Which P35 motherboard to get? So many....

[lektrix]

Thinking of buying an bargain beater e6420 used for $100 (comes with 2.13ghz & 4mb cache).....it's considerably one of the fastest intel c2ds out there for an amazing price....comparing it to an e6600 for $150 or an e6550 for $180, there's a lot of value to be had for only $100 and if the e6420 can OC to 3.5-4ghz, that's even more amazing!

So my question is, is it possible to OC the e6420 (2.13ghz & 8x multiplier) to at least 3.5ghz?

And what motherboard (~$150 budget please) and RAM should I buy to help me achieve that? Stock e6420 is on 266mhz x 8 so to hit 3.5ghz I'd need to bump up FSB to 450mhz or so which is quite challenging these days right?

Thanks for all the suggestions!



ECS P35T-A (6xSATA, 1xeSATA) - $101.52
Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3L (4xSATA) - $91.25
Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3R (8xSATA) - $131.57
Abit IP35-E (4xSATA) - $119.37
ASUS P5K-SE (4xSATA, 1xeSATA) - $109.18
ASUS P5K (6xSATA, 2xeSATA) - $130.99
ASUS P5K-C (6xSATA, 2xeSATA, DDR3 support) - $135
(all prices in CAD)

 

[MarcVenice]

Quite challenging indeed. As far as I know the p5k from asus manages to reach the highest FSB, slightly higher then the gigabyte ds3r. Both are below 150$. As for the ram, I'd say ddr2 800mhz crucial ballistix. Those ram modules 'should' overclock to 850-900mhz without to much hassle, maybe at the expense of 4-4-4-12 to 5-5-5-15. But, the vcore that cpu will need to run at 3.5ghz will be quite high, IF the cpu can run that high at all. I know a friend of mine with a e6420 that had it at 3.5ghz, but he did run into trouble with it. He did manage to run it fairly savely using high-end air cooling though. I'd say you can do 3.2ghz pretty much gauranteed, any higher and you'll have to depend on lady fortune.

 

[SerpentRoyal]

$61 AR Abit IP35-E can easily hit 480MHz FSB. I would not buy a used CPU when a new E4400/E4500 is just a little more $. All C2D chips are based on the same design. Most will do 3.2GHz with a few up to 3.6GHz. Avoid 8x multi CPUs. Too much stress on MB, RAM, and CPU.

 

[PCTC2]

check out my sig. sure, its a E6400 B2 so it's a little easier to overclock, but I got it to 3.733GHz MAX, and it was stable @ 3.49 GHz (436*8) 1.49v~1.45v. And that was on a pretty crappy 680i-AR. I haven't pushed it on its new home, the Abit AW9D-975X because I'm having trouble flashing a new BIOS to overclock it, but I'm sure I'll at least get 3.4 GHz out of it.

And to the questions: (EDIT):
1) Abit IP35-E or Asus P5K.
2) Crucial Ballistix 2x1GB DDR2-1066 $123 @ mWAVE.

 

[Ika]

Mine can't do more than 3.4ghz, so it's definitely a YMMV.

 

[lektrix]

thanks.

is the ip35-e / p5k the best for OCing in the $150 range?

 

[lektrix]

?

 

[jonmcc33]

Considering that the IP35-E doesn't cost $150?

Once you go over 3GHz does it really matter anymore?

 

[bryanW1995]

ds3p is a strong oc'ing board in the 150 range. I believe that you can get ip 35 pro for 150 now, however, which is a steal imho.

http://www.clubit.com/product_...il.cfm?itemno=A4841007

149.99 shipped at clubit. That's an unbelievable deal on that mobo. it's 168 at newegg. I know that it's hard to put a lot of stock in newegg reviews, but they usually have a lot of bad things to say about mobos. check out what they have to say about ip 35 pro:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16813127030

 

[nubian1]

Well I have an E6420 clocked at 3.4Ghz stable on my Asus P5K Vanilla and it's very fast. I could go higher but the blasted P5K Vdroop and the non-working Vdamper bios option in the P5K Vanilla's bios limit what I can do. The 6420 paired with a high clocking board is wicked!!

