Upgrading comp to use 5850, please advise on compatibility

maxim.mitrokhin · 7 Oct 2009 at 16:56

I'm upgrading a comp for my friend. The main upgrade is for the graphix card ATI radeon 5850 and I would like to check if all the other details will be adequate.

Processor - DualCore Intel Pentium D 930, 3000 MHz (15 x 200)
Mobo - Asus P5K SE (2 PCI, 3 PCI-E x1, 1 PCI-E x16, 4 DDR2 DIMM, Audio, Gigabit LAN)
Ram - Hynix HYMP564U64BP8-Y5 512 Мб DDR2-667 DDR2 SDRAM X2 (1Gb total)
PSU - 350 W

if anymore details are needed please ask. I think i covered the most important items.

Thanks in advance

95thrifles · 7 Oct 2009 at 18:45

I dont think the PSU would be enough, and chances are the CPU would bottleneck the gfx, which is a rare thing, tbh he'd prob be better starting afresh

gurusan · 7 Oct 2009 at 18:46

Pentium D is a big no-no...so is a no-name 350W supply.

The P5K-SE is decent though. Chuck a better CPU in there, a better PSU, and go for something like a 5770.....

reflux · 7 Oct 2009 at 18:46

PSU won't be up to snuff, and with the rest of the system being so slow and old I'm not sure there's really any point.

maxim.mitrokhin · 7 Oct 2009 at 19:08

So wats the main difference between lets say:

DualCore Intel Pentium D 930, 3000 MHz

and

Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 LGA775 'Wolfdale' 3.00GHz (1333FSB) - Retail

thank you for the replies so far

gurusan · 7 Oct 2009 at 19:17

Well the E8400 is only a gajillion times faster.

cmndr_andi · 7 Oct 2009 at 19:21

maxim.mitrokhin said:
So wats the main difference between lets say:

DualCore Intel Pentium D 930, 3000 MHz

and

Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 LGA775 'Wolfdale' 3.00GHz (1333FSB) - Retail

thank you for the replies so far

I could go into detail on how the core 2 uses a much newer/faster architecture, uses a smaller/better manufacturing process and and overclocks like a beast. But this chart explains it pretty well, In PassMark (CPU Mark) the E8400 is around 3 times faster than that Pentium D. Not to mention cooler and overclocks far better.

maxim.mitrokhin · 7 Oct 2009 at 20:20

cmndr_andi said:
I could go into detail on how the core 2 uses a much newer/faster architecture, uses a smaller/better manufacturing process and and overclocks like a beast. But this chart explains it pretty well, In PassMark (CPU Mark) the E8400 is around 3 times faster than that Pentium D. Not to mention cooler and overclocks far better.

thanks a lot for that, this chart should help

what do you think is the weakest processor for not limiting that card and playing most of the games with good fps with 5850

cmndr_andi · 7 Oct 2009 at 20:28

That motherboard supports pretty much all Core 2 CPUs. My suggestion would be the Q9400 and the Q9550 if you can afford it.

You could go for a dual core, but I have a hard time recommending these chips now, as more games are coming out that make use of a quad core.

You should also consider upgrading your RAM, 1GB doesn't really cut it in modern games. I suggest this stuff.

Also, considering how good the Q9000 series is at overclocking, buying a decent cooler and overclocking the heck out of it is a very good idea.

JonJ678 · 7 Oct 2009 at 20:52

I'll recommend a dual core

The e8400 is a lovely, lovely processor. Obscenely quick when overclocked. The pentium D is not in the same league.

The psu will just blow up if you try to run a 5850 off it. That's if it has the right pci-e connectors, which it doesn't.

Assuming a budget is involved, you'll get much better performance out of a new processor, ram and graphics card than out of blowing it all on the graphics card. You pretty much need a psu either way,

The weakest Intel Id suggest is the e7*00 series, though the e5300 and so forth would probably be fine. It is indeed rare for the processor to be the limit in a gaming system

maxim.mitrokhin · 7 Oct 2009 at 22:30

Thank you for more useful replies, the reason for such a wierd upgrade is that a gift from me is 5850, and the rest the guy is upgrading, because he wanted to do an upgrade anyway, but there is budget involved on his side. So by buying this card he can spend the budget on some more powerful things. This what we came up with so far:

So far we decided on a Intel Core 2 Quad Q8400 LGA775 'Yorkfield' 2.66GHz
and 4gb of 8500 ddr2 ram, can't remember exactly which make
for psu I was thinking 550W - http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-014-CS&groupid=701&catid=123&subcat=

what would you thoughts be on that?
Once again thank you for your input

Edit: As you can see I assumed the budget would be smaller, but turns out to be its about 11/15 of the total budget, so saves him some money as well.

cmndr_andi · 7 Oct 2009 at 22:36

That corsair PSU looks great, definately worth the investment.

I wouldn't usually pick a Q8000 series chip, but for £125 I must admit that it is a good deal. Just make sure you get a decent cooler and overclock the chip.

If you are looking for RAM recommendations, this is the stuff you want.

maxim.mitrokhin · 8 Oct 2009 at 01:19

cmndr_andi said:
That corsair PSU looks great, definately worth the investment.

I wouldn't usually pick a Q8000 series chip, but for £125 I must admit that it is a good deal. Just make sure you get a decent cooler and overclock the chip.

If you are looking for RAM recommendations, this is the stuff you want.

Ah sorry that was a stupid mistake to make on my side, we did decide on the Q9400 and thanks for the ram suggestion