Mobo/Processor replacement, looking for advice

[Jedimushroom]

I'm considering swapping out my current motherboard and processor for a performance increase, with a slightly flexible budget of £350 (around 433 euros or $604 if you really care). I would like to move toward an Intel system as my experience with AMD has not been very good, but if you think AMD is much better then feel free to chip in.

My current rig is as follows:

Processor: AMD Athlon 64X2 5000+ AM2 socket (dual core)
Motherboard: MSI K9A Platinum
GPU: XFX 8800GT (factory overclocked)
RAM: 3x1gb Crucial ballistix PC2-6400 RAM (probably going to buy another gig)

I think that's about all the relevant information, my PSU is 650W so no problems with power.

EDIT: I'm leaning toward the Asus P5Q pro s775 motherboard, at around £100 it's good value for money and PC Gamer recommends it.


Thanks in advance for your advice.

[Robbi]

Ok, that board is a solid investment definitely, strong chip and solid for overclocking, if thats a route you want to go down.

What exactly is this machine going to be used for?

[Jedimushroom]

Mainly gaming, usually the newer games which support multithreading well, so I was thinking of going for a the quad core route.

[Robbi]

Well a Q9550 would be a good choice for you, as its got a 12mb cache and 1333 fsb, so its the cheaper version of the Q9650, but can easily be overclocked to that speed.

That has a clock speed of 2.83GhZ where the Q9650 has a speed of 3.0GhZ for an extra £50 - £60, which is just not worth it


Intel Core 2 Quad Q9550 LGA775 'Yorkfield' 2.83GHz 12MB-cache (1333FSB) Processor - Retail + World In Conflict PC Game

Overclockers has it with a copy of World in Conflict too. That should also give you a bit of cash to get a decent cooler too


I've got one of these, very quiet and very very good at keeping your stuff cool.

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showprodu ... ubcat=1395

[VoXiNaTiOn]

P5Q Series is solid, you can't go wrong there! (I can say with confidence as a P5Q Deluxe owned, it OCs without even trying!)


Q9550 will do you perfectly, and for cooling, if noise is not an issue, get one of THESE with THIS strapped to it. With a lesser fan on the TRUE my temps stay well below 60C load (Prime95, IBT takes them just over) at a 3.2Ghz clock-speed (up from 2.66Ghz) and that's on a 65nm CPU, the Q9550 is 45nm so runs a lot cooler.

[Jedimushroom]

Thankyou very much for the advice, that looks like a good build!

I'm a little worried about problems re-activating windows after such a huge hardware change, I did it before and it went well but I think I needed a windows key that was stuck to my old case. I no longer have that case so I am wondering how I will sort it out.

EDIT: I have a similar Thermalright heatsink attached to my 8800gt and it works a charm, I might well consider that.

EDIT2: I think it would be easier budget wise to buy the main components and then possibly grab the cooling add-ons later depending on how hot the thing gets on stock cooling.

EDIT3: scan.co.uk (Not my preferred website but Dabs.com is constantly out of stock) wants me to pay £6.87 for some sort of insurance which will apparently replace items broken in transit or during installation for free, slightly dubious about that.

[Robbi]

hmmm, dubious about insurance to be fair...

If your looking at that board, plus the Chip I said then you should have well enough for a decent cooler too as the stock intel ones are a bit shite to be fair

[Jedimushroom]

Alright I'm going for the Asus P5Q and the Q9550, with the Thermalright heatsink and a 120mm fan (I couldn't find the one you mentioned but it appears to be a similar fan by the same company so it should all be good).

[Robbi]

Good job, what site couldnt you find the heatsink on?

[VoXiNaTiOn]

Robbi, I assume he means he couldn't find the fan, as I know for sure Scan stock the TRUE .

If you're buying from Scan, I assume you are getting the Scythe S-Flex 1600RPM fan, is the one I have and is effective yet quiet.

The ScanSure insurance is alright, basically if you fuck something up during the install, they cover it .

[Robbi]

really? for £6 they will replace the whole unit?...

[VoXiNaTiOn]

That's the way it's worded, it may only be a refurnished one you get though. I payed about £15 or so for it as I ordered a lot, so you can see why they'd offer it.

[Robbi]

If anything breaks on instillation I just RMA it...

which is free

[VoXiNaTiOn]

I think it sort of fast-forwards you in the RMA process.

EDIT: Just ran an hour Prime95 stress test of In-place Large FFTS (Says that is the max heat one) and haven't gone above 60C . The TRUE and S-Flex will do you perfectly on a 45nm chip, even with a lolGhz OC.

[Jedimushroom]

I knew there would be a problem, turns out my modular PSU does not have an 8 pin ATX cable necessary for the CPU, what can I do here?

EDIT: My PSU is a Zalman 600HP, it claims you can combine two 4 pin ATX cables to make an 8 pin but the motherboard manual says only to use an 8 pin connector and one of the four pin connectors looks different from the other one, all the pins are the same shape so I'm not sure.

[Robbi]

well try it, if you fail you have the Insurance to back you up, plus the Zalman manual said to do it

I know that PSU to motherboard configs are usually pretty compatible, in their weird kind of way, but ive never encountered it, so have no bearing to really comment completely.

[Jedimushroom]

OK so I've connected everything up and I plugged in the power, turned it on and hit the on button, nothing. Also the motherboard's standby power LED is off, wondering what to do now.

EDIT: The PSU fan doesn't seem to come on even when the only thing connected is the motherboard, I'm not sure what this means.

[Jedimushroom]

Don't worry, I think I have solved the problem.

I'm pretty sure I have, judging by the fact I am writing this from my new computer

[VoXiNaTiOn]

Congrats. Enjoy having the latest hardware.
































































By the time you read this, it's gone out of date . (Sad truth of technology)

Anyway, enjoy the freshness and I hope that the system lives up to expectations .