ASUS P5K questions?

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Doctor_hv

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Hi, I'm building a new rig, and I have a few questions:
1. I want to use Intel Core2Quad Q6600 and GeForce 9600GT, so I was wandering can this board support Q6600 and if I sometimes in the future want to buy another 9600GT, could this board support them in SLI?
2. Another question is about RAM, which of these brands is the best, Kingston, TakeMS, A-Data, and is it better to go for 1GB or use 2GB sticks... (I probably won't go more than 4GB in future)
3. About HDD, is Seagate-Maxtor 500GB SATA2 HDD 7200rpm a good one?
4. And finally, about the PSU, will some 530W noname PSU ran this rig fine, even if I overclock it?
Thanks a lot for your help guys
 
I could be wrong but I don't believe the P35 Chipset supports SLI. Yes, the P5K supports Intel Quad Core CPU's.

Of those three brands I would choose Kingston, however, it's too hard to say what company is the "best" per-say. Overall, there are companies that have a general history/reputation of producing higher quality RAM. These are usually companies which would be considered "first party".

First party companies are those which manufacture both the memory chip and module, as well as sell the finished product. Second party companies will generally manufacture the RAM module and buy the chips in bulk through another source, put them together and market the finished product. Third party companies purchase both the modules and chips.

Obviously the overall consensus would be that First>Second>Third but I'd say it's safe to assume there are exceptions as with anything else.

I believe Micron (Crucial), Infineon, Samsung, Mitsubishi, Toshiba, and NEC are first party. I am sure there are others, those are just a few I know off of the top of my head.

Some second party companies are Kingston, Viking, PNY, Simple Tech, Smart, Mushkin, and OCZ Technologies.

Here is a Quality Vender List for RAM provided by Asus for the P5K.

Personally I would buy 2GB modules to cover myself a tad in the future. Go back a few years and 4GB seemed like an absolutely ridiculous amount :).

Your chosen HDD should be fine.

Don't skimp out on the PSU. Cheap PSU = flaky power = poof goes your new PC. Then you'll be back asking what went wrong :D! Take a look at something like the ELT500AWT, it's money well spent, trust me.
 
It seems to me that I've read that it has crossfire, but doesn't it mean that it could fit two nvidias as well...
I can only see Powerline and Frontier PSUs, so at least there is some brand on them.... ;)
Some said for this HDD that it is noisy, so I'll see if there is some other not to expensive (WD perhaps)...
Thank you for your advice, I'll try to do best with my budget...
BTW, I live in Bosnia so we don't have a lot of choice when it comes to buying these things... :(
 
Right, it'll support CrossFire, but, not SLI.

:p Do what you can and what you care to - be very careful with your PSU selection. Consider it insurance, you spend the extra $40 now, and you won't be back in three weeks complaining about some crappy PSU letting off smoke and taking down your PC.
 
Does it mean that I would have to buy nvidia based motherboard to have SLI? Well, I guess it's better to go for a single 8800GT and take this cheaper MB...
anyways, thank you...
I still have 10-15 days till buying, so I hope prices drop a little and I get more responses...
I don't want to buy something bad, because I don't plan to buy another one in 3yrs... or if there happens to be new GTA which I wouldn't be able to play on this rig... ;)
 
You just have to buy a motherboard with a chipset that supports SLI and obviously the board needs two PCI-E x16 slots, but it wouldn't use a chipset that supports SLI otherwise I assume, so, that shouldn't even be a concern.

For instance, I believe Intel's X38 chipset supports SLI.

SLI isn't worth it in my opinion anyway, save yourself the cash.
 
I don't know, it's probably not worth giving so much money now, just play for 1-2 years and then go for a new rig...
could I clock EVGA 9600GT SC to be as fast as their SSC version?
 
Well, I will not go for Q6600 because I realized that I don't need that power and I have a tight budget.
So, I am now thinking, is it better to buy some E6xxx Core2Duo and 9600GT or go for E4600 and buy an 8800GT 512MB.
the cheapest one I can find is some Club3D that costs some 30EUR more than the EVGA 9600GT SC
So, what option to go for? I was thinking to go for the second, because I don't think that in two years the CPU will become a bottleneck on my 19" LCD wide...
 
you're the man! Thanks a lot.
sorry for posting the same questions, but that way I hope to get more answers which will help me...
as for the graphics, I live in Bosnia, and I will buy it from local retailers, and I've already told my choices...
Well, I've heard that E6550 overclocks badly...
and the question is, is it better to go for better CPU and weaker graphics, or take some strong graphics card and a weaker CPU?
 
