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P35 upgrade to P45 motherboard

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pcsavvy

Senior member
I would like to upgrade my motherboard to a P45 so my videocard can work more efficiently and as well as my cpu. I am considering the latest Gigabyte p45 board or Asus P5Q series.
But I am a bit confused which P5Q would fit my budget of around 150-200? I would like to do some mild overclocking so I presume I would need a new cpu cooler too. It is hard to tell which cpu cooler would fit in my case, could someone give some advice.

Or would the latest Gigabyte board be a better fit?

Thanks
 
Ya, this late in the game I don't know if its worth upgrading to another LGA775 board. You most likely won't see much, if any benefit from the upgrade unless you need FSB beyond 400MHz+ or if you're planning to run in CrossFire.

P45 supports PCIE 2.0, but a single card with PCIE 1.1 x16 should be fine, the main benefit of P45 is that it supports 2 x8 PCIE 2.0 lanes, which is equivalent in bandwidth to 2 x16 PCIE 1.1 lanes. The P35 only supports PCIE 1.1 with x16 and x4 in CF.

P55 and Lynnfield is set to launch in 6-7 months, until then you should be fine with what you have. If you absolutely have to upgrade, both the P45-UD3P and P5Q series are highly recommended by both users and reviews, although the Gigabyte board's BIOS settings and terminology should be more familiar to you.
 
No point unless you want to heavily OC a quad core, which is one area your mobo is weak in.
 
I guess the ole "wanting the latest and greatest" bug bit and though I would like to get the next generation of cpu's, my budget won't allow it. I just want to make sure that all my computer parts are the best bang for the buck and will last as long as possible until my budget will allow a total upgrade. I know DDR3 is still to expensive for the performance you get but I just don't want to get stuck with a dead mb and no way to replace it with my current parts. This happened when I had amd 939 cpu and mb died and I had to do a quick run to Fry's and get their $99 special (dual core with an ECS mb) along with a gig of DDR2 memory to get up and running.
 
I noticed that Asus has a board, the P5QC that supports ddr2 and ddr3. Would this board be a wise choice to upgrade to? I am thinking that by the end of this year ddr3 will be low in price but will P45 boards supporting ddr3 still be available and reasonable in price. I can use my current memory and when the price is right I can upgrade to ddr3 to make my system a bit faster in getting stuff done.
 
Originally posted by: pcsavvy
I would like to get the next generation of cpu's, my budget won't allow it. I just want to make sure that all my computer parts are the best bang for the buck and will last as long as possible until my budget will allow a total upgrade.
Click to expand...

Keep saving your money. Your gains, if any, will be marginal. Don't sweat it. If you really want to spend money, there's a lot of other ways which will make more sense.
 
I have both an Asus P5KE-wifi (P35) and Asus P5Q-SE (P45). My P35 can still oc my Q9550 to over 3.8. You really wont see much of a difference, granting that you have a good P35 board to start with. Wait it out my good man.
 
DUDE...why wouldn't you take that $150-200 and upgrade your CPU?! The Phenom X4 AM2+/AM3 actually being a decent outing from AMD combined with Intel's release of i7 = UBER cheap HIGH END C2D's and C2Q's! You're going to see IMMENSE performance increases from a, to be honest man, major CPU upgrade as opposed to going from P35 to P45. It just makes zero sense; you have no need for PCI-E 2.0 and other than that what other major difference is there? And why the hell are you thinking about DDR3 memory at all right now? With your current situation, the "concern level" for you and DD3 should be even lower than P35 to P45.

"Keep saving your money. Your gains, if any, will be marginal. Don't sweat it. If you really want to spend money, there's a lot of other ways which will make more sense." - Zap

I really hope you're talking about in reference to his desire for a new MB, Zap.

E8400 = $165!!!
E8500= $187!!

You've GOT to be kidding me. Do you know how much of a performance boost you'd get out of going from a E7200 to one of those, especially OC'd?? You think that the P35 chipset is what's holding back your card?! HAHA

 
Thank you for your inputs. I didn't realize that upgrading my m/b would be a minor tweak compared to other upgrades I could make. Either a new cpu or a bigger hard drive or perhaps faster memory when prices go down.
I will have to rethink where to spend my budget since I want this system to last 2-5 years or more if possible.

 
Your memory is fine. Honestly, if I were in your position, I would buy the E8400 and a second 320GB WD HD (the one you already own). Pop in the E8400, and set up a RAID 0 configuration with your new second HD. Remember to back up whatever you want to keep beforehand. Throw in a bit of CPU overclocking, and combined with your "forced" reformat, you have more or less a brand spanking new computer that will give you a SIGNIFICANT increase in basically everything. You might end up a few dollars above $200 (don't know what the current price for a 320GB drive is nowadays off the top of my head) but it shouldn't be much more than $10 or so. I promise, there isn't anything else you could do with ~$200 right now that would give you as huge of an upgrade.
 
I would agree with the other comments here that the P35 --> P45 "upgrade" would be marginal at best. The only scenario where this would make sense is if you wanted to go with dual high-end gpu's and needed the extra PCI bandwith. With that said, I would either do one of the following: (1) Do nothing; OC your E7200 and see where it gets you (maybe ~3.2-3.5?) (2) Get a good quad for cheap, like the Q9400 and OC it moderately.

Edit: If you go with choice 2, you can always ebay or sell your old E7200 and pay for part of the new quad...
 
Thinking out what I want to do with my computer for now and in the future. Websurfing and recording tv shows when away from home.
I do run quite a few programs in the background antivirus, antispyware, anti adware and sometimes play media player or watch win tv. It is sometimes hard to figure after reading articles and other peoples opinions where it is to spend your money.

Getting the best bang for the buck. The best investment would be a bigger hard drive to record and either a faster dual core or a good solid quad core that doesn't cost an arm and leg. Is it better to save up a bit more money and get a quad and keep the system for 3-4 years until the next generation after i7 comes along?

It sometimes is hard to figure when is a good time to get a particular part cause if you wait to long suddenly it is unavailable and you are forced to upgrade to the next generation.


ed: oops, psych with ExarKun333.
 
If that's what you want it for, then you have more than enough to play with.

Save for the next big upgrade next Xmass.
 
I have been hankering for a Blu-ray drive in my computer. Since I do like watching DVDs on my computer. I would like to add a blu-ray one of these days, the price keeps coming down.
At this point it would be to expensive to invest in a blu-ray burner wait till those prices drop down or new technology comes out replacing blu-ray.:laugh:
 
I have decided thanks to everyone's input that my money would be better spent on other components then a new m/b.
I have ordered the WD 1Tb HD to record my misc. media on, Samsung DVD Writer w/Lightscribe to be more versatile. I guess I am debating whether to spend more money on a quad or save and buy a dual core. Overclocking is not as important as being stable with my current set up and do the things I want to do with minimum of time.

I want to be able to record tv shows or movies from either dvds or my tv tuner. Sometimes I like playing Hoyle Sudoku and listening music from my Windows media player at the same time. And run various utilities as needed.

edit: I am looking at either the 8500 dual or the Q9400 as two likely candidates to upgrade to.
 
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