PCI Express x16 vs 2.0

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fanwashere

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Hey people. I'm building an extremely budget gaming rig (me being in the mid teens, don't exactly make a lot of money).

After tons of consideration, I chose Radeon HD 4670 as my GPU (http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814125277). Its a good balance between how much I can spend on it and performance (apparently it runs Modern Warfare 2 with all maxed settings on a Dual-core machine).

But being extremely tightly budgeted, I had to chose a sub-$50 motherboard that works for me (http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813130234), but it only has PCI Express x16 1.0 slots. The HD 4670 is a PCI Express x16 2.0. The first okay motherboard for PCIe x16 2.0 is sub-$70 (http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128388).

Sure I could afford it, but I did some research and found out PCIe x16 2.0 has backwards compatibility with 1.x, but has a lower bandwidth (one half). And then I heard somewhere that even a HD 4670 would not be able to use up all 2.5GB/s of the bandwidth.

How much performance would I be losing if I were to use a x16 1.0 motherboard as opposed to a x16 2.0 motherboard?

On another note, heres the original build.
Celeron Dual-Core E3300 2.5GHz - $54.99
MSI G31TM-P21 Motherboard - $44.99
2GB (2x 1GB) Wintec AMPX DDR2 800MHz Dual Channel RAM - $40.99
GIGABYTE GV-R467ZL-1GI Radeon HD 4670 DDR3 1GB - $77.49
Already have case, power supply, DVD drives and hard drives.
$263.58 after tax and shipping. Pretty cheap for max setting on MW2 huh :D?
 
Cards without a power connector like the HD4670 are designed to work within the 75w the PCIe slot delivers and 2.0 cards are backward compatible with 1.0 so you should be fine.
Also you should start your own thread in the future if you have a question.
 

mihgeo

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thanks jyjjy shader.one last question .gigabyte Radeon HD 4670 with 750MHz and 2000 MHz memory I read that there are cases when you have to do downclocks. will be the case and this video card and my PC configuration??? thanks
 

fanwashere

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mihgeo I don't think theres a Gigabyte Radeon HD4670 with those clocks. But if you're wondering that, I'm pretty sure its not gonna underclock by itself, and its probably safe to keep it that way if the manufacturer sold it that way. And if you were wondering the same thing I was wondering with this thread, no current graphic card will use up the bandwidth of PCIe X16 1.0, so even if its downclocked from the 2.0, it'll be the same.

And guys, is overclocking really safe? I just fear it will decrease the lifespan of the parts. If its safe, how much am I able to stable overclock with these two processors with stock cooling? And how much will that boost the performance?
 

dj_beggar

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Yeah....Its safe for sure....I think Upendra09 tried to mean E5200 not e6200 . . . . Really if you know how to overclock , E5200 will give u best bang for the buck . . . .It will give better performance than e7200,e7500 when overclocked. . . . It won't decrease ur lifetime noticeablely. . . .With worst case,worst airflow, high room temperature you may get 3.0ghz and generally you can expect 3.2-3.3ghz. . . . .E5200,E5300,E5400 are exactly the same chip with different stock speed. . . .So there is no to spend more on E5300. . . .
 

Upendra09

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yeah i meant the E5200


the Athlon II x3 is also great from AMD
 

fanwashere

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I could probably get a E5200, seeing I have the Intel Setup at $30 cheaper than the AMD Setup. I absolutely can't get an Athlon II X3, $300 is the absolute highest I can spent.

I'm not sure to get E5200 or E5300, because E5300 has Virtualization Technology, I dunno if that has anything do with gaming. And also, all of them doesn't seem to have Hyperthreading, is that gonna have a big impact?

By the way, I changed the motherboard to Gigabyte GA-G31M-ES2L like someone recommended earlier in the thread. I was thrilled to hear Snow Leopard works perfectly on this board with E3200, and also with the E5200. So I'll be running some OS X on there too.
 

Upendra09

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you don't need hyperthreading for MW2

virtualization is so that you can virtualizeXP in Win7

but even that isn't necessary

for under 300 i would say go with the e5200 if you will OC or the Athlon 240 if you won't OC
 

fanwashere

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would it be completely impossible to virtualize anything without Virtualization Technology? Cause I'll be using Snow Leopard as my main OS (I'm a huge Apple fanboy), and Windows 7 for gaming, I'll probably be running everyday Windows apps on Parallels 5 on Snow Leopard, with out VT I can't do that?
 

dj_beggar

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i have seen that E5300 support Virtualization technology but i guess all the E5300 may not support VT. . . .only some special models of E5200 supports VT. . . .Not sure though. . . . . If u are on a tight budget Gigabyte GA-G31M-ES2L is great for OCing . . . Just search about it for OCing on THW.Com and google. . .