What GPUs and CPUs will work?

Benjileo

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Hi all,

What I'm inquiring about today is whether any motherboard can run a pci-e graphics card aslong as it has the pci-e slot and sufficient power. Also whether there are any limitations to what CPU a motherboard can support.

I'm asking this because my motherboard is pretty rubbish, but it has a pci-e slot for a good GPU and supports socket AM2 CPUs. As long as I have a decent PSU will I be able to run something like a 9800gt and a 3.0GHz AMD64 X2?

If you need my motherboard specs here they are: http://tinyurl.com/kmc9mu

P.S. I quote from the link above,

"Supports the following processors:

*Athlon64 X2 4200+, 35W maximum TDP"

Is this just because the original PSU wouldn't be able to power it??

Many Thanks in advance,

Ben.
 

Mongox

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Might try this in the Asus specific forum. I don't see that model on the Asus website but someone there might know what it really is. And remove post here to avoid cross-posting.
 

Benjileo

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No, this board is quite rare, only made for HP. I doubt anyone @ ASUS will have heard of it and will be able to help me. Anyway I'm just asking as to if there are any other factors than the pci-e socket which can limit what gpu you can have. For instance I have a pci-e slot on my mobo, does this mean I can have any pci-e capable card aslong as I have the psu and space, cooling e.t.c
 

Benjileo

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4745454b

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Its not just the slot, but how many PCIe lanes are also connected. For example, my P35 board has two PCIe slots, but only one has 16x lanes attached to it. The other slot has only 4x lanes, so putting a card in there will slow things down horribly. (I think it was even toms who did an article on this, CF should be avoided on this board seeing as you are doing 4x/4x CF, which was slower then single 16x most of the time.) As long as your 16x slot has at least 8x lanes attached, you should be good. If however that slot is hooked up to something funny, like the PCI lanes or only 4x PCIe, then you can expect slow graphics.
 

masterjaw

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whether any motherboard can run a pci-e graphics card aslong as it has the pci-e slot and sufficient power.
It depends on how decent your PSU is. Might be helpful if you would state the PSU brand/model. Computers from HP are usually equipped with PSUs that doesn't have that much headroom to support GPU upgrades.

Also whether there are any limitations to what CPU a motherboard can support
Yes there is. In your case, you're limited up to socket AM2 chips.
 

Benjileo

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Hi, thanks for the replies ppl,

I would like to state that my pc is barely HP anymore, seeing as I've made these changes:

New case - Cooler Master 330

New PSU - 460w Cooler Master eXtreme Power (combined rating of 36 amps on 12v rails)

Added RAM - 2gb Generic

(Hopefully a 9600gt aswell soon)

Basically will I be able to run a 9600gt with that psu, and are there any other factors which may stop me from running a XFX 9600gt 512 other than my psu, cos my mobo has a pci-e slot and nothing in the other pci slots. As for the CPU, if I get an AM2 cpu and my psu is fine with it, I "shouldn't" encounter any problems?

Thanks everyone.



 

psycho sykes

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well that's not particularly true some AM3 chips are compatible with AM2 & AM2+ boards.

good luck though ;) .