Asus p5q pro turbo with HD 5770 CrossfireX

[kickass2]

Upgrading my motherboard from a crappy foxconn one to the aforementioned asus 1, I am faced with a deliemna.

It has two pci 2.0 X16 ports
However it says when i put two gpu's (hd 5770's in my case), it provides 8X bandwith to each slot. Will that have a detrimental effect on my graphic cards? Will they provide full power?

Specs
Q6600
4 GB DDr2 RAM
650 watt psu
Also, will the q66000 bottleneck my hd5770's? How much should i overclock it to to make it fine?

I am sorry if I put this into a wrong section. Help would be much much appreciated as this is my first build, the other parts were from a branded dell.
ADIT(after 3 posts): I would require a new case around 50$, preferably cheaper, as well. What would you suggest?

[EarthDog]

2 PCIe2.0 8x slots will not bottleneck two midrange cards. In fact, it only bottlenecks the mighty 5870 1-2% with an 8x slot. And being MUCH slower than the 5870, your 5770's will be just fine. :)

You would want to push your Q6600 to around 3.2Ghz or so. Thats a solid 24/7 overclock on that chip.

[muddocktor]

And to back up this fact, HardOCP just did a test with 2-480GTX cards in SLI and x16/x16 vs x8/x8 (http://hardocp.com/article/2010/08/23/gtx_480_sli_pcie_bandwidth_perf_x16x16_vs_x8x8/) and even tested x16/x16 vs x4/x4 (http://www.hardocp.com/article/2010/08/25/gtx_480_sli_pcie_bandwidth_perf_x16x16_vs_x4x4) and found minimal differences. And that should also hold true with ATI vid cards too.

[EarthDog]

Good info mudd. I was wondering how the 480 would do since its a bit faster than the 5870!

5870 PCIe scaling link. (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/AMD/HD_5870_PCI-Express_Scaling/25.html)

[kickass2]

2 PCIe2.0 8x slots will not bottleneck two midrange cards. In fact, it only bottlenecks the mighty 5870 1-2% with an 8x slot. And being MUCH slower than the 5870, your 5770's will be just fine. :)

You would want to push your Q6600 to around 3.2Ghz or so. Thats a solid 24/7 overclock on that chip.
And to back up this fact, HardOCP just did a test with 2-480GTX cards in SLI and x16/x16 vs x8/x8 (http://hardocp.com/article/2010/08/23/gtx_480_sli_pcie_bandwidth_perf_x16x16_vs_x8x8/) and even tested x16/x16 vs x4/x4 (http://www.hardocp.com/article/2010/08/25/gtx_480_sli_pcie_bandwidth_perf_x16x16_vs_x4x4) and found minimal differences. And that should also hold true with ATI vid cards too.

Thanks for the quick answer, earthdog and muddoctor. Currently i have a hd 3650, its a decent card. It is on a pci 1.0 port, i think.does that mean performance slash byhalf?
I will buymotherboard on newegg.com just after reading your comments.

Would I need a new cpu cooler for overclocking? Or will the stock one be ok?

And could you also advise some cases in which cooling is optimal and it has enough space for these components around the 50$ range?

[EarthDog]

No it just means that there is half the bandwidth, that doesnt mean a 3650 is using all of it.... Think of it like a garden hose vs a fire hose. If a garden hose can support 1GPM flow, moving to a firhose wont make it flow more assuming all things are the same. Its just a bigger pipe.

Just keep temperatures while stress testing to 80C and your daily temps will be fine around 70C. You can get a mild overclock with the stock cooler.

$50? Yikes... not sure at that price.

[kickass2]

No it just means that there is half the bandwidth, that doesnt mean a 3650 is using all of it.... Think of it like a garden hose vs a fire hose. If a garden hose can support 1GPM flow, moving to a firhose wont make it flow more assuming all things are the same. Its just a bigger pipe.

Just keep temperatures while stress testing to 80C and your daily temps will be fine around 70C. You can get a mild overclock with the stock cooler.

$50? Yikes... not sure at that price.

Well, never mind the money but what case would you suggest?

[EarthDog]

How about this one for just a bit more...

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811119137&cm_re=coolermaster_690-_-11-119-137-_-Product