Intel Q6600 overclocking motherboard ?

T

thylantyr

Limp Gawd
Joined
Nov 13, 2002
Messages
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I want to build a new system using the Intel Q6600 quad core CPU.

Word on the street says you can take this to 3Ghz easy with
FSB = 333Mhz [333Mhz x 9 multiplier]. This is good enough for me.

Questions;

1. They say you should look for G0 stepping of this CPU to make life
easier. lol .. Should I just snag the retail version and use the stock
heatsink for 3Ghz or should I get something else? I don't want a crazy big
heatsink either. A low noise fan setup is what I would prefer to have.

2. I want RAID 1 setup, two SATA hard drives. Nothing fancy.

Which motherboards are good candidates that meet the overclocking
goal and RAID requirement?

What's the skinny on the Asus P5K motherboard problems?

Thanks,

:)
 
You're not going to get to 2.6Ghz with the stock heatsink.
You may not like big Heatsinks, but 65nm Quad-Core CPUs generate too much heat for anything less. And if you want to overclock then..

nForce 680i will get you up to 3.6Ghz. Anything higher and you will need P35.
Or you could just wait for X38, which is reccomended.
 
I can ditch the stock heatsink, no problem really.

What are some good stable motherboards ? :)
 
With P35?
Just pick any one. They are mostly the same.
Just make sure it has DDR2 only.
 
the stock hs can do 2.6 easy...come on...the Q6600 is 2.4 to start. 3.0 is doable with stock hs. I would recommend a better hsf still thou. As for motherboard, please dont buy the 'cheapest/lowest end' mb for a Quad. Any mid end P35 should do. I have a abit P35-e which suck ass with a quad, but runs great with a Duo. My 965 ds3 and P35 ds3p runs much better with the quad than the cheap abit.
 
asus p5k premium, not much more then the deluxe but runs a lot cooler and you can push it further.
 
LOL I love all these varied recommendations. I'll help the variation :p

I recommend Abit IP35 Pro. Google it and drool :D
 
I am using the Abit IP35 Pro with Q6600 G0 stepping. OC to 2907 MHz (9x323) without changing any thing in the Bios. Stable (no error) running Othos (stress test) for 18 hrs. By the way, I use Zalman 9700 heatsink. CPU idle at 40c, load at 52c (reading from Everest).
 
calvieee said:
As for motherboard, please dont buy the 'cheapest/lowest end' mb for a Quad. Any mid end P35 should do. I have a abit P35-e which suck ass with a quad, but runs great with a Duo. My 965 ds3 and P35 ds3p runs much better with the quad than the cheap abit.
Click to expand...
This statement makes no sense. Cheap motherboard != processor performance. There isn't a rule out there that says "if you pay xx for a processor, you need to pay at least xx for a motherboard in order for the processor to work correctly".

Pick what features you need, pick a chipset, and then pick something in your price range. That's all there is to it.

..but yes, I'd do an Abit board in the high end and a Gigabyte/Abit board in the mid end. Definitely not Asus in the "premium" board range though, the IP35 Pro offers the same ( performance and general features ) at a much better price..although if you need the extra little things Asus has then you don't really have a choice.
 
gwai lo said:
This statement makes no sense. Cheap motherboard != processor performance. There isn't a rule out there that says "if you pay xx for a processor, you need to pay at least xx for a motherboard in order for the processor to work correctly".

Pick what features you need, pick a chipset, and then pick something in your price range. That's all there is to it.

..but yes, I'd do an Abit board in the high end and a Gigabyte/Abit board in the mid end. Definitely not Asus in the "premium" board range though, the IP35 Pro offers the same ( performance and general features ) at a much better price..although if you need the extra little things Asus has then you don't really have a choice.
Click to expand...

He's saying this about a motherboard for a quadcore because a lot of stress is put on the motherboard when OCing a quadcore.
 
Asus P5K Premium here. Rock solid. Q6600 @ 3.6ghz 1.4v no droop prime stable. Ballistix pc2-8000 @ 1000 4-4-4-12. No poblems at all.

