A Weak Point?

[crispy7]

Hello, i was looking for an opinion from someone who knows a little more about pc components
My PC
CPU: Intel i7 860 2.8 extreme OC
Memory: 4GB (2GBx2) DDR3/1600MHz Dual Channel Memory Module (A-Data Gaming Series with Heat Spreader
GPU: ATI Radeon HD 5850 PCI-E 16X 1GB Video Card
Mobo: GigaByte GA-P55A-UD3
HDD: RAID0 (1TB (500GBx2) SATA-II 3.0Gb/s 16MB Cache 7200RPM

Obviously im worried about the motherboard not being able to keep up with the other upgrades, games will be played on the PC. Any thoughts?

 

[ekoostik]

Anything specific you're worried about? You won't be able to CF/SLI with that board so if you plan to CF/SLI you should look elsewhere. If you aren't CF/SLI, it's a good board.

 

[crispy7]

No i am not intending on running it in SLI. I have just heard some negs about gaming on it. I didn't build it too be the ultimate gaming machine, but i do expect it to hold its own with all the upgrades i gave it.

 

[ekoostik]

You should be fine. Have you already built it?

 

[crispy7]

yes i did it will be here tomorrow i am f**king stoked to say the least, i cant wait... I did my research on all the components and made sure i picked the best for the money, but i was unsure about the mobo, i asked the company(cyber power) and even told them i would be willing to spend more to upgrade it so i could game. it will be the last time i trust those "tech specialist" lol.

The board can be upgraded atleast if i need to in the future,
but how much difference would a slightly better board make?(explain in terms of fps if you can)

 

[ekoostik]

I haven't seen any comparisons of gaming on that board with your GPU. But you might be interested in this article: http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/usb-3.0-performance,2490.html

It states

Thus, users with a single graphics card must sacrifice half of its peak bandwidth to enable 5.0 Gb transfers to the USB 3.0 and SATA 6.0 Gb/s controllers, while those with two cards must live with 2.5 Gb/s bandwidth limits on USB 3.0 and SATA 6.0 Gb/s controllers. Neither of these sacrifices is huge or even noticeable on most of today’s hardware, yet anyone trying to future-proof their system could be left cold.

Since you're not going to CF/SLI, it will likely not be until future generations of GPUs that you would notice a difference.

 

[ekoostik]

I spoke a little bit too soon. I just found this article, which is still not your board but discusses the similar GA-P55A-UD6: http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/enthusiast-p55-motherboard,2494.html

Looks like if you're not interested in running USB 3.0 / SATA 6 Gb/s you can disable it in BIOS: http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/enthusiast-p55-motherboard,2494-5.html


However, as expected this board shows very little difference in FPS: http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/enthusiast-p55-motherboard,2494-9.html


CPU and GPU have the biggest affect on gaming and you are covered there. Don't worry about your selection, it's a good motherboard. Enjoy your rig!

 

[crispy7]

Ekoostik: thanks for the input bro i do appreciate it. Im pretty excited for tomorro the new rig should be here!! We shall see how it handles some of the more demanding games