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ASUS P5Q Pro w/Intel E8400 - Need Help Please

C

cF00

Junior Member
Hello All and thank you in advance.

To keep it short, I have never overclocked and dont plan on messing with it this time either, i just dont know anything about it.

My goal with this PC is for work, but I game a bit too and would like good performance but I am not a bleeding edge kinda gamer.

Mobo/CPU I am focusing in on right now is the P5Q Pro with an Intel E8400.

I dont know if I should be buying DDR2 1200 or not, I have heard people say that if you dont overclock, its best to get cheaper RAM.

Could someone please help guide me through my purchases???

Again thank you for your time!
-Stefan
 
DDR2-800 is all you need, even if you ever decide to overclcok. The CPU runs at 4.5x, 3 GHz at stock 667 speed, 3.6 GHz at 800 FSB. I got some plain old Crucial brand (not Ballastix) for my E8400 last July since it has been very reliable for me since the PC100 SDRAM days.

FYI, if you don't need RAID or Crossfire you could get Gigabyte's P43 chipset motherboard for under $100, it has been flawless for me (with the E8400, 4GB Crucial DDR2, ATI 4870 512MB) since last July.
 
Agreed with DaveSimmons. If you don't plan on doing much intensive work (outside of gaming) then you don't have to buy the fastest memory on the planet (DDR2-800 will work just right). Also depending on what you play for games, your video card won't have to be anything super powerful (Nvidia 285 or an AMD 4870 1GB. The 512MB version that DaveSimmons recommended will work as well.
 
ok so just curious, when, if ever, would I need to purchase 1200?

next off, is this going to be a computer that allows me to game well?
Right now, the only games I would play would be the new Empire and some FPS

As far as the power supply, I see people with 800watts and more, how can I calculate what I will need for PS?
 
> ok so just curious, when, if ever, would I need to purchase 1200?
Maybe if you had some other CPU, never with an E8400 / E8500.

Also, the stock heatsink in the retail box E8400 works well, you don't need to buy a separate one.

> next off, is this going to be a computer that allows me to game well?
Since last July I've mostly played RPGs like Mass Effect, Fallout 3 and Neverwinter Nights 2 but it has worked well with them. The E8400 is a good match for an ATI 4850, 4870, 4890 or an nvidia 260.

> As far as the power supply, I see people with 800watts and more, how can I calculate what I will need for PS?
That's only for 2 x high end graphics cards linked together in SLI or Crossfire. A good brand of 500-650 watt PSU is all you need for the cards I just listed.
 
Quick note

I found 4 gigs of G-Skill DDR2 1066 for $54.99
and 4 gigs of Crucial Ballistix DDR2 800 for $59.99

Does it actually hurt performance to go with 1066?
 
Originally posted by: cF00
Quick note

I found 4 gigs of G-Skill DDR2 1066 for $54.99
and 4 gigs of Crucial Ballistix DDR2 800 for $59.99

Does it actually hurt performance to go with 1066?
Click to expand...

No and like said before, just go with DDR2 800.
 
I have the exact same CPU and motherborad - you can check my profile for my system (8 GB of DDR2 800), as it works great.
 
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