Choosing a motherboard: C2D,4850

Turns out the Logisys PSU I was going to buy only has a 4-pin EPS12V connector. Any input on this one?

Silverstone Strider ST50F 500W - http://www.ncix.com/products/index.php?sku=27252
A quick google found pretty optimistic results.

My oldest and most trusted PSU is a ST60F. For the price(~$100) I would just go for that. Or one of the Corsair 5-600W units. Even though that 500 would probably power your system no prob, you're kind of limiting yourself with a 500W PSU.

Silverstone is usually good. Here's what PSU calculator tells me for your hardware (CPU, RAM, Video, 1 HDD):

Recommended PSU Wattage: 228w
+3.3V: 6.1A
+5V: 6.6A
+12V: 14.6A

A second 4850 adds 99 watts, 0.7A on +3.3V, and 8A on +12V. Four 120mm case fans and a PCI sound card add 25 watts, 0.9A on +5V, and 1.7A on +12V.

A good quality 400 watt unit would be plenty for what you currently have, and a good 500 would give you plenty for crossfire in the future. QUALITY (and provided amperage) is much more important that pure wattage. Any time something lists a certain wattage power supply as required, it's generally going by the advertised wattage a cheapo-crap unit with low amperage is going to provide.

Use this: http://www.extreme.outervision.com/psucalculator.jsp
The free version is great, and the "pro" version isn't a bad deal.

As a matter of fact, I've been leaning heavily on that very PSU calculator. With everything checked in - IDE, SATA2, USB, et al., I'm looking at 366W. That's assuming 4000Mhz/1.4Vcc. 462W with Crossfire. But I'll revisit that a year from now if I decide to add another video board.

As far as the Silverstone goes, to quote Hardwaresecrets.com

SilverStone Strider ST50F provides one of the best cost/benefit ratios for users looking for a good mainstream 500 W power supply. First, it can truly deliver 500 W at 50º C, which is outstanding. Second, the number of power plugs this unit has is more than a mainstream user will ever need.

Click to expand...

At CAD$60, I can live with that.

So, my order rolls out on Monday or Tuesday. Due to price changes and some change of heart, this is what I intend to order:

- E8400
- Asus P5Q Pro
- 2x2 1GB Mushkin DDR2-1066MHz RAM
- Misc other gubbins.

My question is mainly focused around the RAM. I'm hopelessly uneducated on the stuff, to be perfectly honest. Does this make sense?

Clock the 8400 to 500x8 = 4,000 MHz.
Use 1:1 ratio to reach 1,000 MHz on the RAM.

If so, is my northbridge going to get cranky with four sticks of RAM? I've heard some mobos don't like having four sticks in there.

Sixshot said:

575 might be kind of skimping it for TWO 4850's...you might be ok though. I'd personally recommend around 700 or so for two 4850's though.

For just ONE 4850, the Corsair 550VX would be good. Hell, it's enough for a 4870, and that's exactly what I have.

Click to expand...

Disagreed. Power draw from wall for QX9770 @ 3.66ghz, 2GB Corsair RAM, 4870X2, 3 WD Raptor Hard Drives, and a Koolance Exos water cooling system is ~500watts. That's ~400 dc output, since the BFG ES800 has an efficiency of 80%. (http://www.hardocp.com/article.html?art=MTUzMSw5LCxoZW50aHVzaWFzdA==)

So, why would you need 575watts for 2 4850 and a dual core?

Sounds like the Rampage Formula might be a little too steep for you, but I can't blame you. It's damn near $300 for a mobo. Honestly you might be better off getting a single 4870 like I did. Then just go with a p45 chipset, like the P5Q.

Click to expand...

Agreed. I'm not paying so much for a mobo and ddr3 RAM, especially when you're heat limited because of air cooling.

Besides, if you check my sig regarding p45 vs x48 on 2 4870, the difference is marginal in my opinion.

But yea, PSU and mobo choice have quite a bit to do with Crossfire, or if you just want a single card. I personally don't like the idea of "in case I wanna do this in the future," I like to figure out what I'm going to do for a permanent setup AS I buy the components. You save money that way by not getting something you won't take advantage of.

Click to expand...

Haha! I totally agree

Kivin said:

So, my order rolls out on Monday or Tuesday. Due to price changes and some change of heart, this is what I intend to order:

- E8400
- Asus P5Q Pro
- 2x2 1GB Mushkin DDR2-1066MHz RAM
- Misc other gubbins.

My question is mainly focused around the RAM. I'm hopelessly uneducated on the stuff, to be perfectly honest. Does this make sense?

Clock the 8400 to 500x8 = 4,000 MHz.
Use 1:1 ratio to reach 1,000 MHz on the RAM.

If so, is my northbridge going to get cranky with four sticks of RAM? I've heard some mobos don't like having four sticks in there.

Click to expand...

Looks good! What about case, cooling, fans, hdd? These small things are actually quite significant in cooling your system, higher clocks for your CPU and GPU and loading of applications/boot up time.

I rather you 2X2GB. Read my sig. "5) 4gb vs 2Gb"

If you check my sig again on 1;1 vs 4;5 RAM strap, the extra RAM bandwidth does help. So, find your max clock for your CPU then increase your RAM to it's max.

Using my old crappy case for the time being. Just don't have the money just yet to buy a decent case. When I do, I'm going to get a good ultra screwless case from Tiger. Going to buy a good CPU fan at the same time. Maybe a Typhoon or whatever Tiger's got at that particular moment.

Hard disk is a Seagate 7200.11 640GB with 32MB cache.
When I get off work, I'll check the rest.

Just had a chance to read the info in your bio and I'm frankly not really sure what you were expecting me to glean from it.

Correct me if I'm wrong. Since RAM is more sensitive to being overclocked than the Processor, would it not be more reasonable to drop the CPU mult and find the RAM's max clock first, then work on the CPU after?

Kivin said:

Just had a chance to read the info in your bio and I'm frankly not really sure what you were expecting me to glean from it.

Click to expand...

Those are common questions, asked over and over again.

Correct me if I'm wrong. Since RAM is more sensitive to being overclocked than the Processor, would it not be more reasonable to drop the CPU mult and find the RAM's max clock first, then work on the CPU after?

Click to expand...

There are many ways of overclocking. In the end, get the highest CPU clock, regardless of muti, since some CPUs can achieve a higher oc with lower muti. Then find your max RAM speed.