So let's cut the BS. What is the best mobo for OCing a Q6600?

Pics not mine, but if I end up going with it that's how I'll try to do it up more or less. I figure if I can't buy an SE, I might as well trump it. I'm in the stage of trying to rationalize the $100 premium on top of the P5K. :D

Desktop took it upon itself to spontaneously reboot again. Woo! It was really screwy the first month, tolerably screwy but mostly solid for a few, now it's back to being psychotic. I tend to want my computer to stay on and do what I tell it to quickly and quietly. So I'm pretty certainly ordering something to replace it today. DFI boards are heavily tweakable, but not always as stable as I would like...


Oh, if for some reason anyone wants the DDR3 version of the Asus Blitz, Puget has 3 in stock.
 
Nabbed the Maximus Formula. Why? Uh...mostly the external CMOS reset button. Yeah, I know, $100 for a button?? But still, I figure it comes with a copy of STALKER (which I was about to pick up anyway), probably has a bit more headroom over the cheaper boards, support for PCI-E 2.0 in case whatever I replace my 8800 with wants it (plus maybe the increased power will help keep the current card stable)...yeah, I'm just rationalizing.

Most importantly, I want to rip off the stock cooling system and see if it's any better with Thermalright monstrosities and a watercooled northbridge. There isn't as much of a reason (excuse) to do this to the cheaper P35 boards, so I'd probably just swap it out and be done with it. Is it bad that I get more entertainment out of dismantling my hardware than I do from actually using it?
 
Sorry but I was a die hard asus fan back in the day...

Now all Asus is good for is releasing boards when the technology first comes out.. barely any revisions come out to fix any problems and support is pretty much null.

OC'ing capabilities are sub par and most will not last past a half a year before the board starts coming up with problems and can no longer maintain the settings.

You want easy mode, change few settings, blamo I'm OC'ing like a pro... except, not.. get an Asus.

You want a real OC board go with DFI... hard to tame but will ride faster than any of these other clown boards.

X38.. pshh.. even the P35 had more of a lifetime than the 38s.. for a second I thought the X48s were actually going to come out first.

PCI2.0.. hmm yeah I give it another few months to half a year to get going, by then X...68?

Bottom line, P35 right now is still giving the X38 a run for it's money and I've got all my bets on DFI.
 
I say eVGA 650i Ultra motherboard for clocking a Q6600. I'm a noob and can get it to 3.6GHz (400x9) easily. Prime95 stable. I can go to 3.7GHz, but I'm on aircooling and the temps skyrocket.

Plus it's like $75 ar.
 
tuksonrider said:
I say eVGA 650i Ultra motherboard for clocking a Q6600. I'm a noob and can get it to 3.6GHz (400x9) easily. Prime95 stable. I can go to 3.7GHz, but I'm on aircooling and the temps skyrocket.

Plus it's like $75 ar.
Click to expand...

I've used some of the other 600 series chipsets. The Ultra and the 650i SLI. I think those chipsets are severely under rated. Everyone is all over P35 and don't consider these excellent low priced alternatives.
 
for some reason 650i Ultra seems to fsb oc quads better than 650i SLI :confused:
 
RussianHAXOR said:
Price Gouging? I though newegg was bad for 300... but 500?! :eek:
Click to expand...

That's the DDR3 version, I suspect it just hasn't been updated recently. A quick google shows the Extreme is floating more around the $360-400 range.

msarp said:
DFI LanParty Dark P35-T2RS
Click to expand...

It's purty and it's fun but it's also a schitzophrenic bundle of surprise buttsecks, at least half of which is related to things they claim "working by design" on.

I've got an 18 hour all-STEM course load starting up in another two weeks, and a 19 hour one immediately after that, and so forth for another year or two after those. So I don't really want to be constantly trying to figure out what happy fun time my motherboard has dreamed up. Also, it will never have Penryn support - so while it might be a good pick for a new build right now given that the price has dropped below $100 and it's a heavy tweaker, it isn't particularly upgradeable.
 