Depends on the way and level each one is "weak" and "strong". For instance, in my opinion, doubling the cache and increasing the FSB frequency by 533MHz beats the performance dip in a 9600GT compared to an 8800GT.
 
A faster video card will show a much higher performance improvement in games than a faster CPU. You would be okay pairing the E4600 with the 9600GT IMO. You'd notice only a minimal difference in performance. As for SLI, only go for it if you have a monitor that can run resolutions above and including 1600x1200, since true performance gains from SLI are only significant at those resolutions.
Lastly, I wouldn't advise a crappy PSU. You're just putting a powerful system at risk IMO. Since you don't live in the US, you can use Fry's to order a good PSU if you want to, along with the video card if it's cheaper online than at your local retailers.
 
and what about e4600 (oc to ~3GHz) with 8800GT? would it work at its full potential?
and I don't need high resolutions, only 19"...
I really don't know anymore... I'm selling my old PC this week, and then I have to wait to get money from scholarship (which I should have gotten 2 weeks ago) and when I have all of my budget at disposal, I'll check the prices and try to get the best bang for the buck...
I think that it would be great If I could get E8200 and 8800GT... that would rock :D
and even if I have to finish with e4600 and 9600GT/8800GS I'll be happy :)
 
I would still have to suggest that you go with the E6550 for the best performance/price ratio unless it's outside of your budget. The extra L2 cache will be worth it's weight in gold so to speak.
 
well, I don't know, I'll see if I could persuade my parents to get more money... (I am student, and I had to save for few months just to have enough for a decent graphics, and this is poor country - not that I am asking for someone's sorry, I just don't want to be thought of as a parasite, taking my parents' money, OK?) :)
I see that E6550 can go around 3GHz, since I'll go for standard RAM, not some overclocking brand...that would be good, I suppose.
 
It makes no difference to me what components you buy, and you haven't mentioned a budget so I'm simply telling you, for the extra few dollars, it's worth going with an E6550. If that's not possible, buy whatever you care to :).
 
Doctor_hv said:
and what about e4600 (oc to ~3GHz) with 8800GT? would it work at its full potential?
Click to expand...
Yes, it would. Unless you can afford to spend the extra money on the E6550 like Zenosincks said, get the E4600.
 
Thanks Zenosincks and others for sparing your time... You helped me to clear some things...
In the end, it ends up on the budget, you get how much you pay... :)
about this PSU thing, what's the worst thing that can happen to the PC because of a bad PSU, will only PSU die or could I lose the whole configuration...
Could this one run this configuration, it's some Codegen E6097-CA 450W (is it a good brand as Fortron etc.?) this is the link that retailer gives...
http://www.codegenworld.com/03_prod..._search=11&min_id_search=22&pro_id_search=212
 
Codegen's die very easily, so they're to be avoided. Cheap PSUs will often blow when they're overloaded, causing a current surge that may kill the entire system. Good-quality ones just shut down, preventing any further damage to components.
A good cheap PSU would be an Antec Earthwatts EA430 which will provide ample power for your system.
 
Wow, it seems that it's quite a risky thing to buy a cheap PSU...
Well, the best I could afford would be a Fortron 400W, would that one do for this kind of system, even overclocked? Or I should get some cheaper and not overclock, and I will be able to order a more quality one in summer...
 
Sorry for bothering again, but I haven't bought my new PC yet until I finish the mid term exams, so I saw a new board, ASUS P5K-E, which is cheaper than the P5K ordinary, so I want to ask, is it as good in terms of overclocking because as much as I have seen, it only lacks e-SATA which I anyway don't need...
as for the VGA, I've seen this 9800GTX review at Techspot and there are both 9600GT and 8800GT from Asus, and 8800GT wipes the floor with 9600...
as for processor, the prices droped by, and I'll probably go for E8400, though I crave for Q6600, but it is still out of my price range...
 
Doctor_hv said:
so I want to ask, is it as good in terms of overclocking because as much as I have seen, it only lacks e-SATA which I anyway don't need...
Click to expand...

sorry for making it vague, I wanted to ask is this mobo, P5K-E as good as the ordinary P5K and will it overclock, because it is some 20$ cheaper...
and I have a question related to HDD, is this buffer very important, because the only 500GB disk with 32MB is this Seagate-Maxtor and someone already told me it is not a good one, so will it make a big difference if I take some WD with 16MB of buffer?
 
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