E8400 to QX9650?

[friend'scatdied]

I have an opportunity to grab a QX9650 from a close friend for $150. I am certainly interested in overclocking but I'm certain my motherboard is pretty FSB-limited, so the QX9650 proves to be an interesting option. I hit a wall at 375MHz FSB which requires +0.1v vFSB/VTT to get stable up to about 400 regardless of lowering the multipliers, and I'm not comfortable with that vFSB for extended use.

My main concern with the QX9650 is the heat output relative to the E8400. I'm getting idle temps of ~36'C and load temps of ~48'C with my undervolted E8400. At stock volts the load temp is about 52'C. I'm going to be using Shuttle's I.C.E. heatsink and its temp-adjusted 92mm fan that keeps at 1800RPM at almost all times. My friend doesn't have the stock heatsink unit for the QX (which I hear is surprisingly decent), as he used watercooling on the chip to hit around 4.5GHz. But the TDP of the QX9650 is twice that of the E8400 and I am not quite sure the I.C.E. will be able to dissipate that to any decent capacity. I do not have any other coolers on-hand, and my case/motherboard will not accommodate anything but the I.C.E. (the motherboard is pulled from a Shuttle SG45H7, and the case is a modified Shuttle G2).

I intend to try the QX9650 at around 3.75GHz (375*10) (yes I'm well-aware I will need a beefed-up vCore), but I hear it's a pretty hot chip and I was wondering if it would be a bad idea given my situation? I do some heavy media encoding that would certainly benefit from the two extra cores, and the price is certainly right.

No, I will not buy the QX to resell it. My friend is only offering it to me at this price to use it and intends to recoup his costs as much as possible if I refuse.

 

[Direfox]

There is a lot of things to this, everything can be summed up with this... the qx9650 isn't meant for a shuttle. It's meant to be stuck on a screaming mobo with an enormous heatsink (or watercooled), volted up and overclocked like a bitch. Its like sticking a turbo-charger on a moped. You friend would be much better off ebaying the qx9650 for about $300-350 bucks because its going to be a waste in your shuttle IMO.

 

[dinlee23]

first of all. make sure u have airflow in that case cuz a passive cooler wont do it for a Q9xxx series. specially the heatsink u got that has only 3 heat pipes not mentioning its not copper too. also u wont need that much voltage to OC that beast. i got mine at 3.5 undervolted to 1.17 if i wanted to i might get 4.0 with stock volts. or atleast a lil above stock volts.

 

[friend'scatdied]

Yeah, I thought the same thing Direfox.

dinlee23, it's not passive. The 92mm fan I linked fits over the fins so it's an active air solution. There is negative pressure within the case but ambient temps inside are still about 30'C. The base of the heatsink is copper but the rest is aluminum.

Also this is a C1 stepping if that makes any difference (I've read it doesn't).

Also I've read the E0 Q9650 and Q9550 operate much cooler and overclock much better within the multipliers than the QX9650 does.

 

[dinlee23]

oh i see. yeah that might be a problem the later steppings does have its issues with OC'ing and its vCore being more higher to achieve a stable overclock. check your VID. If its low i think youll be safe. i suggest a sub 1.2 VID. the lower the better more OC room and lower temps.