Gaming Rig

[thingieing]

currently i need to build a gaming rig, which board should i get? also these are the other components that are lying around....

CPU: P4 520 HT @ 2.8Ghz socket 775

RAM: 4GB OCZ Platinum PC2-8500 Dual Channel w/ OCZ XTC Cooler

GPU: Sapphire 512MB 4870 Toxic Edition

PSU: Antec Basiq 500 Watt

HDD: Seagate 500GB SATA 3.0

FAN: OCZ Vendetta 2

which motherboard should i get, not planning to do CrossFire, but needs Dual/Quad Gigabit Ethernet, with WiFi N would be great but not necessary, or should i find a board w/ DDR3 memory (is it worth it right now to get it), for CPU, will plan to upgrade in the future to Core2Duo...

so will the Asus P5Q-E be sufficient for me, any suggestion?!?

 

[Axeon]

That Petium 4 is a horrible bottleneck for that card.

 

[geofelt]

Look for a basic P45 based mobo from asus or gigabyte.

DDR3 is very much not worth it. Performance difference is minimal, and it is more expensive.

 

[thingieing]

That Petium 4 is a horrible bottleneck for that card.

so which CPU will b best for the bucks for the C2D or P4 series if i were to use the P5Q-E or P5Q Pro Turbo or P5N72-T Premium or P5Q Premium (narrowed down to these boards) and which 1 will give me the best overclocking pontential b/w those

 

[aevm]

The P5Q-E is very good. Also check out the GA-EP45-UD3P (it has dual LAN and it's a great overclocker)

The CPU: E8400 or E8500 is good enough for gaming, unless you play FSX or GTA4. For those I'd recommend a Q9550 or at least a Q6600. The Q6600 is older but overclocks well because it has a large multiplier (9x).

 

[shortstuff_mt]

+1 for the E8x00 series. Even a cheap E5200 would send that P4 running home with its tail between its legs. The E5200 is an excellent overclocker. Most will hit 3.4GHz - 3.8GHz fairly easily.

What's the budget for this upgrade and where are you looking to purchase your hardware?

 

[thingieing]

+1 for the E8x00 series. Even a cheap E5200 would send that P4 running home with its tail between its legs. The E5200 is an excellent overclocker. Most will hit 3.4GHz - 3.8GHz fairly easily.

What's the budget for this upgrade and where are you looking to purchase your hardware?

right now...i'm deciding should i go with E5200/E8400 and Q8200/Q8300 or will the P5Q-E support the Xeon E3110 for $250.

i'm gonna buy the parts from either CanadaComputers or Infonec.com

 

[aevm]

The E3110 is the same thing as the E8400 and costs more. I'd just get the E8400. You can find one at Newegg Canada for C$204.

The E5200 can be pretty good if you overclock it, but then you'd need to spend extra on a cooler.

The Q8300 will beat the E8400 in FSX, GTA4, video encoding. It will lose against the E8400 almost everywhere else, because it won't get to use all the cores and it's lower clocked.

 

[thingieing]

The E3110 is the same thing as the E8400 and costs more. I'd just get the E8400. You can find one at Newegg Canada for C$204.

The E5200 can be pretty good if you overclock it, but then you'd need to spend extra on a cooler.

The Q8300 will beat the E8400 in FSX, GTA4, video encoding. It will lose against the E8400 almost everywhere else, because it won't get to use all the cores and it's lower clocked.

the reason why i'm asking you about the E3110 it's because it's on sale for $210 @ Directeasybuy.ca
http://www.directeasybuy.ca/proddetail.php?prod=E3110

and now with the E2000 compare to E3110/E8400 it's a $100 difference and these are the components that i have so far....

Scythe Orochi 10 for the HSF
XClio A380 for the CASE
P5Q-E for MB
OCZ 4GB Dual Channel Platinum PC8500 for RAM w/ XTC Cooler
Antec 500 Basiq for PSU
Sapphire 4870 512MB Toxic Edition for GPU
Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 SATA 3.0Gb/s 16MB Cache for HDD w/ Thermaltake A2476 TMG HD1 cooler
Scythe 120mm Ultra Kaze 3000 for exhaust fan
Antec Super Blower Cooler for additional cooling at the bottom of the 2 PCI slot

 

[Helloworld_98]

the a380 isn't needed unless you have 4 4870's together. if you want to stick with xclio get a godspeed or propeller and turn the fan off.

edit: also the basiq won't hold up a 4870 and the scythe may be quiet but it won't give you as much oc potential as say a theramlright Ultra-120 eXtreme with a nice fan.

 

[aevm]

All right, since it's just $3 more for E3110 compared to E8400 I'd say get the E3110. It is like the E8400, but it is one of the better E8400 chips (there's some binning going on there).

The E3110 will definitely work on the P5Q-E. Here's a thread you might find useful when overclocking it, BTW:
http://www.hardwarecanucks.com/foru...king/10162-overclocking-e3110-asus-p5q-e.html

I don't really like your choice of PSU. You're getting a Crossfire MB and a Crossfire-able card, so why not get a PSU that can support two cards and have a more future-proof machine. Consider a TX650 ($103) or even better TX750 ($132) instead.
http://www.directeasybuy.ca/proddetail.php?prod=CMPSU750TX

TBH I don't understand the part about the Antec Super Blower Cooler and the HDD cooler. You are overestimating your cooling needs, IMO. You can take those out

 

[Helloworld_98]

and the cooler may actually decrease cooling because it may take the air before the gfx cards fan gets it.

 

[thingieing]

All right, since it's just $3 more for E3110 compared to E8400 I'd say get the E3110. It is like the E8400, but it is one of the better E8400 chips (there's some binning going on there).

The E3110 will definitely work on the P5Q-E. Here's a thread you might find useful when overclocking it, BTW:
http://www.hardwarecanucks.com/foru...king/10162-overclocking-e3110-asus-p5q-e.html

I don't really like your choice of PSU. You're getting a Crossfire MB and a Crossfire-able card, so why not get a PSU that can support two cards and have a more future-proof machine. Consider a TX650 ($103) or even better TX750 ($132) instead.
http://www.directeasybuy.ca/proddetail.php?prod=CMPSU750TX

TBH I don't understand the part about the Antec Super Blower Cooler and the HDD cooler. You are overestimating your cooling needs, IMO. You can take those out

so i ended up getting the E5200....is there a thread for overclocking the E5200 w/ P5Q-E

the reason why i got the P5Q-E was b/c i thought there wasn't enough space for the GPU cuz itz a dual slot and i thought it faces upwards instead of down (i had a IBM ThinkCentre w/ the BTX board which it was facing the other way and the Northbridge was blocking it, that's why i had to build a new computer and thought that wasn't enough space for it) so if i'm not running crossfire, what motherboard should i get?

and the PSU was in an old computer lying around doing nothing, just trying to save money

maybe i'll take out the Antec Super Blower Cooler cuz i thought it would face downwards so it could of suck out the heat from the bottom of the graphic card, but instead it faces upwards

and do you know how should i position the Orochi 10 HSF cuz right now the heat pipes are facing the top towards the PSU, is that right?