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Aldogator

Aldogator

Aldogator

Associate
Joined
8 Feb 2008
Posts
5
Hi guys, my first time posting on here so I'll say hello before asking to pick your brains. Hello. :rolleyes: I hope you'll be willing to help a noobie :)

I currently have:

PROCESSOR
INTEL CORE 2 DUO E8200
MOTHERBOARD
ASUS P5N-D 750I SLI
RAM
2x Crucial Ballistix 2GB (2x1GB) DDR2 PC2-6400C4 800MHz Dual Channel Kit
GPU
2x Asus GeForce EN8800 GT 512MB in SLI
HARD DRIVE
2x Hitachi Deskstar P7K500 320GB SATA-II
CD/DVD DRIVE
Asus DRW-2014L1T 20x DVD±RW SATA Dual Layer Lightscribe ReWriter
POWER
OCZ GameXStream 850w Silent SLI Ready ATX2 Power Supply

This is all in an old case which I've wanted to upgrade for a while, as well as wanting Windows7 so...

...I recently (read drunkenly!! :p) bought:

CASE
Antec 900
HARD DRIVE
Samsung SpinPoint F3 1TB SATA-II

and Windows7 with the intention of swapping all my other bits and bobs into the new case, putting all my data guff (pics, vids, etc) on my new 1TB HD and installing Windows7 on my second 320GB to check it out for a while (and not have to transfer all my STEAM games to new windows install in one go!!) but... as is always the case I have been sucked in by all the shiny new toys and now want to just dive right in and get new everything!
So to the point...

I've been looking around the web and am considering buying the following:

PROCESSOR
Intel Core i5 750 2.66GHz
MOTHERBOARD
Gigabyte GA-P55-UD5 Intel P55 (Socket 1156) DDR3 Motherboard
RAM
Corsair XMS3 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit
GPU
Sapphire ATI Radeon HD 5770 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card

I would put all this in my new case with 1TB HD for data and one 320GB HD for windows. I've been trying to get around the £500 mark and this comes in at £529 for Overclockers.

This would give me (very nearly) two systems:

SYSTEM 1
PROCESSOR
INTEL CORE 2 DUO E8200
MOTHERBOARD
ASUS P5N-D 750I SLI
RAM
2x Crucial Ballistix 2GB (2x1GB) DDR2 PC2-6400C4 800MHz Dual Channel Kit
GPU
2x Asus GeForce EN8800 GT 512MB in SLI
HARD DRIVE
1x Hitachi Deskstar P7K500 320GB SATA-II
CD/DVD DRIVE
NONE (I assume I can use USB stick for data...)
POWER
OCZ GameXStream 850w Silent SLI Ready ATX2 Power Supply

I would use this system for practicing overclocking as I've only tried it once and it killed my mb (ASUS P5N-D 750I SLI number 1, I'm currently on number 2..) after powering off after 14 hours spent "updating ROMSIP." Updating my @r$e! Incidentally, how long should this take? I've googled this but nowhere could I find a time.

SYSTEM 2
PROCESSOR
Intel Core i5 750 2.66GHz
MOTHERBOARD
Gigabyte GA-P55-UD5 Intel P55 (Socket 1156) DDR3 Motherboard
RAM
Corsair XMS3 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit
GPU
Sapphire ATI Radeon HD 5770 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card
HARD DRIVE
1x Hitachi Deskstar P7K500 320GB SATA-II (WINDOWS Install)
1x Samsung SpinPoint F3 1TB SATA-II (Data)
CD/DVD DRIVE
Asus DRW-2014L1T 20x DVD±RW SATA Dual Layer Lightscribe ReWriter
POWER
????

A few questions for you:

What do you think of the new system? Any advise/comments?

I've seen the Gigabyte GA-P55M-UD2 recommended some places but isn't this a Micro-ATX mb? Why would the GA-P55M-UD2 be recommended over the GA-P55-UD5?

How about the 5770 GPU? As with most folks it bang/£ I'm after..

Can anyone recommend a decent power supply? Or do I need a decent one? If I was to put my current power supply in SYSTEM 2 and remove 2 or 3 sticks of RAM and one of my 8800GT's from SYSTEM 1 could I get away with a cheaper/less powerful supply in SYSTEM 1?

Here's a wee thanks for those of you who persevered and read this far :)
I look forward to your comments.
 
Just removing both the 8800gt's and putting a very low end GPU in would mean about 400W, if it was all stock + Selling them if you wanted, recoup the money back for the PSU, GPU and maybe more?

The second you could get away with about 500W fine, but if you want to Oc, go for about 600w. So your old PSU would be okay to go in anyway :)
 
don't sell your 8800gt's, you will only get about £35 each, so there's nothing that can match the performance for the money.

leave the 850w psu in system1.

buy a nice shiny new psu for 2
 
the GA-P55M-UD2 is likely to have been recommended because it is cheaper, or the intended case only fitted mATX boards. If you intend to Crossfire or SLI at any point in the future (multi graphics cards), then you will need the UD5, as it is the first board in Gigabytes P55 range that supports x8,x8 (which you need).

As for power, I would probably buy something like this:
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-008-CS
and put the old PSU in the new rig. Even dual-GPU rigs rarely use more than 600w, 750w is the absolute maximum you might want in that system (giving you huge amounts of headroom).
 
Thanks very much for the responses guys :D

Any input on the updating romsip issue? This is the main thing stopping me from trying ocing again! Having your PC just die like that is a tad annoying :p

Maybe I should put a different post in the overclocking forum...
 
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