Wow what a difference a new motherboard can make to your OC !

[Markfw]

So I had a P5K (non-deluxe, was still $150) and for the life of me I couldn;t get my Q6600 (B3) stable, even at 3000, but sometimes would go for days@3150. It was all over the place, and it would re-boot, right after locking up, and I had that autoreboot turned off. After 2 months, I got pissed off, and since I was so happy with my P35-DQ6 with my G0 stepping, I thought I would try another when I saw an open box for $187 shipped.

So I get the DQ6, and some jerk had bent the NB cooling unit over (pic linked below), and the sound didn't work. Well, since it was saving me over $50, I put my old Audigy2 card in, and the sound was fine, and the cooling bothered me, but you can't buy this motherboard new anymore, so I decided to stick with it. So I try 8x400 at the same vcore I had on my P5K, (which never worked there) and it booted fine, so I ran i for a day@100% load doing F@H, no problem, so without changig the vcore, I cranked it up to 3320. Its been two days, and not a burp, also @100% load. I am within 100 mhz of my G0, and without as good of cooling. The only difference, is I am running 10c hotter than my G0 with ultra 120 lapped.

I am not even maxed yet ! And all the other hardware is in use. And on the other motherboard, I went thought 3 different pairs of memory, and this Gskill set was the best for what little stability I had.

Here is the NB in copper, should be upright.

Bottom line ? a $235 motherboard may be worth the money for a good stable quad OC.

 

[ArchAngel777]

Nice! I wonder if that 'jerk' is a forum surfer and may be like "wow, that was the board I effed up!"

When my dad upgrades, I may sell him my Abit and pick up that motherbard, looks really nice.

 

[Markfw]

The point is, you can't buy them anymore, just the X38 one, which is $280 ! That bites.

 

[ArchAngel777]

Really? I didn't know that... I wonder why they discontinued them.

 

[Markfw]

Probably since the X38 replaces it, newer, better, more $$$

 

[jonmcc33]

Originally posted by: Markfw900
Bottom line ? a $235 motherboard may be worth the money for a good stable quad OC.

Who says you have to spend that much for an overclock?

 

[Markfw]

Originally posted by: jonmcc33

Originally posted by: Markfw900
Bottom line ? a $235 motherboard may be worth the money for a good stable quad OC.

Who says you have to spend that much for an overclock?

I am trying to say that after 4 quad OC's, on 5 different motherboards with 8 different kinds of memory, my experience says that you can get the best OC on a QUAD with a good motherboard, this one to be exact, the P35-DQ6.

Spend whatever you want, I am just relating the hell I went through, and the solution was this motherboard. If you want to use something else, fine, thats your choice.

 

[myocardia]

Originally posted by: jonmcc33

Originally posted by: Markfw900
Bottom line ? a $235 motherboard may be worth the money for a good stable quad OC.

Who says you have to spend that much for an overclock?

You don't, but it seems that quad-cores are considerably harder on a board, when overclocked, than a dual-core.

 

[bryanW1995]

thanks, I had just about convinced myself that my ip35 pro was good enough...

 

[Markfw]

Originally posted by: bryanW1995
thanks, I had just about convinced myself that my ip35 pro was good enough...

For a dual-core, I am sure its fine. I am just telling you how much better that motherboard is for a QUAD. I have 4 C2D's also, and they all do fine 3.2-3.4 ghz, but the quads are another animal, and I have had noting but problems getting as good OC. 3.3 on a B3 and 3.4 on a G0 are fine by me !

 

[ArchAngel777]

Originally posted by: bryanW1995
thanks, I had just about convinced myself that my ip35 pro was good enough...

You may want to rethink it depending on how hardcore you plan to O/C. I have three confirmed reports (including my own) with heavil overclocked systems shutting off for no reason during a stress test. While it has no real world implications (nothing will stress you system like P95 FFT's) you should be aware of it.

When I was on air cooling, I was able to take my Q660 B3 to 3.33Ghz @ 1.4v and the CPU temperature hottest core was about 75c or so under the torture test... PWM would soar up to 90-95c with fans on high, without fas on high PWM broke 105c... No real problems though, and was able to prime stabaly.

