Q6600 OC

[airbornflght]

Ok.

Fixing to order my new computer and I am all but dead set on the Q6600, but I need a little guidance on the motherboard. I already have the thermalright SI-128 SE cooler. So I'm only missing one piece of the puzzle. I'm looking to get oc'd as much as possible but stability is the biggest issue second to cost. I don't really have a budget set in stone, but lets just keep it around $110-$120 give or take.

[mmonnin]

Probably most people will suggest A gigabyte board or one of the Asus boards. If you want to OC and dont need anything else there is always the Abit version of the Intel P35 chipset.

[Thrax]

If you want to OC and don't need anything else, the DFI BloodIron is a better option than anything from Abit.

[airbornflght]

If you want to OC and don't need anything else, the DFI BloodIron is a better option than anything from Abit.

what do you mean by "don't need anything else"? Is there some secret purpose of motherboards that I don't know about?

[Thrax]

Uh, integrated peripherals?

[Leonardo]

If you want to OC and dont need anything else there is always the Abit version of the Intel P35 chipset.If you want to OC and don't need anything else, the DFI BloodIron is a better option than anything from Abit.Not so sure about that, but the Bloody 9 Iron does have very good reviews. But of course, I guess overclocks on the Abit IP35-E to 3.5GHz, full load, 24/7, on air are just piddly diddly. (see signature -- only thing holding back 3600 is cooling) :wink:

The point being made about the IP35-E is that it does not have raid and second PCI-3 video card slot. The MOSFET, northbridge, and southbridge heatsinks aren't copper, but mere aluminum.

Right now, the most popular lower cost Socket 775 boards for overclocking Q6600s are the Asus P5K/E, Gigabyte P35-DS3, and Abit IP35/Pro/-E. BTW, there's quite a price spread among those boards. In all the fairness, the Abit IP35-E does have some quirks, but are mostly solved with a BIOS update.

[Thrax]

The BloodIron can do 3.5, but it does one thing that the IP35 can't: 500HMz FSB. ;) It's not all about clockspeed.

[muddocktor]

Whatever board you decide to go with, be sure to get a board with a P35 or X38 chipset, so you can maximize your quad core overclocking and have Penryn support. I'm just about to upgrade my "old" ;) P5W DH dlx board with the Gigabyte X38 DQ6 on my main rig myself for Christmas. And I will be upgrading a Seti rig to a Gigabyte P35 DS3L in a day or so too, but it will only be running an E4400 in it and not another quad. I'm holding out for the affordable Penryn quads next year for my next one.

[Leonardo]

The BloodIron can do 3.5, but it does one thing that the IP35 can't: 500HMz FSB. ;) It's not all about clockspeed.Point 1: yes, I believe you are correct. Point 2: For Folding@Home it IS all about clock speed. The highest FSB I've run on either of my IP35-Es is 438. I have not tried any higher yet. I've just lapped CPUs and heatsinks. There may be higher clocks in the next few days now that CPU vCore temps are down a little. 500 FSB? I don't know, but I doubt it. :tongue:

Maybe it's a moot point now. I just looked at Newegg (was going to comment at how affordable the IP35-E is) and did not find the board. They have the IP35-V now, but I don't know enough about it to comment.Whatever board you decide to go with, be sure to get a board with a P35 or X38 chipset Amen

[mmonnin]

If you want to OC and don't need anything else, the DFI BloodIron is a better option than anything from Abit.

For something cheap with no frills the Abit will do. I didn't mean top end OC, I meant cheaply OC with other mid range parts and not bleeding edge, bend over and open your wallet OC.

[Leonardo]

cheaply OC with other mid range parts and not bleeding edge, bend over and open your wallet OCAh there we go. That could be a title for an upcoming motherboard review!

[Thrax]

For something cheap with no frills the Abit will do. I didn't mean top end OC, I meant cheaply OC with other mid range parts and not bleeding edge, bend over and open your wallet OC.

The BloodIron is $108. I wasn't suggesting spending a fortune.

[muddocktor]

The only problem I have with the BloodIron is the fact that DFI won't warrantee their board if you remove their northbridge heatsink, even if it's only to replace the stock TIM with something better such as AS5. That's kind of chicken**** IMO, especially since the northbridge sink is kind of marginal for very high fsb overclocking.

I got the P35 DS3L up and running this afternoon on the Seti rig. I presently just have it set at 320 X 10, looking for this Allendale's max sweet spot and I think that 3200 MHz will be close to it's highest sweet spot. To go from 3100 to 3200 I had to jack the vcore up from 1.35 to 1.39 v loaded. The board had quite a bit of vdroop as I have it set in bios to 1.4375 vcore for it to settle at 1.39 v. Other than that, the DS3L looks to be a decent board for a cheap, overclockable board so far. I will be trying to lower the multi and up the fsb speed later on but I imagine that I will have to do a 1066 padmod to the proc in order to overclock the fsb high with this E4400 (like all the other 200 fsb C2D's I know of).

[Thrax]

Nobody warranties a NB job.