The Intel Q6600

[npsken]

I was about to order the Intel Q6600 from newegg when I read reviews about some people getting B3 while others are getting G0. Newegg says there is no way to tell which version will be shipped, and I have a couple of questions:

1.) What is the difference between B3 and G0
2.) If G0 is better, where is a good site I can order it where I can be guaranteed one?

Thanks
- Kenneth Powers

 

[imported_LoKe]

B3 and G0 have different thermal limitations. The B3 is in the lowe/mid 60's (61-65) whereas the G0 is said to handle temperatures of 71*C.

B3 is 130 Watts.
G0 is 95 Watts.

Basically, a B3 at 3.4GHz will run hotter than a G0 at 3.4GHz. This means, with a G0 you can overclock further without changing your method of cooling.

NewEgg will send you a G0, it's almost guaranteed that their stock of B3's is depleted.

 

[npsken]

Thanks.

 

[npsken]

One more question if anyone is still looking, what is a safe range to overclock this processor to with the stock fan and heatsink?

 

[BonzaiDuck]

1) It's not his fault -- we cannot be a walking encyclopedia of thermal specifications. I'm quite sure the Intel TDP on the Q6600 B3 is 110W or a tad less. [But it's still going to challenge your cooling solutiion, and it will be pushing above 130W with mild over-clocks.]

2) I'm running a ThermalRight Ultra-120-Extreme with motherboard ducting with my Q6600 B3 @ 3.2 Ghz/1.41VCore. At 78F room-ambient, the highest core temperature pushes to between 65 and 66C at full load. Last time I looked the TCASE temperature seemed to be about 9C lower than the core values, so figure TCASE was pushing 56C.

The B3 stepping is supposed to throttle at between 62C and 65C for TCASE.

You might be able to get it (the B3) to 3 Ghz with the stock cooler, but that's optimistic. When I first bought the B3 stepping, "happy customers" were talking of running it at multiplier 8 and 2.88 Ghz with the stock cooler.

The G0, from what I've seen on these forums, is worth about 200 Mhz higher over-clock than the B3 on various air-cooling setups. With an aftermarket cooler with very low thermal resistance, you may be able to OC to 3.4 Ghz -- maybe even more, but 3.4 seems to be common. Expect a limit lower than that if you use the stock heatsink and fan.

As for "safe limits" -- there are two factors: the voltage setting in relation to an Intel retail-box maximum spec (around 1.35V), and the temperature -- in connection to the throttling limit for TCASE. The voltage exponentially influences the temperature, but higher voltages by themselves make for greater stress in addition to thermal stress. Over-clockers tend to disable the thermal throttling feature, so this is critical. Of course, any increase in the CPU_FSB or "external frequency" -- needed to realize an over-clocked setting -- will stress the processor a bit more.

But I think you can see the constraints for what you want to do. some of us tend to think that a 5% in excess of the retail-box voltage is not very risky or "life-shortening." But if you want to over-clock, I really think you should shell out $50 for a good heatpipe cooler.

 

[BonzaiDuck]

PS LoKe, I could be wrong about that TDP spec, and should probably go back to the Intel site to check. We KNOW the spec for the E6600 is 65W. I thought for sure the Q6600 spec was 110, but it could just be as high as 130. After all, a Q6600 is a double-E6600.

 

[imported_LoKe]

Not sure where I got 130W.

B3 // 105W
G0 // 95W

 

[BonzaiDuck]

Guess my aging memory served me well, then.