Asus Striker Extreme & GTX 560

[desolator4u]

Sup ppl?
Been searching like crazy and cannot find any info regarding this. I do see where people have said the GTX 460 works just fine with the nForce 680i Asus Striker Extreme, but since the GTX 560 is $50 more and has such an improvement in performance, i'd like to go with that instead.
So, how well would the GTX 560 work in the Striker Extreme? Is it worth it? Or just stick with the GTX 460? I assume the 2 main factors would be:
1. The MoBo. It has a PCI Express 1 slot when both those GPUs are PCI Express 2.0
2. My CPU. The Q6600 is dated, but I plan to bump the stock 2.4GHz to atleast 3.2 GHz once I get the ZALMAN CNPS9700 LED 110mm 2 Ball CPU Cooler (I know Clock Speed isn't everything though)

Specs:
Asus Striker Extreme - nForce 680i SLI
2 x 1GB DDR2 800MHz Corsair Dominator (downclocked from 1066 due to BSODs)
680W PSU
Q6600 2.4GHz
MSI 8400 GS
2 x 500GB WD HDD

Would love some feedback from you guys.

Respect
~Des

 

[Maziar]

Hello and welcome to the forums
PCI-E 2.0 is backward compatible with PCI-E 1.0 so you can use GTX 560 on your board.
Q6600 maybe old but it's a great OC'er(especially the G0 version).With a decent cooler(and a good case)you can achieve 3.2 easily.
Just make sure you have enough PSU for the GTX 560

 

[desolator4u]

Hello and welcome to the forums
PCI-E 2.0 is backward compatible with PCI-E 1.0 so you can use GTX 560 on your board.
Q6600 maybe old but it's a great OC'er(especially the G0 version).With a decent cooler(and a good case)you can achieve 3.2 easily.
Just make sure you have enough PSU for the GTX 560

Hey, thanks for the welcome!
I have read allot on the Q6600 and it sure does seem like an awesome chip to overclock. I have the G0 Rev so that makes it even better. Can't wait to up the Clock Speed when the Heatsink comes.

I understand PCI Express 2.0 is backwards compatible with 1.0, but there must be some kind of decrease in performance, right? With the whole bandwidth thing, and it being a whole new iteration of 2.0. I just don't want an overly powerful GPU in my MoBo not being utilized fully. Believe it or not, I just set up this system after having the parts lying around for almost 3 years, so no upgrade for me anytime soon :/

~Des

 

[Maziar]

The performance decrease isn't noticeable unless you play at resolutions like 2560x1600(which you'll see about 4% difference).
So don't worry about the performance loss.

 

[aevm]

eVGA recommends a PSU with at least 30A combined on the 12V their GTX 560. Your PSU is powerful enough IMO. It may even support a GTX 570 (which wants 38A). Still, check the PSU specs.

The 2GB of RAM will be a bottleneck in some games. Ideally, run a 64-bit OS and add another 2 or 4 GB. If you're running a 32-bit OS then don't bother - you'd only see 3 GB or even less even if you have 4 or 6 installed. That's because a 32-bit OS is limited to 4 GB and needs to reserve address space for the 1GB on the GTX 560 and for a few other things.

Edit: my old PC has a Q6600 as well Originally, in 2007, I had 500 GB WD drives too (WD5000AAKS). These days I use WD2001FASS instead and they're 4 times faster. That's another bottleneck.

 

[desolator4u]

Oh, yeah, the PSU :/
I have a dated one as well, the specs are:
+3.3V@38A, +5V@40A, +12V1@22A, +12V2@24A, -5V@0.3A, -12V@0.8A, +5VSB@2A
So I guess I won't be able to power the GTX 560 then :/ Maybe not even the 460 since it "requires Minimum recommended power supply with +12 Volt current rating of 24 Amps."
omg...

 

[desolator4u]

I'm going to get the XFX Black Edition 750W PSU so that should take care of any power issues.
I am also going to run the Q6600 at 400MHz * 8 for 3.2GHZ (so I can have a 1:1 Ratio with my 2 x 2GB PC-6400 800MHz DDR2 Memory i'm getting as well) so will that be enough of an OC on the CPU? I do not want the GTX 560 GPU to go to waste in any way.

~Des

 

[Maziar]

Q6600 @ 3.2 is still plenty fast.So,no need to worry about any bottlenecks

 

[desolator4u]

Best answer selected by Desolator4u.