If you don't mind the north bridge running just a few Deg c under the melting point of aluminum then go with one of the Asus P5K boards. I have a P5K-E and it has been running my Q6600 at 9x400 for a 3.6 clock for a bit over 2 weeks now non stop with over 3 days of orthos with zero errors.

One of the pluses is I have not needed the small 1500w space heater that I have needed in the past and my room is a toasty 76*F.
 
Nanan said:
If you don't mind the north bridge running just a few Deg c under the melting point of aluminum
Click to expand...

This trick still applies.

d2596vz2.jpg


Chipset cooling isn't usually necessary, but it does seem to make the nice motherboard behave better when you crank the FSB up to 9000.
 
ashmedai said:
That's the DDR3 version, I suspect it just hasn't been updated recently. A quick google shows the Extreme is floating more around the $360-400 range.
Click to expand...

No it isn't. The 780i SLI listed on their site is marked as being DDR 2 compatible. As far as I know, no DDR3 version of the 780i SLI chipset exists.
 
Dan_D said:
Holy crap! :eek:
Click to expand...

Hello HardOCP forum!

Yeah, the price is definitely up there. Supply is really bad right now. We had to work hard with XFX just to get 10 units, so we had to price them accordingly. We knew we wouldn't get more until the end of next week, so we had to do our best to keep them available as parts to those that wanted them, while keeping as many as possible for our full computer builds.

Unfortunately they still sold before even hitting out shelves, which really suprised us. So we're still stuck without more supply until next week! Pricing should equalize pretty quickly in 1-2 weeks as supply becomes better. Our XFX rep is telling us that we'll see supply improve at the end of next week. You'll see it immediately reflected in our pricing. We won't beat NewEgg I'm sure, but we'll at least be in the same ballpark.

Jon Bach - President
Puget Custom Computers
------------------------------------
http://www.pugetsystems.com
[email protected]
(888) 784-3872 x4 toll free
 
Dan_D said:
No it isn't. The 780i SLI listed on their site is marked as being DDR 2 compatible. As far as I know, no DDR3 version of the 780i SLI chipset exists.
Click to expand...

Whoops, I thought he was linking the Asus Maximus Extreme. No notation of the segway without following the link.

Actually, they have that one at $415, which isn't far off from parts-but-not-support shops like Directron etc.
 
Wshmaster0 said:
Sorry but I was a die hard asus fan back in the day...

Now all Asus is good for is releasing boards when the technology first comes out.. barely any revisions come out to fix any problems and support is pretty much null.

OC'ing capabilities are sub par and most will not last past a half a year before the board starts coming up with problems and can no longer maintain the settings.

You want easy mode, change few settings, blamo I'm OC'ing like a pro... except, not.. get an Asus.

You want a real OC board go with DFI... hard to tame but will ride faster than any of these other clown boards.

X38.. pshh.. even the P35 had more of a lifetime than the 38s.. for a second I thought the X48s were actually going to come out first.

PCI2.0.. hmm yeah I give it another few months to half a year to get going, by then X...68?

Bottom line, P35 right now is still giving the X38 a run for it's money and I've got all my bets on DFI.
Click to expand...

DFI are irrelevant until they can start getting their boards to market before the next chipset is about to launch.

they just can't compete with the big guns anymore and i really think they've had their day, of course you still get ppl who think their l33ter because they're running a DFI board which is no faster except in synthetic benchmarks which is probably the only reason they're still eeeking out a living.

i loved my 939 DFI boards but my Q6600 @ 3.9ghz seems happy enough under this POS X38 Asus board with my 2 3870's :)
 
Maybe to people that have to have the latest things right when they come out and pay a premium..

However there are enthusiasts too that like solid built parts for the price they pay.

