Best motherboard for an overclocked Q6600 rig

[Phantomaniac]

For my next build, I would be looking for a solid mid-range motherboard capable of good Q6600 overclocks. The main contenders I have been looking at are the Gigabyte P35-DS3R, the Abit IP35, and the DFI Blood Iron. I believe the Gigabyte has 6-phase power regulation, whereas the Abit and DFI only have 4-phase. What sort of difference would this make in overclocking stability?

 

[Heidfirst]

you can't judge purely on the no. of phases alone as it also depends upon the quality of components & of course overall design too.

 

[TheBeagle]

Good Evening Mr. PhantoMan.

That's pretty good advice from Heidfirst. However, since the new X38 boards have begun to appear (my GA-X38-DQ6 board arrived today), may I suggest that you wait a bit longer until the mid-range boards utilizing that X38 chipset begin to arrive in a month or two.

Presuming you want some longevity from your new rig, the X38 boards will provide you with the best chance for that. However, I have been using Gigabyte boards for some time now, and their voltage regulation and filtering is quite good. That's not to say that other board manufacturers don't have quality products as well, but I'm partial to the GB boards right now.

A new build ought to have at least 4GB of DDR2 1066 RAM or an equivalent amount of good quality DDR3 sticks. The X38 will handle a Q6600 in OC very well, and you ought to be able to get at least a 30-35% stable OC with the right components. Vista 64 and a 150 GB Raptor for a primary system drive are pretty basic as well.

Best of luck with your new build. I am presuming that you will be leaving your present rig "as is" and basically starting from scratch, since most of your present components will be incompatible with a new X38 chipset board. Best regards. TheBeagle :beer: