Intel Q6600 Best Price! + We have Genuine UK Distribution STOCK ! & SHIPPING

[ScottY_]

I would really likea G0, some guy on HardForums hit 3.6GHz on AIR at 50*C ish! crazy.

[Mad-Max]

Damm it scan it's now £168.00 inc.vat

[zpos]

That's a great price!

[bwgames]

It is! Second cheapest I've found ,but with free carriage, Scan are cheapest

[zpos]

I'm going to hold fire until the G0's arrive at Scan. I'm still deciding on my components so it's good that I have some time to do some research.

z

[IAmATeaf]

This is a similar situation to the Gigabyte version mobos isn't it? Scan place an order and Gigabyte or their supplier sends whatever they have in stock. Waiting is the only thing that people can do I'm afraid as if Scan don't have stock no amount of badgering is going to get you that G0 stepping.

[Phil_P]

This is a similar situation to the Gigabyte version mobos isn't it? Scan place an order and Gigabyte or their supplier sends whatever they have in stock. Waiting is the only thing that people can do I'm afraid as if Scan don't have stock no amount of badgering is going to get you that G0 stepping.

I haven't seen ANY G0 steppings available in the UK yet. There must be a lot of old B3 stock to clear first. I'm yet to see any real evidence the RETAIL G0 steppings out perform the latest B3 steppings which are doing good OCs with good cooling.

The Asus P5K motherboards are on offer this weekend too - may just be too good to pass up

[Defiant]

Iamareaf - please reread the end of the thread thanks, you may find its not about time or not having them in stock thanks.

Phil_P - As before we arent talking about this G0 stepping just cause it may clock better, its cause its a far better CPU stepping due to the reduction in thermal envolope from 115W to 95W. Overclocking is nice and all, but I want it mainly cause of its ability to say cooler.

[Phil_P]

Phil_P - As before we arent talking about this G0 stepping just cause it may clock better, its cause its a far better CPU stepping due to the reduction in thermal envolope from 115W to 95W. Overclocking is nice and all, but I want it mainly cause of its ability to say cooler.

Yep - I understand what you're saying, but this makes very interesting reading:

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...&postcount=152

just to introduce a teeny tiny bit of reality in the situation.

on release, teh Q6600 has a WORST SITUATION of 105W's. ok in intels case its a percentage of the actual theoretical maximum based on their "average" usage numbers. but thats a constant method/percentage anyway.

but 6 months ago, the worst chips about wouldn't break the 105W, they have to be a little conservative aswell so even the worst chips are unlikely to actually hit 105W on the dot. either way, the process becomes older, they find new ways to tweak yields up a little, quality of chips increases, the wattage decreases a little further with every little trick they find. over several months they get the wattage down , after 4 months a few chips but not many actually run with 95W, but still the worst ones are at 101W's. another few months later and the worst chips are doing 95W now. so what do they do, its time to remarket and rebrand, its their low cost quad core, dell and other people want to hit the sub 100W mark to go in cheaper computers so they call the new stepping G0 and its rated at 95W now.

not all use 95W, some are still better. but its not as if, they walk in one day and stay, stop production on those B3's all using 105W's, we'll use this brand new G0 at 95W. they simply change the numbers they put on the cpu after they hit the point where no more chips were over 95W. in all likelyhood the last month or two of b3's have mostly been sub 95W aswell.

Given that vcore isn't a static default value for these chips, but rather is hard coded on each chip as it's vid (1.10 - 1.372v) depending what voltage it requires to run stable at stock speeds, this argument makes a lot of sense.

So, if 1.372v = 105Watts, theoretically any chip with a vid corresponding to a maximum of 95Watts classifies as a G0 and it just appears that Intel's yield is such that all chips rolling off the production line now meet that specification.

For example, this guy has a vid of 1.2625v on his retail G0:
http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...3&postcount=72

vid = 1.2625v
http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...0&postcount=98

And here's one at 1.2750v from the same batch as above:
http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...9&postcount=56


And some recent B3's:

vid = 1.2750v
http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...2&postcount=62

vid = 1.3125v
http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...&postcount=148

I wonder if we can find some figures for early and recent B3's to see how they compare as that would help substantiate the argument.

