Upgrading a CPU, no fuss, no muss.

[Captain Picard]

Hey everyone, my old Q6600 is about to eat through it's second motherboard, and I can't keep my computer stable in day to day use regardless of CPU, RAM, FSB clocks, voltages, etc. A few months ago, I purchased a new case, and when I was installing my parts into the new case, I noticed that the PCB around the CPU socket was turning brown. The first socket 775 mobo I had died the same way with this CPU.

Anyway, I'm eyeballing the Ivy Bridge i5 CPUs, and my vendor of choice is Newegg. Right now, the i5 3450S and the 3570(non K) are the two I have in mind. There's a promo code going right now for the 3570 that makes them equal price, and I've decided that my days of endless tinkering and overclocking are done with. I just want to boost the CPU up to the multiplier cap, and not worry about whether it's actually stable, or if the mobo will burn up a few years down the road.

Now, I realize most of you will tell me that the obvious choice is the 3570, but the low voltage aspect of the 3450S intrigues me. Should it intruigue me at all, or should I just go for a guaranteed extra 300Mhz?

System specs are as follows:
Q6600 CPU
Some Biostar P45 mobo
8GB DDR2 800 RAM
Gigabyte GTX 460 GPU
Corsair HX750 Power Supply
Corsair H50 CPU cooler

Primary usage of my PC is for games. Thanks in advance for the tips!

 

[Yuriman]

Hey everyone, my old Q6600 is about to eat through it's second motherboard, and I can't keep my computer stable in day to day use regardless of CPU, RAM, FSB clocks, voltages, etc. A few months ago, I purchased a new case, and when I was installing my parts into the new case, I noticed that the PCB around the CPU socket was turning brown. The first socket 775 mobo I had died the same way with this CPU.

Anyway, I'm eyeballing the Ivy Bridge i5 CPUs, and my vendor of choice is Newegg. Right now, the i5 3450S and the 3570(non K) are the two I have in mind. There's a promo code going right now for the 3570 that makes them equal price, and I've decided that my days of endless tinkering and overclocking are done with. I just want to boost the CPU up to the multiplier cap, and not worry about whether it's actually stable, or if the mobo will burn up a few years down the road.

Now, I realize most of you will tell me that the obvious choice is the 3570, but the low voltage aspect of the 3450S intrigues me. Should it intruigue me at all, or should I just go for a guaranteed extra 300Mhz?

System specs are as follows:
Q6600 CPU
Some Biostar P45 mobo
8GB DDR2 800 RAM
Gigabyte GTX 460 GPU
Corsair HX750 Power Supply
Corsair H50 CPU cooler

Primary usage of my PC is for games. Thanks in advance for the tips!

The chips are from the same assembly line, you can get the same voltage out of the 3570. Get whichever is cheaper, or opt for the 3570 if you want those extra mhz which you *can't* get from the 3450S.

 

[Zardnok]

Sounds like your problems have more to do with cheap mother-boards than Over-clocking itself. Invest in a decent quality motherboard, Asus, Gigabyte, Asrock, MSI, and go for the 3570. I would still pick up the K-version as it will provide future options and much higher re-sale for not much more money.

What stepping is your old Q6600? My cousin is looking for one to upgrade his old C2D rig.

 

[Captain Picard]

The two socket 775 boards I've used were both cheap boards, yes. Orignially, my PC was a budget build with one of those cheap, low cache C2Duo CPUs that people used to overclock the heck out of. Unfortunately, neither board handled a modestly overclocked C2Q over a long period of time. The Q6600 is a B stepping chip, according to CPUz. The B stepping and sanded IHS were why I was able to get it so cheap from the previous owner. Not really enthused about selling it over the web, as I don't use paypal or the like.

Anyway, I think it's definitely a shoe in for the 3570. I realize there's a lot of potential in the K version, but reaching that potential pretty much requires that I get a new, expensive CPU cooler, and spend time tinkering. I've got bigger fish to fry in my life these days, so I want to get something that I don't have to put time into.

Thanks for the tips, folks!

 

[rickon66]

$20 to $30 bucks for a Cooler Master 212+ or EVO and you are set for cooling and buying a super cheap board that requires replacement in a year or two is false economy. As far as time goes, overclocking a K version requires all of 5 minutes or less. Good Luck in your quest.