Then I decided to watercool so I could push this thing even harder.

I increased vcore to 1.56v and the speed to 3.6Ghz, she was totally stable in everything except P95 FFT's. When it came to P95 she would just power off on me, similar to when something would overheat. So, I checked temperatures very, very closely and found they were better, far better than the were when I was on air cooling. So I thought, what gives? No idea to this day to be honest, other than that the IP35 series boards tend to die out when a lot of power is drawn from them. So, I am currently sitting at 3.6Ghz @ 1.56v @ idle temperature of 40c, PWM 39c and under load I hit 63-64c hottest core and the PWM hits 69-73c with major, major airflow on it. NB is cool to the touch. But again, she will shutdown if I run P95 Large FFT after 15 or so minutes.

Intersting, though, is that I can run Orthos small or large FFT and it doesn't shut down. The power yanked from the AC outlet is the same though... They both use the same underlying code... So... Who knows. But I can loop any game I want for 8+ (didn't test any longer) hours with a resolution of 640x480* all details set to low (stress CPU) and she does just fine. I can run Orthod, OCCT, CPU-Burn-in, all set for us all four cores and they pass, go figure. Maybe a bug? I have no idea... I just want to give you a fair warning that these Abit's can (not all of them) run very high PWM temperatures and that in addition to that, if you plan on using massive voltage, you may not get far with this board.

The user specifically on Xtreme Systems was using a QX6700, he went from a QuadGT to an IP35 Pro and reported the same problem. He set 1.55v and boom, she powered off during P95 for him. Didn't happen with his Quad GT @ 3.6Ghz and same voltage.

Another user who was Beta Testing a TEC had a C2 (non-Quad) running at 1.65v+ and was experiencing the same problem. So, my current thought is that it cannot handle a certain wattage/votage draw from the CPU under extreme testing.

Again, though, this does not affect my real world use of my Q6600 @ 3.6Ghz. But I would prefer if P95 did pass a several hour test...

If I had to do it over again, I would have purchased a DQ6, hands down.

Since a Q6600 G0 uses about 10-15% less power than my B3, I am betting that I would not have run into this issue had my Q6600 been a G0. Additionally, if you are planning on waiting for Penryn, you will also not likely run into this issue for the same reason, that the power draw will not be as high as my B3. So, in that regards, I guess you have nothing to worry about, unless you plan on phase change cooling and really jacking up voltage beyond what water can handle.

 

[Markfw]

Thanks ArchAngel777, I think you have confirmed what I am saying !

 

[aigomorla]

lol...

and this was exactly why the DQ6 was my top choice board.

and everyone flamed me for recomending it over an abit ip35.

 

[adairusmc]

I saw the same difference between my Asus 680i based board and the DFI Lanparty UT P35 board I have now. You get what you pay for.

 

[Acanthus]

Originally posted by: adairusmc
I saw the same difference between my Asus 680i based board and the DFI Lanparty UT P35 board I have now. You get what you pay for.

Err, you bought the wrong chipset for overclocking.

The $300 boards dont do any better than the $200 boards. You just have to buy the right one. Now that theres a lot of people out there it's easy to spot which motherboards OC Quads well.

 

[adairusmc]

Originally posted by: Acanthus

Originally posted by: adairusmc
I saw the same difference between my Asus 680i based board and the DFI Lanparty UT P35 board I have now. You get what you pay for.

Err, you bought the wrong chipset for overclocking.

Fail

 

[aigomorla]

Originally posted by: Acanthus

Originally posted by: adairusmc
I saw the same difference between my Asus 680i based board and the DFI Lanparty UT P35 board I have now. You get what you pay for.

Err, you bought the wrong chipset for overclocking.

The $300 boards dont do any better than the $200 boards. You just have to buy the right one. Now that theres a lot of people out there it's easy to spot which motherboards OC Quads well.

uhhh were talking about the DFI P35 Lanparty.

Hands down THE BEST overclocking board, however stability and long term endurance wise unknown.


I would get it personally, but my P35's are great as it is. And im waiting for X48 or X38 platform.

Maybe i'll pick up the New X38 DQ6 from Gigabyte. :T


However i would like to see an intel chipset which supports SLI before i get another board.