EDIT: In theory, you could buy a B3 now and return it wanting a G0 and end up with a chip that's actually worse - ie, has a higher vid. It's a total lottery and purely depends on the chip you get as a good B3 could easily be better than a bad G0.

[IT Troll]

Incorrect .. it is completely different

Using the example you have used OC & XXX are different SKU's you can order these as separate products from the supplier..

Stepping codes you cannot order as separate SKU's from the supplier

OK, not a great comparision. But still, isn't there a need to distinguish the two steppings as the specifications have changed. Intel have said that the new steppings will probably require a BIOS update. What if a customer receives a G0 stepping and their motherboard doesn't support it (yet).

[Phil_P]

OK, not a great comparision. But still, isn't there a need to distinguish the two steppings as the specifications have changed. Intel have said that the new steppings will probably require a BIOS update. What if a customer receives a G0 stepping and their motherboard doesn't support it (yet).

That's a good question. My guess is it should probably work, but won't be identified correctly by the bios. I'd be surprised if you couldn't at least boot and flash to the latest bios as they're essentially the same chip.

[IAmATeaf]

Iamareaf - please reread the end of the thread thanks, you may find its not about time or not having them in stock thanks.

Phil_P - As before we arent talking about this G0 stepping just cause it may clock better, its cause its a far better CPU stepping due to the reduction in thermal envolope from 115W to 95W. Overclocking is nice and all, but I want it mainly cause of its ability to say cooler.

I had read all of the thread including the bit where Scan confirmed that even the most arrived stock was not G0. Scan reps have now said they will try after initially saying that they wouldn't check and separate stock so looks like some progress.

[mooney316]

In theory, you could buy a B3 now and return it wanting a G0 and end up with a chip that's actually worse - ie, has a higher vid. It's a total lottery and purely depends on the chip you get as a good B3 could easily be better than a bad G0.

The only thing stopping me from ordering my new rig was w8in for the G0, after finally picking it over the e6850. After looking at many different sources , im still confused whether to get the G0 or the B3. if im right, then the latest stock retailers receive which ARE B3 would most likely be pretty much as good as a G0. So i would therefore be better off getting this B3 or waiting for the G0?

[w3bbo]

Its hard to say whether the B3 batches are going to be on par with G0 or vice versa. Personally I am waiting for the G0's to arrive simply because I have a backup pc that I can use in the meantime and I am in no real rush to upgrade but I wouldn't hesitate to buy a B3 if it was for my sole pc as the differences don't seem big enough to warrant a long wait.

Look at it this way - the time you spend waiting for a G0 to give a potentially better overclock will be wasted as you will have already wasted the speed you gain by the initial wait for that particular batch to arrive when you could have had the use of QC for a few weeks already! Even when the G0's arrive en mass there is no gaurentee that it will indeed clock higher than a B3. There are alot of mixed reports on the net atm, some suggesting that the G0 is not all its cracked up to be (mainly the 6750/6650 C2D) while the 6850 (again C2D) is getting great overclocks. How this carries over to quad core no-one knows until more surface and not the odd few that are around atm.

[mooney316]

Cheers for the w3bbo. Well tbh, if i do get the q6600, i don't think ill go past the 3ghz mark. However now im contemplating getting a e6750 or 6850 till around jan 08 which is when the penryn chips will be available at an affordable price..

[Phil_P]

Cheers for the w3bbo. Well tbh, if i do get the q6600, i don't think ill go past the 3ghz mark. However now im contemplating getting a e6750 or 6850 till around jan 08 which is when the penryn chips will be available at an affordable price..

I would expect any recent B3 to easily to 3GHz, probably at stock voltages. If you want max OC (like 3.6GHz) or min temps, then you may stand a better chance with a G0, but that's not a given with any chip. For those aiming for more modest overclocks, 3-3.2GHz, I would say most any Q6600 should do that when paired with a decent MB, RAM, PSU and cooling.

To be honest, I think cooling will have more effect than the stepping revision. If you've not got good cooling, you're not going to get so much out of these chips regardless of the stepping.

I bought a Thermalright 120-Ultra extreme to go on mine, and the base is quite convex. If I stand it on a flat surface, I can actually spin the thing around like a spinning top! Now that's not going to make good contact over all four cores, so I'm going to lap it before installing it. With poor contact like that, it doesn't really matter if you've got a B3 or G0 - temps are going to be high and ultimately limit what the chip can do.