Deciding between Q6600 and Q9300

[Foxery]

Preliminary numbers

Q9300 @ 3.00 ghz, 1.16volts, 66C hottest core
1xSMP Windows32 client
Project 2653
Min. Time / Frame : 8mn 32s - 2970.00 ppd
Avg. Time / Frame : 8mn 37s - 2941.28 ppd

 

[Foxery]

Got another 2653 WU (fahcore_a1)
Bumped up my speed to 3250mhz
Cur. Time / Frame : 8mn 08s - 3116.07 ppd

I'm a big fan of tripling my PPD compared to my old setup

 

[Assimilator1]

What was your old setup?

 

[Foxery]

Coming from an E6750 @ 3.4.

Q9300@3.25 wasn't stable, so I went back to 3.0. I caved in and ordered a Xigmatek heatpipe today, 120mm version.
Review here: http://www.frostytech.com/arti...iew.cfm?articleID=2233

 

[bryanW1995]

I ended up jumping on that $299 microcenter Q9450 deal. I'm resurrecting this b/c with the new seti@home optimized apps they have sse4.1 optimizations. I'd still get a Q6600 over a Q9300 today, but what about in a couple of months as prices get closer together? I have to admit that I really didn't think that sse4.1 would play much if any role in my near-to-mid-term buying decisions, but my 2 45nm quads are mowing through wu's like a john deere through 6" high bermuda...

 

[NicColt]

Originally posted by: biodoc
I am paying 17cents/kwh but it sounds like I need to think long and hard about "upgrading".

wow, I'm paying 5.5c/Kwh and 6.2c/Kwh if I go over 1000Kw/month and I though that was expensive.

 

[rbazinet]

Anyone here have knowledge of a motherboard that actually works with the Q9300? I have an Asus P5W DH Deluxe with 2704 firmware and it does NOT work. I have cleared the CMOS and I get a CPUID error when boot. I am consider replacing this mobo but don't want to buy another headache.

-Rob Bazinet

 

[bryanW1995]

IP 35 E and ip 35 pro work just fine with 45nm quads. I have a q9450 in one and an x3350 in another. They're the same chip as Q9300 only with double the cache and +.5 multiplier. Foxery has a Q9300 that worked with his ip35e straight out of the box, too. welcome to the forums!

 

[Foxery]

rbazinet, I looked up some info on your board and sent details in a PM. Asus claims it should work...

Looks like I never added to this thread because I posted in the CPUs & Overclocking forum -- my chip maxes out at 3.4 GHz with the new cooler. My Folding@Home points went BOIIIING!

 

[rbazinet]

Thanks bryanW1995 and Foxery for the replies and help.

I did plenty of research on my board before PM'ing you or posting on the forums and yes, Asus said it should work but it doesn't.

I did use the AsusUpdate to update my bios though and it is not corrupted, I guess I got lucky. I tried resetting all of my bios settings and now with the Q9300 in place the system just tries to get past post but never does, it just shuts down. So, at this point I don't get the cpuid message, it just shuts down and the cpu seem pretty hot.

I may just buy an Abit board and not worry about the Asus. It seems the Asus always has some little caveat as to why it doesn't work. I have yet to chat with anyone who has the Asus I have and has the Q9300 and has it working.

 

[bryanW1995]

what is the rest of your system? hd/case/mobo/psu/memory/cpu cooler/vid card/etc. look at my signature for an example of what we need. This is probably a psu/other problem rather than a mobo problem.

in fact, I think that you should post this problem with your system specs in general hardware or cpus/overclocking.

 

[bryanW1995]

sorry, I didn't know that's a 975 mobo. If it DOES work with a 45nm quad it will be the only 975 mobo that I know of that I've actually seen a live person use with one.

 

[rbazinet]

I have a Antec case, P180, 850w PS (Antec IIRC), Radeon 1650XT, 4G Corsair XMS2 DDR2, Freezer Pro7. I am not into the overclocking hobby or anything, this is just a system I built for my home office.

I am not looking to tweak this or that to get it to work either, I just want a system that works and is configurable if I want to play around with OC.

 

[Foxery]

Exactly how far does the system get? i.e. do you see the POST screen, with the correct CPU identified? Can you get into the BIOS and check settings for anything out of the ordinary?

 

[rbazinet]

I get to the post screen and it says the cpu is 2000mhz, not sure what is says the model is. I was ONCE able to get into Vista but it blue screened. After that it gets to the post screen and then shuts off, yes, just powers off.

I am thinking this mobo won't do it but was hoping someone had already done it. Yes, it is 975. The Abit is a 965, right?

 

[rbazinet]

Oh almost forgot. I can get into the bios and it says it has 4 cores but the speed is incorrectly identified in there too, 2000mhz.

 

[bryanW1995]

you probably need to flash the bios to the latest version. do it via a floppy before the computer can get to windows. if you already have the latest bios, look for more recent beta bioses. if that doesn't work, try a clean install of windows.

 

[Foxery]

Our Abit IP35 (E/Pro/vanilla) are the P35 chipset. This came out more recently than the 965/975. The X38 and X48 are the newest.

Gigabyte also makes a very similar board if you are shopping. I think it's the GIGABYTE GA-P35-DS3, with several models with extra features. There's also a DS4 which may be an updated version, and there are some X38-based boards which use DDR2 instead of DDR3 RAM.

Just be careful with that credit card if you're thinking about all these ugprades. You could simply get a trusty Q6600 and be done with it.

 

[Assimilator1]

Originally posted by: bryanW1995
you probably need to flash the bios to the latest version. do it via a floppy before the computer can get to windows. if you already have the latest bios, look for more recent beta bioses. if that doesn't work, try a clean install of windows.

Safer, quicker & probably more convenient to do it off of a flash drive .

 

[bryanW1995]

yeah, I, um, still have a floppy drive in both of my quads... who needs usb when you have floppy.

 

[Assimilator1]

Heheh, I still had a floppy drive with my Quad until I changed the case some months back, I still used a flash drive over the FDD though . Some manufacturers actually tell you not to use a FDD too (presumably because of the risk of corruption).
And like I said flash drives are much quicker , not to mention no chance of a floppy dieing on you part way through ,not that it ever happened to me during an update but it certainly did before on many occasions.