Asus P5G41C-M LX Socket 775 uATX Motherboard with DDR2 and DDR3
Written by Vlad on December 22, 2010 – 1:03 pm - 4,409 views
In a previous post I explained how on my main desktop system – a socket-775 Core 2 Duo E4500 system – I can only access 3.25GB out of 4GB of RAM that I have installed. This is because of a deficiency in the Intel 945GC Express chipset on my Asus P5GC-MX 1333 motherboard. Basically, the chipset reserves 750MB of address space for peripherals, but does not have the ability to remap the overlapping physical RAM above 4GB.
In that post, I also described how I bought an Asus EAH5670 PCI Express video card, based on the ATI Radeon HD 5760 chipset. The purpose was to speed up the system, as the motherboard’s inbuilt graphics chipset shares memory with the rest of the system, slowing it down.
Well, whilst browsing MSY’s website, I discovered that they sold the Asus P5G41C-M LX Motherboard, for Socket 775 CPUs, at a cheap price – only $58. I decided to buy it. Not only will this motherboard allow me to reclaim the 750MB of RAM that I can’t use at the moment, but it will also increase maximum RAM support from 4GB to 8GB maximum.
The motherboard has support for both the older DDR2 memory and modern DDR3 memory. This saved me money, as I am able to reuse the existing two 2GB DDR2 modules in my current motherboard, but when I upgrade to 8GB, I will almost certainly be buying two 4GB DDR3 modules. You often find when buying second hand memory that the older DDR and DDR2 memory modules are actually more expensive than DDR3 modules, as the older forms are no longer manufactured and so they are in shorter supply.
The other bonuses from this motherboard upgrade are that the SATA maximum speed has been doubled from 1.5Gb/s to 3Gb/s, and the on-board Ethernet LAN upgraded from 100Mb Ethernet to Gigabit Ethernet.
When I feel the need, I will also be able to upgrade the CPU from a Core 2 Duo to a Core 2 Quad. I will also be able to add a PCI express USB 3.0 adapter to benefit from the new high speed devices that I expect to be coming out over the year. I expect that this will allow me to get another 2 years out of this system.
Tags: Asus, Socket 775
Posted in Motherboards | 2 Comments »
Asus EAH5670 PCI Express Video Card with ATI Radeon HD5670 GPU
Written by Vlad on December 21, 2010 – 3:22 pm - 2,511 views
Today I purchased an Asus EAH5670 PCI Express Video Card with 1GB GDDR5 RAM, based on the ATI Radeon HD5670 Graphics Processor Unit. It has VGA, DVI and HDMI connectors, with support for audio over HDMI as well.
I chose this video card for the following reasons:
- I wanted a high level of performance. This video card is mid-range, but compares favourably to other high performing cards like the Nvidia 9800 series
- I needed a video card that would not consume too much power, as my desktop power supply is only 450W. Some video cards consume so much power that they require a supplementary 6-pin PCI Express power cable, which my power supply doesn’t have. The Radeon HD5760 GPU does not need supplementary power, and consumes as little as half the power of some Nvidia models
- I don’t want to have to install additional cooling in my case, so I don’t want a card that runs too hot, even if I have to sacrifice a bit of performance.
- I am trying to keep this computer quiet, as it is on all the time and near a bedroom, so I did not want one that needed a powerful fan. The Asus EAH5760 has a smaler and quieter fan, compared to similar ATI Radeon HD5670 cards manufactured by companies like Gigabyte and MSI.
- I had a maximum budget of $150. I managed to get the Asus EAH5670 for $110 from MSY Computers
Why I Upgraded My Video Card
Tags: Asus, ati, radeon
Posted in Computer Hardware | 1 Comment »
