Upgrading an ASUS P5N-e SLi M/B

[The_Alien]

Hi! Newbie here (to this forum and Tom's support circles) so, please be kind!...lol

I have the above motherboard and would like to know how far I can go with it in terms of CPU as it's getting tired in relation to the games I want to play; can anybody advise me on the best option, please?

I've not got 100's/1000's to spend and would rather upgrade the CPU (assuming I'll see the benefits) than have to construct an entire unit, if you take my point?

I have Vista Ultimate (spit!) 32bit Service Pack 2 and 8 GB of RAM

I'm new to this public notice malarky so, please be kind and if you want additional information, please advise and I will do my best to supply.

Oh and with nu UK call numbers and a really rubbish WWW site, have been sorely disappointed by ASUS on this subject, after 15 years of using their products only and now considering moving away from ASUSS if there's better out there without having to sell small children to get !

Many thanks,

Alan.

 

[megamanx00]

You have Vista 32-bit and 8GB of RAM? You do know that over 4GB there is wasted right? Anyway, check your CPU support

http://www.asus.com/Motherboards/Intel_Socket_775/P5NE_SLI/#CPUS

Looks like your board supports 45nm Core 2 duos, but not the 45nm quads. You can go with a Q6600 or an E8500 and overclock them. You also need to upgrade your OS to a 64-bit version to be able to use all that RAM. If you feel like experimenting you can use the Windows 8 build (it's a little unstable ^_^) rather than buying an OS until they release Windows 8. If you have the money you can go with a Sandy Bridge build though. What's you're budget?

 

[megamanx00]

By the way, as for your trouble with ASUS I blame that on user error. Yes their support could be better, but they do make some of the best gamer products.

 

[bucknutty]

You could drop $200 on a intel quad 6600 or $300 on a intel quad 9550-9650 that will drop right into your existing board. Get newest bios first.

best bet is to go with a cheap p67 board for under $100
i5 2400-2500 for like $200
and 4x4 1600 ram for like $50.
for $350 your system will kill any socket 775 chip.

The other posters are spot on about the 32bit operating system and ram. You should get your hands on win7 64. I think you will be very happy with how well it runs (looks and feels) when compared to vista 32.

 

[The_Alien]

By the way, as for your trouble with ASUS I blame that on user error. Yes their support could be better, but they do make some of the best gamer products.

Not entirely sure it's user error if they don't provide a working number for UK customers?!

Thanks,

Alan.

 

[The_Alien]

You have Vista 32-bit and 8GB of RAM? You do know that over 4GB there is wasted right? Anyway, check your CPU support

http://www.asus.com/Motherboards/Intel_Socket_775/P5NE_SLI/#CPUS

Looks like your board supports 45nm Core 2 duos, but not the 45nm quads. You can go with a Q6600 or an E8500 and overclock them. You also need to upgrade your OS to a 64-bit version to be able to use all that RAM. If you feel like experimenting you can use the Windows 8 build (it's a little unstable ^_^) rather than buying an OS until they release Windows 8. If you have the money you can go with a Sandy Bridge build though. What's you're budget?

Hi,

Thanks for the advice. I already have W7 64bit but reverted back to Vista when it ran like a slug and bounced my G50 speakers. It had issues with the soundcard too and basically the functionality lost was such that I felt I didn't want it. Though now it appears it could simply be because my CPU wasn't up to it!

My thinking now, based on 'backnutty's' recommendation is to try and get an p67 i5 board, upgfrade the memory and see how she flies.

Being a bit diumb on this 'stuff' would there be a significant performance upgrade over my existing board?

Thanks again for the advice, much appreciated!

Alan.

 

[The_Alien]

You could drop $200 on a intel quad 6600 or $300 on a intel quad 9550-9650 that will drop right into your existing board. Get newest bios first.

best bet is to go with a cheap p67 board for under $100
i5 2400-2500 for like $200
and 4x4 1600 ram for like $50.
for $350 your system will kill any socket 775 chip.

The other posters are spot on about the 32bit operating system and ram. You should get your hands on win7 64. I think you will be very happy with how well it runs (looks and feels) when compared to vista 32.

Hi,

Thanks for the recommendation/s. I think perhaps that given my board is (must be) 5 years old, it's time to move to an i5 board and bring W7 back to life as the OS.

The 9650 is discontinued and the only ones I'm seeing are used and I'm not entirely comfortable with fitting used parts - rightly or wrongly - so, as is normally the situation, time to spend more money. Although the parts in the US seem to be considerably cheaper than they are in the UK:-(

The alternative is to move to i7 I suppose but then we're talking serious money I expect.

What do the panel feel would be the cost for an i7 M/B, CPU and suitable RAM? I'm assuming I can use my existing HDD and GT5800 and I have a Corsair 850w PSU so power doesn't need to be upgraded (thankfully).

Thanks again for your advice and recommendations.

Alan.

 

[bucknutty]

Keep in mind with every new chip generation they change the cpu socket. Your old socket 775 will not work in a newer p67 1155 i3-i5-i7 board.

on a side note 775 chips and boards are getting hard to find these days. I really think i5 2000 series is the way to go.

 

[The_Alien]

You could drop $200 on a intel quad 6600 or $300 on a intel quad 9550-9650 that will drop right into your existing board. Get newest bios first.

best bet is to go with a cheap p67 board for under $100
i5 2400-2500 for like $200
and 4x4 1600 ram for like $50.
for $350 your system will kill any socket 775 chip.

The other posters are spot on about the 32bit operating system and ram. You should get your hands on win7 64. I think you will be very happy with how well it runs (looks and feels) when compared to vista 32.

And this is within budget but, don't have the smarts to know if it would be the right purchase; my budget is 400 sterling if that helps?

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/ASUS-Motherboard-and-Intel-Core-i7-2600K-CPU-8GB-Bundle-/140543042420?pt=UK_Motherboards_CPUs&hash=item20b904a374

Thank you.

Alan.

 

[The_Alien]

A month has passed and nobody has a view as to whether or not this would be a good purchase? Have to say (at the risk of getting slated:0( ) that I am disappointed.

Alan.

 

[rds1220]

That doesn't seem bad but a couple thing. The I7 is overkill for a gaming PC. The I7 cost $100 more then the I5 because the I7 has hyper threading a feature which games don't even make use of. You would be better off with the I5 2500k and just overclock it. It is more then enough for gaming. That mobo is pretty cheap you would be better off using that $100 you save by not getting the I7 and putting it towards a better mobo. Lastly the RAM. I see no specs on the RAM. Sure it's 8 gigs but 8 gigs at what speed? For all we know it's cheap junky RAM running at 800 MHz which would be junk. You want at least 1333 RAM speed. Forget the package deal just get the parts individually.

 

[iam2thecrowe]

^+1