 

[Denithor]

Here's a monkeywrench to consider:

Xeon E3-1230V2 (3.3/3.7GHz, Hyperthreading enabled, no iGPU, 69W, $233)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819117286

Fully compatible with this ASRock B75M board ($72.50):
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813157313
http://www.asrock.com/mb/cpu.asp?Model=B75M

 

[MustangSVT]

Here's a monkeywrench to consider:

Xeon E3-1230V2 (3.3/3.7GHz, Hyperthreading enabled, no iGPU, 69W, $233)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819117286

Fully compatible with this ASRock B75M board ($72.50):
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813157313
http://www.asrock.com/mb/cpu.asp?Model=B75M

Can you at least up the max turbo boost with those chips and mobo combo?

looks interesting.

 

[tweakboy]

Sounds like your problems have more to do with cheap mother-boards than Over-clocking itself. Invest in a decent quality motherboard, Asus, Gigabyte, Asrock, MSI, and go for the 3570. I would still pick up the K-version as it will provide future options and much higher re-sale for not much more money.

What stepping is your old Q6600? My cousin is looking for one to upgrade his old C2D rig.

LMAO! that's what I was gonna say...

 

[Captain Picard]

Here's a monkeywrench to consider:

Xeon E3-1230V2 (3.3/3.7GHz, Hyperthreading enabled, no iGPU, 69W, $233)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819117286

Fully compatible with this ASRock B75M board ($72.50):
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813157313
http://www.asrock.com/mb/cpu.asp?Model=B75M

Hmmm, this is a monkeywrench indeed. I definitely like the idea of a CPU with hyperthreading, and this one is very close in price to the i5s I've been looking at. I take it that only some of the B75 chipset boards support these CPUs, then? Maybe I can find a list of compatible boards that someone has put together. Or perhaps I can throw down $300+ on a true-blue server board, just to make sure I don't end up with the dreaded "cheap" motherboard. I should be ok if I spend more on the board than I do on the actual CPU, right??

 

[Meghan54]

The two socket 775 boards I've used were both cheap boards, yes. Orignially, my PC was a budget build with one of those cheap, low cache C2Duo CPUs that people used to overclock the heck out of. Unfortunately, neither board handled a modestly overclocked C2Q over a long period of time. The Q6600 is a B stepping chip, according to CPUz. The B stepping and sanded IHS were why I was able to get it so cheap from the previous owner. Not really enthused about selling it over the web, as I don't use paypal or the like.

Anyway, I think it's definitely a shoe in for the 3570. I realize there's a lot of potential in the K version, but reaching that potential pretty much requires that I get a new, expensive CPU cooler, and spend time tinkering. I've got bigger fish to fry in my life these days, so I want to get something that I don't have to put time into.

Thanks for the tips, folks!

If it was me buying, I'd buy the 3570K cpu, an AsRock Z77 Extreme4 motherboard, a Hyper 212+ cpu cooler (as noted above), OC it a tad and live happily.

The nice thing about the mid-level AsRock and Asus motherboards is both have settings in the BIOS to set the cpu at a higher cpu level (Level Up is what it's called)...it's essentially a preset motherboard configuration for overclocking the cpu. Yours I'd use the 4.4GHz level up, so you'd be OC'ing to 4.4GHz with a single setting change in the BIOS.

Then set your memory profile to the memory's XMP profile, and outside the mundane BIOS setting you'd have to set---boot drive order, enabling/disabling various ports, hardware (LAN, sound, etc.), you're good to go.


And the AsRock Z77 Extreme4 is only $135 from Newegg, a very attractive price for a solid motherboard.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813157293

 

[Binky]

The thread title makes no sense. You're upgrading to an entirely different platform and most of your existing gear will be replaced. That's lots of fuss and muss.

Get a quality motherboard, a K CPU, and run a mild overclock. You won't have any issues. Your previous problems point to something wrong with the existing 6600 CPU, or just crappy motherboards. I've never seen a motherboard discolor.

 

[Denithor]

The ASRock board is the only 'consumer' level board I could find with support for this chip. I was only looking at the mATX boards though, there might be others out there.

I think this board would be just fine, although it's definitely a 'budget' board. All solid capacitors, I doubt you'll have many problems with it. Not an overclocking board of course but you won't be doing that with this chip anyway.

The real advantages are lower power consumption (no iGPU) and Hyperthreading support. You lose the ability to overclock in exchange. So you'll have to decide if it's a worthy trade-off.

 

[minitron]

If you decide to go with locked Xeon you can get a P75 board for ~$65. You won't have to go through the trouble of overclocking.

This is essentially a stock i7 IB.