First post, by danieljm
Hey all,
I got my hands on an ASUS P5PE-VM. It needs a recap, but once that's done I'm hoping to pair it with my Radeon HD 3850 AGP. The board came with a Pentium D installed, but obviously we've got to do better than that for the 3850. I've got a few questions that I'm hoping you fine folks can help me with, so here it goes.
1) With regard to recapping, there are some more "normal" looking caps that are bulging, so they will be replaced for sure. But I'm having trouble deciphering what the red markings on these cans mean. I suppose I don't even know if these are capacitors, or if this style even needs replacing. They look fine, I suppose, but I don't know if there are any telltale signs to look for. Any input would be appreciated.
2) There is a modded BIOS for this board that makes newer CPUs available. From what I can tell my best options with that BIOS are the E7XXX and Q6XXX range. It seems the big question then is if this system would benefit most from a faster dual core or a slower quad core. An E7600 looks like a fairly cheap purchase, or I could splurge a little bit and grab a QX6700 or something like that, which might be more flexible with its unlocked multiplier. I suppose the choice might also be dependent on the OS being used and games being played. My first inclination is to make this a totally overkill XP system, but feel free to tell me if that's a completely ridiculous idea. 😀
3) And finally, I don't recall if onboard audio was considered good enough by this point. I have a spare Audigy 2 ZS, but nothing newer. Is it worth using here? Should I try to find something newer like an X-Fi? Should I bother with anything at all?
Thanks!