 

[hans007]

thats pretty tough with the bus speed...


a lot of people got e6600s to 3.5-3.6 though so i suppose its possible.

 

[lektrix]

"Armed with a Thermaltake Big Typhoon and some Corsair PC-10000 modules I was able to get the ASUS P5K Deluxe WiFi-AP Edition to a rock solid 505MHz FSB. Simply put overclocking this board is child?s play. I made very few adjustments in order to reach these speeds. The P5K is an overclocking noobie?s best choice from what we have seen lately. Beginners and seasoned enthusiasts alike can enjoy outstanding overclockability with minimal tuning effort. Here are some screenshots below for your viewing pleasure."

And what about the 680i? "Overclocking-wise, NVIDIA make a big deal that CPU bus clocks can be raised to at least 500MHz out of the box with Core 2 Duo on this board. 500MHz is almost a mythical number in overclocking circles, with many boards struggling to get near, or falling just short. So being able to hit 500MHz easily without board mods and with unlinked memory frequencies is a big deal. A Really Big Deal?, etc.

So we did nothing other than set 2000MHz bus frequency (the BIOS deals in the effective frequency) and 6x on our Core 2 Duo, and rebooted. No voltage adjust for anything, or change of settings, or otherwise."

 

[SerpentRoyal]

Only problem is that you have to pay 2x the price for the MB and 5x the price for RAMs. Very few C2D chips can hit 4.0GHz under Orthos with the BT. A good E2160/E2180 can hit 3.5GHz at 1/2 the price of E6xx0. Combine this chip with $61 Abit IP35-E, $20 HP DDR2 667 RAM and you'll have a lot more $ in the bank for the next generation 45nm Quads!

 

[lektrix]

Originally posted by: SerpentRoyal
Only problem is that you have to pay 2x the price for the MB and 5x the price for RAMs. Very few C2D chips can hit 4.0GHz under Orthos with the BT. A good E2160/E2180 can hit 3.5GHz at 1/2 the price of E6xx0. Combine this chip with $61 Abit IP35-E, $20 HP DDR2 667 RAM and you'll have a lot more $ in the bank for the next generation 45nm Quads!

i see, guess i'll save the $$ then

 

[harbin]

I have a e6420 o/ced to 3.7g @1.47v on an ip35-e. It's stable under prime for 2 hours (didn't try longer). So, I guess it's possible.

 

[lektrix]

I did a bit more research. The P35 chipset is clearly the best board for me, but now I am having trouble deciding which P35 to get. I'm currently already using 4 SATAs and I have an external eSATA drive. I don't use Firewire, RAID-0 or SLI/Xfire, but 2+ extra SATA ports might come in handy in the future. Even DDR3 support would be nice for the upcoming 45nm processors. All these boards run on the same chipset and should relatively OC the same with maybe 10-20 FSB differential right? And what about the NB/SB cooling - the Gigabyte DS3R comes with a huge NB HSF while the P5K/P5KC have heatpipe coolers....

What do you guys think? There are so many choices, I cannot decide!

ECS P35T-A (6xSATA, 1xeSATA) - $101.52
Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3L (4xSATA) - $91.25
Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3R (8xSATA) - $131.57
Abit IP35-E (4xSATA) - $119.37
ASUS P5K-SE (4xSATA, 1xeSATA) - $109.18
ASUS P5K (6xSATA, 2xeSATA) - $130.99
ASUS P5K-C (6xSATA, 2xeSATA, DDR3 support) - $135
(all prices in CAD)

 

[The-Noid]

P5K series for me works better.

Others may have different results. I have also had great results with the Biostar p35 boards.

Can't go wrong with P5K-C though.

 

[tigersty1e]

If you don't need ddr3, raid, or firewire, get...

Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3L (4xSATA) - $91.25


The CPU will limit you.

You can hit 400 fsb and will already be at 3.2 and can possibly hit 450 fsb and will already be at 3.6

 

[Markfw]

Originally posted by: Yoxxy
P5K series for me works better.

