Q6600 motherboard recommendations

[tornadog]

Whats the most cost effective mobo solution to overclock the q6600 G0 to its max on air cooling(Enzotech Extreme-X Copper Forged Premium Heatsink). I want a non-SLI solution as I know those are cheaper and I dont intend on doing sli for now. Is there any sub-$100 motherboards out there that will be good for me.

 

[tomt4535]

The Abit IP35-e is highly regarded around here. There is a popular thread about it in this section with tons of good info about it.

 

[tornadog]

I was going thru the thread right after posting this...it looks like the one I want and for 60 bucks it looks like a steal.

 

[tornadog]

My current Asus P5n32-e SLI does not allow me to go 1 Mhz above 2700Mhz and I cant use 1203 bios as I have a razer copperhead mouse and it hangs at post using that mouse with that bios. So will I see any improvement with this mobo? Also my ram cant go above 800mhz, its a 2GB crucial ballistix ddr2 800 4-4-4-12 2.2V on this board

 

[Ratman6161]

Well, the UPS man visited my house last night with my latest stuff from NewEgg.comm. I got a Q6600, ABit-IP35-E (yup for $60 after rebate!) and 8 GB GSkill DDR2 800. I am totally amazed at how easy the build went. Everything fired up the first time with no problems at all. I installed Vista Enterprise 64 Bit - also without a hitch. After spending the last 10 years in the AMD camp, I am ever so glad I switched!

For the rest of the system, I migrated over my Tuniq tower 120, 7900GS, and 320 GB Seagate SATA2 drive from my previous build. 100% of the hardware, both on the motherboard and my other stuff, was recognized during install. Once again, I'm amazed and pleased.

All Ive installed so far is the OS, but I couldnt resist a quick OC experiment. Cranked the FSB up to 333 (1333) and reduced the memory multiplier to keep the memory at DDr2 800 and restarted at 3.0 GHZ at default voltage. NO stability testing yet, but even if I cant get higher than that, I just got a $1000 cpu for $239! Did I say I was pleased?

Anyway as to the ABIT board, the only thing thats a worry is the size of the north bridge heat sink. My Tuniq Tower fits, but only because the heat pipes are pretty long and the actual heat sink is pretty far above the motherboard. Even so, it only clears that north bridge heat sink byt a couple of millimeters. So I'd say becareful about what cooler you choose to use, unless you are looking for something after market for the north bridge.

 

[lopri]

DFI P35 Dark maybe?

 

[GarfieldtheCat]

DFI LT P35-T2R....no fancy heatpipe on the SB and NB, but 8 phase digital PWM and it clocks quad cores really well.

Oops....didn't see the <$100 part....then I would think of the Abit IP35

 

[tornadog]

really liking the bloodiron board, should i break down and spend double over the abit, is it worth it???

 

[lopri]

I would think so. Personally I wouldn't go too cheap on motherboard for quad-cores unless you plan to run at stock speed.

 

[Heidfirst]

Originally posted by: tornadog
really liking the bloodiron board, should i break down and spend double over the abit, is it worth it???

the blood iron's PWM section supposedly isn't too great for pushing the quads - sure that a few have expired.

 

[lurk3r]

Check http://forums.anandtech.com/me...=2168198&enterthread=y tonnes of well though out info in the thread I started.

Short story is the Abit is by far the best buy out there right now, and there's some sweet deals on memory at the egg

 

[tornadog]

I ended up going with the Abit, has too many good reviews especially from Q6600 owners. I have 2GB crucial ballistix pc2 6400, lets see if I can push it on this motherboard.