Compatibility questions. New parts and old.

[scarywoody]

So Currently I have an E6700 running in an asus P5B deluxe mobo using an ATI X1900XT.

I have a QX6700 and 4GB of PC2 8500 (1066) DDR2 all sitting on my desk.

So from the asus sight. It says:

-Intel® Quad-core CPU Ready
-Intel® Core?2 Extreme / Core?2 Duo Ready

So to me that means it should take the QX6700 right?

Not Also from the asus sight. It says it has a FSB of 1066 / 800 / 533 MHz, but then says it will only take DDR2 800 / 667 / 533 MHz. So I can't use the 1066 memory? Looks like I can run the processor, but not the memory. Correct?

Also I can't find what version of pci-e the board has. I want to upgrade to a GTX 200 series, but am not sure if it will take a PCI-E 2.0 card.

Any answers or help would be awesome! Thanks

Link to mobo:
http://usa.asus.com/products.a...1295&l1=3&l2=11&l3=307

 

[myocardia]

Originally posted by: scarywoody
So to me that means it should take the QX6700 right?

Yep, as long as you update the BIOS first, it will.

Looks like I can run the processor, but not the memory. Correct?

Nope, it will run both just fine. You'll just have to manually configure the RAM to run twice as fast as the FSB (what we call a 2:1 ratio).

Also I can't find what version of pci-e the board has. I want to upgrade to a GTX 200 series, but am not sure if it will take a PCI-E 2.0 card.

It has a PCI-E 1.1 slot, which only has half of the bandwidth of the newer PCI-E 2.0 slots. You can run a PCI-E 2.0 card in it just fine, but it will run slightly slower than it would in a PCI-E 2.0 slot. How much slower will depend on the card itself. An 8800GT won't be slowed down at all. A GTX260 will run ~85-90% as fast (in your board). You should be fine with anything up to a GTX260 or 4870. You'd lose a considerable amount of performance, if you were to try running a GTX280 or 4870X2 in it, though.

 

[MagnusTheBrewer]

Originally posted by: myocardia
[A GTX260 will run ~85-90% as fast (in your board). You should be fine with anything up to a GTX260 or 4870. You'd lose a considerable amount of performance, if you were to try running a GTX280 or 4870X2 in it, though.

I would love to see the benchmarks showing which games and which resolutions this is true. I believe that in all but the highest resolutions and graphics settings, there is no appreciable real world difference between using PCIe 1.1 and 2.0