Others may have different results. I have also had great results with the Biostar p35 boards.

Can't go wrong with P5K-C though.

My P5K non-deluze is $120, was $150 when I got it. It is horrible with a quad, and I am replacing it with a DQ6. I know thats out of his budget, but my P5K has very bad vdroop, and my P5B isn;t that great either. I am sticking to Gigabyte for a while.

 

[lektrix]

Originally posted by: tigersty1e
If you don't need ddr3, raid, or firewire, get...

Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3L (4xSATA) - $91.25


The CPU will limit you.

You can hit 400 fsb and will already be at 3.2 and can possibly hit 450 fsb and will already be at 3.6

Do I need to upgrade the NB cooler?

HR-05/IFX or HR-05 SLI/IFX? Which one should I get? They're both around $20......

Will it fit beside a TR Ultra-120 Extreme?

 

[bryanW1995]

if you're thinking about messing with nb coolers and whatnot, just get the ip35 pro. I know it's more, but you'll be very happy that you got it now, plus it will be great if you decide to drop in a penryn quad down the road. those others don't do very well with overclocking quads. as mark mentioned the dq6 is the ideal, but the ip35 pro is more in your budget. also, you won't need to mess with switching out cooling on the mobo or any other alterations. I'm at 438x8 on my e6750 with no probs at all 24/7 DC, and I've gotten it up to 468x8 for testing purposes.

There's no need to look to ddr3 ATM. Get some $55 AR 2x1gb 4-4-4-12 ddr2 800 at newegg, several are in that range. those will almost all oc to 500fsb, in fact my 2x1 gb ballistix 1066 default timings are 4-4-4-12 at 400 mhz.

 

[adairusmc]

I love my DFI LanParty UT

 

[jonmcc33]

Originally posted by: lektrix
Do I need to upgrade the NB cooler?

HR-05/IFX or HR-05 SLI/IFX? Which one should I get? They're both around $20......

Will it fit beside a TR Ultra-120 Extreme?

No, the cooler is fine. If anything I'd worry about lack of PWM cooling on that motherboard. The Abit IP35-E has that though.

 

[lektrix]

Originally posted by: jonmcc33

Originally posted by: lektrix
Do I need to upgrade the NB cooler?

HR-05/IFX or HR-05 SLI/IFX? Which one should I get? They're both around $20......

Will it fit beside a TR Ultra-120 Extreme?

No, the cooler is fine. If anything I'd worry about lack of PWM cooling on that motherboard. The Abit IP35-E has that though.

Im gonna be running it in a P182B with 4-5 120mms.....

 

[lektrix]

Originally posted by: jonmcc33

Originally posted by: lektrix
Do I need to upgrade the NB cooler?

HR-05/IFX or HR-05 SLI/IFX? Which one should I get? They're both around $20......

Will it fit beside a TR Ultra-120 Extreme?

No, the cooler is fine. If anything I'd worry about lack of PWM cooling on that motherboard. The Abit IP35-E has that though.

Also, if im already payin $120 for the ip35-e, i might as well pay $11 more for the Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3R with more sata ports or $15 more for the ASUS P5K-C with more sata ports + DDR3 support + 45nm Penryn support + a better heatpipe cooler for the chipset....makes sense no? agreements, disagreements? i really wish I lived in the states so i could get the ip35-e for $70, but canada's pricing sucks ...unless I get the GA-P35-DS3L which is clearly cheaper and makes more sense because it's only $90....I could then add a custom Thermalright HR-05 cooler for the NB for $20...

if I could get a review between the stock chipset cooler from the P5K-C vs the TR HR-05 SLI/IFX, it would help me make the deciding factor...if the P5K-C stock chipset cooler owns the TR HR-05 SLI/IFX, then it really makes the P5K-C "worthwhile" because essentially I'm only paying $25 more for additional SATA ports, DDR3, 45nm penryn support and other features.....BUT if the TR HR-05 SLI/IFX NB owns the P5K-C stock, that's a completely different story.....

suggestions?