!
 
If that is the correct board it states this:-

Socket AM3/AM2+/AM2 for AMD Phenom™ II */ AMD Phenom™* / AMD Athlon™ II / AMD Athlon™ 64 X2 / AMD Athlon™ 64 / AMD Sempron™ processors (*Please note: This board support max. 65W TDP processors.)


That pci-e 16x slot in that board only runs at 4x as well.
 
I was running my HD5850 1GB for a while in a motherboard which had a PCI-E 8X slot. A PCI-E 2.0 4X slots has the same amount of bandwidth. The card was fine and there was no noticeable performance loss IIRC.
 
Thanks guys.

I looked closely into the x4 PCI-E problem as it was something that concerned me a great deal however, I read an article yesterday (don't remember where) which stated that the x4 speed would result in roughly a 5% performance drop. That I can live with :D

Regarding the maximum 65w TDP, my understanding is that the board will work with a 95w CPU however, this may result in board overheating which is why I am considering underclocking it slightly. The performance would be much improved anyway over my current AMD II X3 400e.

I guess the main question still remains. Would the performance of the 5850 GPU be somewhat less with the 400e over the X4 960T? If the board dies then so be it. I'll then be forced to get a new one.

I know it's silly asking about underclocking on an overclocking forum but need's must I guess!
 
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