Q6600 Best Motherboard for Overclocking+

[matty-hodgson]

3.2ghz - nearly all should do that stock vaults
3.4ghz - some do
3.6ghz stock vaults - nah (and on air aswell )

quite lucky to get a 3.4 stock volt chip tbh..
i dunno how high mine can go.. my 680i bottlenecked it (or the RAM seeing as it wouldn't let me set it at 1:1 RAM:FSB..)
should be able to find out soon enough..

vaults?

[Blitzen]

vaults?

Its been a long day.

[matty-hodgson]

Its been a long day.

i'll let you off..
probably been working all day have ya?
bless..

[1NF3C710N]

With water cooling you can push them very hard but I don't water cool so no idea how hard it is and what kind of kit you would need to do it. Clunk has done similar things with his setup.

780/790i is very expensive for what it is. Do you honestly need to sli 9800GX2's What size screen do you play on?

i have a 24" tft and i'd love to push the res up to 1600(or more) on full (or just to be-able to full crysis on a high res), I'm wanting to buy a MB i wont beed to upgrade for a while (maybe a year1/2), as the MB will support 45nm & its a good overclocker - only at a later stage i'd like dual/sli GX2's.

going to order off overclockers either of these:
Maximus Formula SE - best Q6600 overclocker what i've read/seen (water cooling 4GHz).
XFX/EVGA 780i - not bad overclocker (3.7GHz max overclock around there) plus has SLI

what i read in CPC mag this month, was the 9800 GX2's don't need SLI chipset as they have it built into the cards but does this apply to have 2x GX's in SLI - or doesnt it matter?

[this_is_gav]

what i read in CPC mag this month, was the 9800 GX2's don't need SLI chipset as they have it built into the cards but does this apply to have 2x GX's in SLI - or doesnt it matter?

It's wrong. It requires a SLI board. The HD3870X2 should work on any PCI-e 16x slot on any board as it has its own bridging chip - the GX2 doesn't to my knowledge.

[jeffel]

What sort of ram do u use.Branded ones overclock well.When u overclock try not to overclock your ram.May be u can go higher upto 3.6ghz without any probs.

Review shows that most of the 780i mobo's are not worth it. There is no subsituite for a good DDR2 mobo at the moment.You will need DDR3 ram for the new mobo that u are going to upgrade.DDR3 ram has very slow timings hence i suggest u to get a good ddr2 mobo(asus p5k-e premium) with 1200mhz ram pc2-9600 and overclock it.

It's wrong. It requires a SLI board. The HD3870X2 should work on any PCI-e 16x slot on any board as it has its own bridging chip - the GX2 doesn't to my knowledge.

I dont think you are right mate.U can run 1 of these on any pci-e 16 x slot.If u need an SLI that is 2 x 1gb 9800GX2 u need an SLI mobo.

[Muska]

Screenshot. 3ghz without more volts, fine. 3.6? that's a bit high tbh

I thought so as well until i tried Stability tested only through one night though, will leave on orthos for the weekend. It's nice to see so many unbelievers How do i insert a jpeg? Don't use forums too often sorry...

[Muska]

I thought it was a pretty common problem with the P5K (or at least some of them) that the longer graphics cards (which the GX2 most certain is) block off two sata ports.

Computer hardware and software at amazing prices, available online from Scan Computers UK
you can see using this picture.. a double width card like the gx2 which comes off the end of the board will block ports. The abit PRO has angled connectors to avoid this.

Opened my case to take a look, and your're right, i would be a problem, but my p5k does have to angled sata cables so it should be all right, but I can't guarantee btw I will be getting myself a two slot graphics card probably GTS or maybe even old gtx if they keep droping in price so will try it on my own skin

[1NF3C710N]

What sort of ram do u use.Branded ones overclock well.When u overclock try not to overclock your ram.May be u can go higher upto 3.6ghz without any probs.

I dont think you are right mate.U can run 1 of these on any pci-e 16 x slot.If u need an SLI that is 2 x 1gb 9800GX2 u need an SLI mobo.

^^ i'm currently using, 'Corsair 2GB Dominator 6400 DDR2'

i'm gonna stick with DDR2 for now,

to run 1x 9800 GX2 you only need 1x PCI-e x16 slot thats all (any MB with x16). but if your running Quad SLI you'll need a 780i/790i chipset MB (jeffel your right, read up about it).

Looks like i'm getting a 780i (XFX) now - 780i chipsets can overclock Q6600 @ 3.8GHz (i've read if ur lucky - without watercooling).

[jeffel]

^^ i'm currently using, 'Corsair 2GB Dominator 6400 DDR2'

i'm gonna stick with DDR2 for now,

to run 1x 9800 GX2 you only need 1x PCI-e x16 slot thats all (any MB with x16). but if your running Quad SLI you'll need a 780i/790i chipset MB (jeffel your right, read up about it).

Looks like i'm getting a 780i (XFX) now - 780i chipsets can overclock Q6600 @ 3.8GHz (i've read if ur lucky - without watercooling).

Ya you should be able to reach 3.6ghz easily on most P35 motherboards.I m currently running Q6600 at 3.6ghz on an Asus p5K-E wifi AP.I could overclock it to 3.8ghz but keeps crashing.Not sure what a 780i mobo an do to it.Gud luk!

[-iceblade^]

Is 3.6 that easy to achieve? What's the lifespan of the chi[p at that speed? Cos if that's the case, then it could determine whether i work during these holidays to get the Quad and a 3870X2...

CrossfireX FTW

[this_is_gav]

It's easy if it will do it, but don't assume your chip does. Neither mine or staffsmikes (IIRC) won't go beyond 3.0GHz, mine on a Maximus Formula with a Thermalright Ultra Extreme!

[staffsMike]

The only one I had for a small time was a B3 but it wasn't mine. Got too hot when overclocking to bother doing anything.

My mates was running 3.8 with an ultra extreme but he has back peddled to 3.2GHz for temps and I'm guessing so he could run stock volts.

To be honest.. i've had my fling with serious overclocking and a Q6600 @ 3.0GHz is a weapon I've got my e6600 at 3.0GHz and i can't tell the difference between that and 3.6GHz which is what I've got it to with my freezer 7 pro.

[this_is_gav]

Yeah, apologies, it was s_kinton. I knew the user began with an S. Should have checked really.

The standard of the Q6600s certainly seemed to drop (at least some of the retail batch Scan were selling in Feb) - no idea if things have picked back up again.