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Worth extending the life of a S775 system?

VirtualLarry

VirtualLarry

No Lifer
I'm pretty happy with my rigs as-is, as I don't really game.

But a possibility intrigues me.

Newegg's last P45-chipset S775 mobo that is still available is this one:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813128496

It has six SATA2 ports, no RAID support, but it's a P45. It only has a four-pin CPU power connector, however.

In two of the reviews, people mention getting 490FSB on some 45nm quads.

If I could get 490FSB on my Q9300 CPUs, I could run them at 3.675Ghz, which IMHO would be quite an improvement over 400FSB (3.0Ghz) for gaming purposes.

Also, this board takes DDR3, which is cheap, and I have plenty of 4GB DIMMs of DDR3-1333. I could run 16GB of RAM.

But I was thinking of RAID-0 with a couple of Kingston 96GB V+100 drives. (Which are currently OOS at Newegg, I don't know if they are going to restock them.)

I wouldn't be able to RAID with the new motherboard, but I could potentially OC my CPU higher, and I would be able to utilize more RAM.

If it were you, would you do it? I don't really have the available coin to spend on a pair of 2500K rigs right now, but I might be able to sqeeze $160 for a pair of these motherboards.

Edit: I currently have 8GB of RAM in each of my Q9300 rigs, and I rarely utilize over 4GB of that, usually more like 1.5-2GB. Less now that Firefox 7 has trimmed down it's memory usage, and I no longer browse "tab-heavy" like I used to.

The other question is, if I'm already nearly thermally-limited on the CPU OC, then how much more headroom would I really have with a P45 board, if I don't upgrade my coolers. I'm using CM HyperTX2 units, with 92mm fans, and I think three heatpipes. They work fairly well, but on an 80F day, my CPU temps hit 79C. When I have my AC going, 70F, CPU temps hit 73-75C. I have some OCZ Vendetta S775 coolers available to me too, unsure if those would help. I think that they have one more heatpipe. I used one of those on my BIL's machine, which has a Q9550 @ 3.5. I stopped at a "safe" OC, I didn't push his rig to the max, since I had limited testing time.

I suppose I could try a closed-loop WC setup, but that would be added expense, and after too much expense, I would be better off just going with a 2500K / Z68 rig anyways.
 
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No.

Also don't raid0 with SandForce, don't get SandForce at all unless you love headaches.

If it was me? I'd buy a Celeron G530 and a 50$ H61 for a total of 110 dollars and enjoy triple the performance and even smooth gaming experience with most titles.
 
SB is good, but it's not THAT good. A 2.4Ghz SB dual-core would definitely be slower in games than my 3.0Ghz C2Q. And the Kingston V+100 drives aren't SandForce, I think they are Toshiba controllers. Anyways, they have very aggressive GC, so they don't need TRIM to maintain their speed, which is why I was thinking that they would be a good choice for RAID-0 (since you don't get TRIM in RAID).
 
It's true they're toshibas, my bad, too used to Kingston sandforces. I don't really know much about toshibas so can't comment on that, though I'm a bit of a crucial m4 fanboy.

Btw processors:

http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/cpu/display/core2quad-q9300_9.html

http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/cpu/display/celeron-g540-g440_6.html

You still think so?


By the way, power consumption differences are quite huge 😉 Oh also I don't think RAID0 is of much use either as normally SSDs are fast enough anyway and larger SSDs will be naturally faster, you're pretty much just doubling the risks.
 
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Shikyo said:
Btw processors:

http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/cpu/display/core2quad-q9300_9.html

http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/cpu/display/celeron-g540-g440_6.html

You still think so?


By the way, power consumption differences are quite huge 😉 Oh also I don't think RAID0 is of much use either as normally SSDs are fast enough anyway and larger SSDs will be naturally faster, you're pretty much just doubling the risks.
Click to expand...

Well, those benchmarks on that page for the SB Celeron dual-core, are all dual-core optimized games. You should see the benchmark for the BF3 beta or alpha, any quad-core wipes the map with any dual-core. And more games are going that way.

Yes, I would be doubling my risks with a RAID-0 of SSDs, but it's not like they are prone to mechanical failure, and doubling-up like that would allow me to get an effective speed on a SATA2 chipset, that rivals SATA3 speeds.
 
VirtualLarry said:
I'm pretty happy with my rigs as-is, as I don't really game.

But a possibility intrigues me.

