I want to game, and I want to overclock. Although I don't really want to overclock much. I am more interested in finding the "sweet spot" voltage, where the speed is high but the heat is low.
I looked into graphics cards, and PCI E16 2.0 slots are more of a luxury then a necessity. Sli and crossfire are a fantastic waste of money so I am not really interested in that either.
I am also interested in underclocking, so that way when I am just running regular apps I can bump down a bit and let my processor rest. I plan on getting some DDR2 800 RAM with a cas latency of 4 (patriot), a efficient overclocking power supply, and probably a E8400 at this point (although I go back and forward between the it and the q6600 almost daily).
So far, I have found a few models that will do the trick. The Asus P5Q in energy efficient and has deluxe overclock options. I have heard good things about the P5Q pro, but the only difference seems to be the pro supports slower RAM (but I am only getting 800 so it doesn't matter), and crossfire tech. I don't care about crossfire. At all.
I want to buy a HD 4870 (HIS or Saphire), but that is about it in the GPU department. I have read that this card is backwards compatible with PCI E16 1.0 slots, and that the card doesn't require more then that bandwidth to operate anyway.
So here is what I want. I want and efficient overclocker that will allow me to push up the speed pretty high without having to do much if anything with the voltage. I also want it to underclock effienlty, allowing me to lower the voltage to low, but safe levels, and maintain as much speed as possible. It needs to have just one PCI E16 slot, needs to stable but efficient, support quad cores, and I want it for the lowest price I can get.
I have heard DFI makes good overclock boards, and they are cheaper then Asus with a lot of the same features. Anyway, is their a board you all would suggest? Right now I will probably get the P5Q , but I want to save as much money as possible.
Thanks
(BTW there should be no performance loss with a HD 4870 in a PCI E16 1.0 slot right?)
I looked into graphics cards, and PCI E16 2.0 slots are more of a luxury then a necessity. Sli and crossfire are a fantastic waste of money so I am not really interested in that either.
I am also interested in underclocking, so that way when I am just running regular apps I can bump down a bit and let my processor rest. I plan on getting some DDR2 800 RAM with a cas latency of 4 (patriot), a efficient overclocking power supply, and probably a E8400 at this point (although I go back and forward between the it and the q6600 almost daily).
So far, I have found a few models that will do the trick. The Asus P5Q in energy efficient and has deluxe overclock options. I have heard good things about the P5Q pro, but the only difference seems to be the pro supports slower RAM (but I am only getting 800 so it doesn't matter), and crossfire tech. I don't care about crossfire. At all.
I want to buy a HD 4870 (HIS or Saphire), but that is about it in the GPU department. I have read that this card is backwards compatible with PCI E16 1.0 slots, and that the card doesn't require more then that bandwidth to operate anyway.
So here is what I want. I want and efficient overclocker that will allow me to push up the speed pretty high without having to do much if anything with the voltage. I also want it to underclock effienlty, allowing me to lower the voltage to low, but safe levels, and maintain as much speed as possible. It needs to have just one PCI E16 slot, needs to stable but efficient, support quad cores, and I want it for the lowest price I can get.
I have heard DFI makes good overclock boards, and they are cheaper then Asus with a lot of the same features. Anyway, is their a board you all would suggest? Right now I will probably get the P5Q , but I want to save as much money as possible.
Thanks
(BTW there should be no performance loss with a HD 4870 in a PCI E16 1.0 slot right?)