The thing I don't understand is people who pay for these great boards not knowing a click about OC'ing except maybe copying a few bios settings and hoping that their rig will run stable for a few months before they come back on the forums posting problems about their rig. Then a half dozen retards who have the same problems because they have the same exact board.

But you know it's a lost argument to try to debate the 'best' board. It really comes down to the OC'er him/herself and the equipment they are using to OC with. The best tweaker/oc'er in my book is Oskar Wu and when he moved over to DFI, that's when their boards became simply amazing. "ES" equipment or not.. he knows his shit.
 
ashmedai said:
We have ways to make that not be a problem, bwahaha.

pict0137acopydy1.jpg


Okay, so I'd probably slap an MCW30 on the northbridge instead. Might not even put a fan on the southbridge, who knows! But I've already got everything except the MCW30 sitting around spare. :eek:
Click to expand...

Is that 2 thermalright heatsinks? I think i might go with a solution similar to this when i get my 680i back from rma so i dont burn it up again.
 
veedubfreak said:
Is that 2 thermalright heatsinks? I think i might go with a solution similar to this when i get my 680i back from rma so i dont burn it up again.
Click to expand...
Yes HR05 non SLI and non IFX with some 70x10mm alufan on them. Vreg area has TR HR09-Type2, one upright and one slant, with WC-block like Fuzion you can have 2 upright on there if you want.
 
Wshmaster0 said:
Maybe to people that have to have the latest things right when they come out and pay a premium..

However there are enthusiasts too that like solid built parts for the price they pay.

The thing I don't understand is people who pay for these great boards not knowing a click about OC'ing except maybe copying a few bios settings and hoping that their rig will run stable for a few months before they come back on the forums posting problems about their rig. Then a half dozen retards who have the same problems because they have the same exact board.

But you know it's a lost argument to try to debate the 'best' board. It really comes down to the OC'er him/herself and the equipment they are using to OC with. The best tweaker/oc'er in my book is Oskar Wu and when he moved over to DFI, that's when their boards became simply amazing. "ES" equipment or not.. he knows his shit.
Click to expand...

oskar wu is a master board engineer but we all know that already - i can see why extreme benchers still love DFI but for the avg guy who doesn't need to get GTL refs and memory tweaks to within an inch of their breaking point.....they're losing grip on the market.

you're dead right, there is no best board ...just good ones and avg->poor ones and most of the time you get the board suited to your requirements.

at the end of the day asus/abit/gigabyte are making great intel boards right now, you'll always get ppl who don't understand the art of overclocking and want instant gratification but that doesn't make an asus board shit does it.

apart from perhaps releasing too many boards i think asus have really upped their game in the last year or 2 - just my opinion.
 
mouawad said:
gigabyte {is} making great intel boards right now
Click to expand...

This is the part that still freaks me out. They used to be such utter crap.

Asus used to be great back around, I dunno, Athlon XP. Then their quality went sort of in a general downhill direction. They're back up to all around kicking ass now. DFI is waning.

It comes and goes...brand reputation will hold you in the short term, but it's too easy for companies to get complacent.
 
Odd no one has mentioned abit's IX38...

I've found it to be a very solid board.

No trouble at all out of it so far, easily took my q6600 to 3.6...

I really like it :)
 
I'm told Abit has slipped a bit, but I've actually never used any of their boards! :eek:

They're still probably pretty good. There are a lot of good choices, and a lot of this is up to playing with probabilities or which feature set you like best.
 
ashmedai said:
I'm told Abit has slipped a bit, but I've actually never used any of their boards! :eek:.
Click to expand...
They're actually on a bit of a roll atm with Intel boards (with many people rating their IP35 Pro as the best P35 chipset mobo) - have been for the last year or so.
Where they can't compete (due to their size) with Asus, Gigabyte & to a lesser extent MSI is in early access to Intel chipsets so they'll always be slightly behind them in development & release to market.
 
BUFF is spot on, abit were in a slump for awhile but they're right back as a player.

they don't have a huge selection of boards so they're more low profile i guess.
 
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