If I could get 490FSB on my Q9300 CPUs, I could run them at 3.675Ghz, which IMHO would be quite an improvement over 400FSB (3.0Ghz) for gaming purposes.

Also, this board takes DDR3, which is cheap, and I have plenty of 4GB DIMMs of DDR3-1333. I could run 16GB of RAM.
Edit: I currently have 8GB of RAM in each of my Q9300 rigs, and I rarely utilize over 4GB of that, usually more like 1.5-2GB. Less now that Firefox 7 has trimmed down it's memory usage, and I no longer browse "tab-heavy" like I used to.
Click to expand...
* Are you a gamer or not?
* Is your primary interest running benchmark programs?
* Do you have too much time on your hands?
 
Blain said:
* Are you a gamer or not?
* Is your primary interest running benchmark programs?
* Do you have too much time on your hands?
Click to expand...

1) Maybe. 😛 I used to own all of the older gaming consoles, and played them regularly. I also used to play PC games. But it seems as I got older, those things kind of fell by the wayside. I've been thinking of picking up PC gaming again, but the kinds of DRM you find on PC games these days really turns me off. I guess, I would like to have that option available to me, if I so choose to play games. I might get into some MMORPGs if my friends are all playing them.

2) Probably. I like showing off my e-peen as much as anyone else does.
(Why I built an overclocked Q6600 system, and dual HD4850s. Which I proceeded to benchmark, and then unplugged it and it sits in the corner, collecting dust.)

3) Yes, definitely.

I should say, I do put my computing power to good use, I run DC programs regularly on my rigs. So they do serve a purpose, other than just sucking down electricity.
 
Shikyo said:
It's true they're toshibas, my bad, too used to Kingston sandforces. I don't really know much about toshibas so can't comment on that, though I'm a bit of a crucial m4 fanboy.

Btw processors:

http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/cpu/display/core2quad-q9300_9.html

http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/cpu/display/celeron-g540-g440_6.html

You still think so?
Click to expand...
i think we can agree the pentium G620 is faster than the celeron G540, so...
http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/406?vs=75
at stock they're fairly similar for the games listed. at about 4GHz the Q9300 will be running circles around the G540.


maybe i should pick up this board and a few gigs of ddr3 (~$100 for all of it) and then be able to overclock the dick out of my Q8400. cheaper than going sandy... :hmm:
 
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Blain said:
* Are you a gamer or not?
* Is your primary interest running benchmark programs?
* Do you have too much time on your hands?
Click to expand...

Bingo. Larry, if you want to do this just for shits and giggles, then go for it. Just don't try to rationalize it. :awe:
 
I would think myself the motherboard swap wouldn't be a bad idea.

Buy one overclock it...if it brings good performance buy a second...your sig has two so i'm guessing your replacing both?

Doubt 775 will be dead any time soon for some gamer's maybe but for casual its got a long way to go .
 
The other possibility is to try to obtain an EP45-UD3P/R board. I know someone with a UD3P (I traded it to him, gah), and another person with a UD3R.

mfenn said:
Bingo. Larry, if you want to do this just for shits and giggles, then go for it. Just don't try to rationalize it. :awe:
Click to expand...


Good point. I might just do this, if I can come up with an extra $160. That is, if I don't decide to go with the MC 2500K + Z68X-UD3H combo for $300. Sooo damn temping.

One way I could rationalize it is, I DO have two E2140 CPUs left over.

Edit: Skip that. The decision to spend more money on S775 at this point is irrational, any way you look at it.

The worst part is, I had a couple of Gigabyte X48-DS5 boards, and a pair of Q9550 CPUs, all set for an upgrade at some point in the past, and I didn't feel like tearing my machines apart, so I sold off some of those parts. I used the other one for my BIL's gaming rig, which wasn't so bad, the hardware is still "in the family", so to speak. It was also cheaper than purchasing new 2500K + hardware, since I already had it. I suppose, with better cooling, I could try to get that rig close to 4Ghz, but right now it's at a moderate OC of 3.5Ghz.

Edit: Here's an idea. Perhaps I should try to cost/benefit analysis this.
$80 motherboard + $70 Gskill DDR3 RAM, overclock from 3.0 to 3.6. 20% improvement for $150, or 0.133% improvement per dollar spent.

2500K + Gigabyte mobo ($300) + Gskill DDR3 RAM ($70), overclocked to 4.5Ghz, 80% improvement for $370, or 0.216% improvement per dollar.

So the 2500K solution wins out in the end, even though it requires a larger outlay of cash.
 
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