Will my mobo take these upgrades?

[Moop69]

This is what I'm running on atm:

Asus P5N-E Sli
Core 2 Duo E6750 @ 2.66 Ghz(not OCed)
4GB DDR2 @ 800 Mhz
8800 GT
500W OCZ PSU
Hunk o junk case with zero air flow

I was looking at buying a totally new computer but I'm having a hard time justifying spending the money. Since I use this mainly for gaming, I thought I could get away with just upgrading the video card(5850 is what I had in mind).

The PSU doesn't have 2 6 pin connectors...so I need a new PSU. And as I said, the case is worthless, so I want to get a new one(Three Hundred Illusion is what I was looking at).

Will my ancient motherboard still be able to run the 5850? I've looked through the manual but it doesn't say whether the PCI Express x16 port is 2.1 or 2.0(Newegg says that 5850 is on 2.1).

If it can run it, will the rest of my system be a bottleneck?

Kind of off topic: Do the 3 120mm and 1 140mm fans with the case plug into the motherboard or to a cable from the PSU?

 

[jyjjy]

Your slot is likely 1.0 but it should still handle an HD5850. There are both 2.0 and 2.1 versions of the HD5850. Your slot can definitely handle the 2.0 versions and if there is a recent BIOS update(likely for an ASUS board) you should be able to use an 2.1 card as well.
A 500w OCZ should actually be ok for an HD5850. It is quite low power for its performance and OCZ is an alright brand. At stock it only uses 10-15 more watts than your 8800GT and that PSU should even have enough headroom for overclocking the card/processor. For the second connector you can just use an adapter. It often comes with the card.
You really should OC that CPU btw especially with a card as powerful as the HD5850. It OCs easily and well and 2.66 is a bit weak for the more CPU intensive current games.

 

[lowriderflow]

Those fans are going to plug into a power cable from the PSU and then into each other in a loop.

 

[Moop69]

Your slot is likely 1.0 but it should still handle an HD5850. There are both 2.0 and 2.1 versions of the HD5850. Your slot can definitely handle the 2.0 versions and if there is a recent BIOS update(likely for an ASUS board) you should be able to use an 2.1 card as well.
A 500w OCZ should actually be ok for an HD5850. It is quite low power for its performance and OCZ is an alright brand. At stock it only uses 10-15 more watts than your 8800GT and that PSU should even have enough headroom for overclocking the card/processor. For the second connector you can just use an adapter. It often comes with the card.
You really should OC that CPU btw especially with a card as powerful as the HD5850. It OCs easily and well and 2.66 is a bit weak for the more CPU intensive current games.

If I have a 1.0 slot how can changing the BIOS make it work with 2.0 or 2.1? Wouldn't it be a hardware issue and not software? Looking at the bios versions available on the Asus website I don't see any mention of this...

It seems like these people http://vip.asus.com/forum/view.aspx...34&board_id=1&model=P5N-E SLI&page=1&count=68 are having issues with the 5850 and the P5N-E Sli even with the latest BIOS rev(1406)

I think I'm just going to replace the PSU now. I can get a TX650 for about half the original price

How far would I have to OC the CPU?

Those fans are going to plug into a power cable from the PSU and then into each other in a loop.

Thanks

 

[jyjjy]

PCIE is backward compatible so 2.0 and 2.1 cards should work with a 1.0 slot. Some of the 1.0 boards have issues with 2.1 cards but usually a BIOS update fixes it. Unfortunately that doesn't seem so in your case. That likely has more to do with the Nvidia chipset I would guess but still ASUS should have released a fix by now. Oh well.
So for you I would recommend a GTX 470 instead;
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814125320
A new PSU is a good idea with that card though, especially if you want to OC it.
For OCing the processor 3.3 ghz should be easily achievable just with the stock fan and make it worthy for most current games.

 

[Moop69]

Would I need to update my BIOS for the 470 GTX?

I'm seeing conflicting benchmarks comparing the GTX 470 and 5850

The benchmarks in thishttp://www.hardwarecanucks.com/foru...iews/30321-nvidia-geforce-gtx-470-review.html review show that the 470 is better, yet this http://www.techspot.com/review/283-geforce-gtx-400-vs-radeon-hd-5800/page3.html shows the 470 getting stomped by the 5850. The tom's hardware ones are in favour of the 470 GTX. Is that something to be worried about or did that guy just test in a really weird way?

Would a 650W PSU be enough if I decided to SLI 470 GTXs in the future(I probably won't but I'd like to know if I have the option)?

GPUreview.com shows http://www.gpureview.com/show_cards.php?card1=628&card2=614 that despite having a slightly higher mem bandwidth and pixel fill rate, the 470 GTX gets destroyed in texture fill rate and shader operations. But the 470 GTX has vertex operations...? Is the crappy number of shader operations something to be worried about? GPU review says that vertex operations are kind of meaningless.

I'm probably going to get an aftermarket HSF(and AS5) just to be safe...I really don't like the stock ones

 

[jyjjy]

That techspot review is interesting. When they were launched most of the reviews seemed to show the GTX 470 with a 5-10% advantage.
Perhaps the beta drivers they were using in that review aren't a good choice or maybe ATI driver improvements have made up the gap, I dunno. Going forward though driver improvements should help the GTX 470 more than the HD5850 as it is a significantly newer card.
I don't think you would need a bios update for the GTX 470 but it is a good idea in any case.

 

[Moop69]

My BIOS rev is 1403, the latest is 1406.

I know people say the 470 GTX is noisy and hot...but how noisy and hot? I want to keep this card for awhile(3 years?) so I don't want it to kill itself from heat...will it last in the three hundred illusion? My 8800 GT is sometimes above 100 celsius in game(partially due to the fact that my room is absurdly hot.)

Also, about the noise. My 8800 GT is fairly noisy at full load. I think that what happened was the thermal compound died, because I don't remember this computer ever being THAT loud, but since about November, when I get in game the card gets loud(100% fan load) and I have to take measures so that my roommates don't get too bothered by the noise. How does the 470 GTX compare?