The 8 phase upgraded power circuitry on this board is really good. I ran prime small fft for 8 hours and the vcore was rock solid, voltage damper option ON. Stay way from boards with weaker cpu power systems if oveclocking quads imo. some of the cheaper boards are nice for dual core but you might have too much droop with quads.
 
i recommend an Abit IP35 Pro

I just popped in my B3 Q6600, went to the bios and changed FSB to 333, and 3.0ghz right away without any hassles.

I could probably push it to 3.4 or so with more voltage, more tweaking and some better cooling.
 
and you could probably do 3.6+ with asus pk5 deluxe/premium/blitz

to the op, i've read about some of the problems with the p5k dlx, but they seem to be fixed in the premium. i've used it for a month now and i haven't had a single problem. running Q6600 @ 3.6ghz 1.4v (1.425 in bios) no droop, 4x1gb pc2-8000 @ 1000mhz 4-4-4-12 (its rated for 5-5-5-15 with 2 sticks not 4).
 
I run 3.0Ghz 334x9 with the Gigabyte G33 board. Probably not it's long term home, but until I see what X38 does, I'm happy with it. Besides, with an IGP, I can always turn it into an office computer for myself later.
 
dragonorta said:
He's saying this about a motherboard for a quadcore because a lot of stress is put on the motherboard when OCing a quadcore.
Click to expand...
I don't see how a "low end" board would be overstressed by a quad. The IP35-E based on the same chipset, the cooling for the components isn't massively deficient or anything, and it's phase circuitry is the same as the IP35 Pro.:confused:
 
gwai lo said:
I don't see how a "low end" board would be overstressed by a quad. The IP35-E based on the same chipset, the cooling for the components isn't massively deficient or anything, and it's phase circuitry is the same as the IP35 Pro.:confused:
Click to expand...

The north bridge/south bridge heatsink set up on the Pro is different, in fact its heatpipes on the Pro (not sure about the vanilla IP35).

This should in theory be more efficient than those on the E (particularly with regards to northbridge cooling), I also reckon PWM heat on the E will be your main enemy on getting the fastest O/C possible and hitting an O/C ceiling quicker than on the Pro (assuming all other components are equal).

Though I'm sure most [H]ard O/Cers will replace the stock N/B & S/B heatsink/heatpipe set up and blow a fan over the PWM anyway.

I do think the IP35-E will hit 3GHz no bother , Im not so sure up to 3.4-3.6 would be attainable, still a pretty damn fine O/C for a budget board though! :D
 
Update:

I decided to make my new build a 'temporary' build as I will hand
off the computer next year to the 'little one' at home.

For now I snagged E6750, IP35 Pro, OCZ DDR2-800 Reaper ram,
Tuniq Tower heatsink, BFG 8800GTS OC, dual Seagate 7200.10 for RAID1,
Enermax 535W PSU, Cooler Master $45 case. Simple rig and fun to work
on.

The biggest headache was trying to do WinXP activation via the internet,
couldn't get it to work for 1 hour in spite that I had internet access. I had to
call the number to activate, took 3 minutes. lol

So far it's pretty sweet. I just finished the install and running stress
tests at stock speed, then do 3.2Ghz. Maybe push it higher but
it's not a big deal.

Some notes on the IP35 Pro motherboard. I don't like
the right angle SATA connectors, pretty dumb design since it's
easier to plug the cable straight up. The firewire header is in a bad
location [under first PCIe slot, under video card :rolleyes: ], other
than that, it's pretty sweet motherboard. I like the chipset heatpipe design,
very nice. I like uGuru.

re: Tuniq Tower 120.

I haven't built a system in years so I haven't experience these new
cool items [pun] and when I started to tighten the heatsink thumbscrews, they easily bottomed out and shorted to the chassis.
Lucky me, I have an electronics backround and my initial gut feeling
was to take the DMM and check for shorts between the heatsink fins
and chassis and viola', there was one. I had to remove the heatsink,
bend the H-plate alittle, then reinstall with a gentler touch and don't
screw down so hard. Works fine, no shorts. The reading I got was
80 ohms on the E6750 chip.

These C2D chips are very nice and AMD better bring something to the party
to keep competition heathly so we can snag some killer deals later.
 
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