Upgrading, Need help regarding chipsets choice.

crazy.wingman

Senior member
Jan 5, 2011
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Which chipset go for Z68, Q67, P67, H67,H55

i want to buy intel sandy bridge 2600k. i'll be overclocking the cpu and i have a GTX 460 GPU from my old rig, which chipset to go for as i have no knowledge abt the new breed of intel chipsets.

What should i choose and why ? plz explain in detail. :)
 

dma0991

Platinum Member
Mar 17, 2011
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The chipsets that I did not mention here are not relevant to your needs and I won't be explaining about them.

P67
1. Able to OC provided that you have a K suffix SB processor.
2. IGP disabled
3. A good choice if you're looking for a 60GB/120GB SSD dedicated as the boot drive.
4. Cheaper

Z68

1. Able to OC provided that you have a K suffix SB processor.
2. IGP enabled and works with Lucidlogix Virtu to switch between IGP and discrete GPU.
3. Has Intel SRT which is good if you want a 60GB SSD as a cache for your HDD. Makes your HDD faster but a single SSD works faster on its own.
4. Slightly more expensive.

Whichever you choose it is your money but to me a P67 board is sufficient in this case because you have a GTX460. A P67 board can overclock just as well as a Z68 board, so the difference is that Z68 has more features than the P67 but the extra features may appeal to some but not all.
 

abekl

Senior member
Jul 2, 2011
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as dma said, the only two real choices on the intel side are P67 and Z68. I would add, however, that z68 is the chipset that is most current, and will likely support newer processors that come out in the future.
 

DaveSimmons

Elite Member
Aug 12, 2001
40,730
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Also, if this is for gaming, compare benchmarks of the i5-2500K and i7-2600K before spending the extra $100, most people decide it isn't worth it.
 

crazy.wingman

Senior member
Jan 5, 2011
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thanks a lot everyone, i will go for an p67 i guess. Have few questions more

Is 2600k IGP better than my GTX 460 ?
2500k or 2600k i dont mind but i need multithreading processor for rendering,editing as well for playing games.

What will be the exact difference or performance benefit if i upgrade my rig from my old ones ? my rig is in signature.
 

Binky

Diamond Member
Oct 9, 1999
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Z68 > P67 and the cost isn't much more. There isn't really a compelling reason to go for the P67.
 

BonzaiDuck

Lifer
Jun 30, 2004
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Z68 > P67 and the cost isn't much more. There isn't really a compelling reason to go for the P67.

Often, you might have found chipsets forthcoming on the first wave of new-socket processors. This may be sort of like buying a new car: "Don't buy a new model in the first year of production if it has new innovations that are significant departures from the old."

Z68 incorporates the best of both the H67 and P67 chipsets, overcoming the limits of both. Since the processor is "second-gen," the socket may only have appeared last year, but the first round of chipsets is past.

So for Z68 being new, it has a solid history of "evolution" behind it. Otherwise, I myself would not have taken the gamble at this point, looking to see a BIOS revision history and a set of "shortcomings" published by guinea-pig users on forums. This time -- I'M the guinea pig. And I'm still looking for trouble -- just haven't found it yet . . . .

I had one BSOD for letting the mobo-OC'ing software get away from me for a moment like a horse out of the corral. Two more from running a game twice after adjusting the VCORE offset in the wrong direction by an excessive increment.

Other than those "incidents" -- which I'd like to keep out of my OC'ing explorations altogether -- NADA.

But whatever mobo used -- among Z68's or P67's -- I think the features are rich and useful, but the Hot-Dawgs of the early OC'ing community have fed their impatience with insufficient or vague information about the processor. The best advice says "keep the VCORE at 1.30V or not much over." Under serious stress testing, you will find even with the auto-OC features of these motherboards (or at least the ASUS P8Z68-line) -- that an ongoing VCORE at stress may show 1.32V, but somewhere -- possibly in transition from load to idle -- it can spike momentarily as high as 1.37V. I'm beginning to think that the "safe" limit is below the "safe" limit of 45nm cores of two years ago which was ~1.37V

Unless your cooling solution actually makes it possible to use lower voltages to attain higher speeds, even coming close to 5.0Ghz should at least be tempered by the duration of running at those speeds and the sustained voltage at those speeds. Unless -- you want to give Intel more money . . . . [barring that you lie to them about your OC adventures when you ask for a warranty replacement . . . ]

I also don't think core temperatures should exceed 80C, and frankly, I plan to limit mine to <= 73C . . . .
 

crazy.wingman

Senior member
Jan 5, 2011
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ohh, i just want to OC 3.8 or max 4 with speed step and multithreading, that's it. If i plan to sell my Gtx 460 then will be using intel IGP for some days.
 

crazy.wingman

Senior member
Jan 5, 2011
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@ binky , why can't the p67 use IGP ? in india the P67 range is alot cheaper than Z68.

i want to buy an 2600k will it be ok if i use my old dominators with it/ can i get 2gb stick of dominator so as to dual channel it ?
 

Binky

Diamond Member
Oct 9, 1999
4,046
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H67 - can use IGP, motherboards have video outputs, can't overclock
P67 - can't use IGP, motherboards have zero video outputs, can overclock
Z68 - best of everything the H67 and P67 offer - can overclock, can use IGP