Upgrading questions. - Overclock.net

CJRhoades · 2 Weeks Ago

In about 3 days I'm going to be ordering a few things for my system, setting myself up for future upgrades.

I'm going to be getting a 600w OCZ PSU, Antec 300 case, and a GIGABYTE GA-MA785G-UD3H motherboard.

First question: Will that PSU handle an overclocked Phenom II x3 720 and crossfired 5770s?

Second question: The motherboard I have right now has two RAM slots. I was planning on getting a 2x2GB kit to double my RAM but prices went up quite a lot so I decided to wait. Once I get my new motherboard, I'll have 2 more slots available. I happen to have a 1GB stick of 667 MHz Crucial RAM laying about and I was wondering if having all of my RAM reduced to 667MHz is worth the 1 extra GB.

Third question: The motherboard I have has all of the overclocking features locked in the BIOS so I've been using software to overclock. I've only achieved a meager 250MHz overclock. With the new motherboard, I should be able to up the voltage making it stable at higher frequencies. My question is, how big of an OC should I expect from my processor? The 4850e is just a low wattage (45w) Athlon x2 4800+.

Fourth question: With my current computer being OEM, the SATA cables going from the motherboard to the hard drive and optical drive are very short. You cant see the cables themselves from the picture but you can see how close the two drives are to the motherboard (optical is ontop of hard drive). I'm wondering whether the motherboard I'm getting comes with SATA cables seeing as I won't be able to use the ones I have.

Thanks for your help!

Rick Arter · 2 Weeks Ago

The extra RAM will help in most applications and the board does come with 2 sata cables it looks like. Always do overclocking through BIOS I found it to be better and more stable then software. Actually if you have 4GB already adding a fifth and having it drop the speed might not get you any performance unless you are using more then 4GB.

CJRhoades · 2 Weeks Ago

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rick Arter

The extra RAM will help in most applications and the board does come with 2 sata cables it looks like. Always do overclocking through BIOS I found it to be better and more stable then software. Actually if you have 4GB already adding a fifth and having it drop the speed might not get you any performance unless you are using more then 4GB.

Of course I was planning to do the overclocking through the BIOS on the new board.

I only have 2GB of RAM right now. If you read closely I said I decided to wait on that upgrade seeing as prices are so high right now. I'm asking if having 3 1GB sticks is worth dropping from 800MHz to 667MHz.

A second part to that question, do I have to install the RAM in pairs? I don't ever recall seeing a motherboard with only 3 out of 4 slots filled.

Rick Arter · 2 Weeks Ago

Quote:

Originally Posted by CJRhoades

Of course I was planning to do the overclocking through the BIOS on the new board.

I only have 2GB of RAM right now. If you read closely I said I decided to wait on that upgrade seeing as prices are so high right now. I'm asking if having 3 1GB sticks is worth dropping from 800MHz to 667MHz.

A second part to that question, do I have to install the RAM in pairs? I don't ever recall seeing a motherboard with only 3 out of 4 slots filled.

Sorry for misreading the OP I think the 2 to 3GB should help if you run lots of stuff at once, and the drop in speed shouldn't hurt performance too bad. You could always try to OC the RAM to 800. Not sure on the dual channel aspect never done it with 3 sticks only 4 of different sizes.

CJRhoades · 2 Weeks Ago

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rick Arter

Sorry for misreading the OP I think the 2 to 3GB should help if you run lots of stuff at once, and the drop in speed shouldn't hurt performance too bad. You could always try to OC the RAM to 800. Not sure on the dual channel aspect never done it with 3 sticks only 4 of different sizes.

+rep

Thanks.

CJRhoades · 2 Weeks Ago

Bump. Could use some help with questions 1 and 3.

CJRhoades · 2 Weeks Ago

Bump

CJRhoades · 2 Weeks Ago

Third bump. I would like to get this stuff ordered tomorrow.

I found an article on guru3d stating that you needed a PSU with 55A to run crossfired 5770's. The PSU I picked out has 4 18A 12 volt rails with one PCI-e connector having its own and the other connector sharing a rail with the CPU power connector.

Dunno if it means 55A total or 27.5A per 12 volt rail...

CJRhoades · 2 Weeks Ago

Final bump. If no one has anything to say, I'll just order tomorrow and hope for the best.

Dilyn · 2 Weeks Ago

That PSU should run it... But, you'd be cutting it a tad too close for my liking

As for the RAM performance... 2 gigs should work fine for you. The performance drop isn't really worth it for 1 extra gig to me... I have 2 gigs of DDR2 RAM, and usage maxes at about 85% in dual channel.

The SATA cables are hella long. They should work just fine for you.

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Upgrading questions.

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