Is it worth waiting for P45?

[Cogman]

I am wondering if it is worth the wait for wide implementation of the P45. Right now my overclocking capabilities are essentially 0. I know I'm not CPU limited because my Brother-in-law whom I got the CPU from was able to overclock it to 3.6 (from 2.4) with a minor voltage increase.

I, on the other hand, struggle to get to 2.7, with fair voltage increases (I'm not comfortable going higher). Right now I am at default.

The other CPU I had before this one was able to hit 3.0 GHz but was slowly dieing off, now I suspect it was more the motherboards problem and less the CPU's.

So what do you think, wait for another month or so and get a P35 or P45? My logic is that with the release of the P45 we should start to see some price drops and rebates on P35 boards.

 

[akhilles]

Instead of dumping money on a new mobo, maybe consider a good o/c'ing cpu?

 

[toadeater]

You think the N650-DS4 is a piece of crap? It should overclock very well. Maybe you need more cooling? Check your temps on the Northbridge especially.

Anyway, P45 isn't really worth it except for possibly improved quad-core overclocking. P35 will overclock a good dual-core well past 4GHz requiring you to buy watercooling, so I think it'd be enough for what you want to do.

 

[Cogman]

Originally posted by: toadeater
You think the N650-DS4 is a piece of crap? It should overclock very well. Maybe you need more cooling? Check your temps on the Northbridge especially.

Anyway, P45 isn't really worth it except for possibly improved quad-core overclocking. P35 will overclock a good dual-core well past 4GHz requiring you to buy watercooling, so I think it'd be enough for what you want to do.

Yes, I have not been impressed by the Nvidia chipset. Right now I have a Q6600, and as I said before, my brother-in-law got it up to 3.6 easy. Considering we have the same power supply but different motherboards I am left to concluded that my motherboard was poor.

Not only that, but I haven't seen a whole lot of other people jump on the Nvidia based motherboard, that in itself seems to suggest it wasn't a wise purchase.

As far as temps go, I have a ThermalRight Ultra Extreme with a 40 CFM 120mm fan and Artic Silver past on the bottem. CoreTemp reports me at 55 (average) load.

 

[Quiksilver]

Didn't the nForce 600 series have a terrible vDroop so you would have to set it a little over 1.45 to get it to be about 1.4 in windows?

 

[Heidfirst]

Originally posted by: Cogman

Yes, I have not been impressed by the Nvidia chipset. Right now I have a Q6600, and as I said before, my brother-in-law got it up to 3.6 easy.

not the board per se it's the chipset - put a dual in it & it'll be fine but with a quad you'll be lucky to get mid 300s fsb.

 

[Cogman]

Originally posted by: Heidfirst

Originally posted by: Cogman

Yes, I have not been impressed by the Nvidia chipset. Right now I have a Q6600, and as I said before, my brother-in-law got it up to 3.6 easy.

not the board per se it's the chipset - put a dual in it & it'll be fine but with a quad you'll be lucky to get mid 300s fsb.

And it did do ok with a dual core (was able to get 3.0 GHZ). However, not with a quad core.

(Ok, I realize its the chipset as Gigabyte doesn't have a horrible record with OCing motherboards)

I choose the Nvidia chipset because once upon a time NVidia was the De facto standard for overclocking, I guess I was just out of the loop for too long .

Hence my question, should I wait for the P45 Chipset, or are P35s about as low as they are going to get? Or is a P45 going to be worth it for overclocking my Quad Core?

 

[boomhower]

What do you want out of the motherboard. There are plenty in the $130 range that would work fine to OC a quad. When P45 is released I don't expect a huge increase in performance and I won't be surprised if you can't find one for less than $200 for a while.

 

[Cogman]

Originally posted by: boomhower
What do you want out of the motherboard. There are plenty in the $130 range that would work fine to OC a quad. When P45 is released I don't expect a huge increase in performance and I won't be surprised if you can't find one for less than $200 for a while.

Mostly I just want to get to 3.0 GHz stable, anything extra is a bonus for me. There isn't a whole lot beyond that I need. I have a sound card, PCI video card, fairly decent Powersupply, and only 2 hard drives (SATA and PATA).

Perhaps linux compatibility would be on the list, but linux has grown enough that now-a-days most motherboards are fully supported.

I don't have a high demands.

 

[toadeater]

Originally posted by: Cogman
And it did do ok with a dual core (was able to get 3.0 GHZ). However, not with a quad core.

Yeah, I didn't realize you were trying to run a quad core on it. The 650i chipset was great for dual-cores as long as the northbridge was kept from overheating.

 

[jdkick]

You'd be fine with the P35. Maybe hold off a few weeks to see if discussions re: upcoming price cuts are realized. As for the P45, time will tell with respect to over clocking and linux compatibility. I seem to recall early issues with linux and 3-series chipsets/associated ICH components.