New mobo for Q6600

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EllisCEC

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Joined
Mar 3, 2011
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Hey all,
new user here. I'm a casual gamer and a very frequent photoshopper, working with some huge databases of pics, most of which exceeding 250mb each. I own an ageing Dell Dimension 9200 with standard specs save for new HDDs. I'm looking to upgrade so that I have room for expansion with more HDDs, more RAM etc. This means a new case and so a new mobo to compliment it.

What's a good 775 mount mobo with room for expansion and a bit of futureproofing? I've heard good things about the Gigabyte EP45-UD3P, is that compatible with all my components? The case I'm looking to get is an Antec Dark Fleet DF-85

- Ellis
 
I believe the Gigabyte P35 and P45 boards were/are quite popular. The one you listed should suit your needs perfectly fine.

The good thing about computers is that there are standards :) Almost any motherboard will fit in any case, so long as the case accepts the form factor (ITX/mATX/ATX/E-ATX, going from smallest to largest)
 
Any ATX motherboard will fit any ATX case, the boards are built to specs.

S775 is getting hard to find, especially a new motherboard.

Here are some stable boards: Asus P5K Pro, Asus P5K Deluxe WiFi, Gigabyte P45 UD3, Asus Rampage Formula.

But, as I said you aren't going to find any new ones retail to buy. You'd have to go searching the used market.

I do have an EVGA 680i board (S775+DDR2) if you are intereted.
You might just want to bag it and invest in a new Core i7 with a P55 chipset, or wait another couple of weeks for the dust to settle on the Sandy Bridge P67 revisions and go that route.
 
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Thanks for the answers. I think I've found a used EP45-UD3P that will do the trick, so I'll see what I can bag it for. I see magoo that you push your Q6600 to 3.25GHz, are the benefits noticeable? Is there much of a heat problem?
 
EllisCEC said:
Thanks for the answers. I think I've found a used EP45-UD3P that will do the trick, so I'll see what I can bag it for. I see magoo that you push your Q6600 to 3.25GHz, are the benefits noticeable? Is there much of a heat problem?
Click to expand...

I put that same Q6600 on a newer board, an evga 790i and I've pushed it to 3.4 GHz.

I use watercooling, so the machine never really see anything over 35C under normal use.
I use the 6600 for mostly work, rarely gaming, but the thing will still game like a beast, using nvidia Surround at 6030 X 1200 resolution.

I've had this Q since the GO steppings came out and it just keeps going.......I don't think I could hurt it if I tried. I have had the clock to 3.6 but this board just isn't stable at that speed. 3.4 seems to be the sweet spot for the current set-up and yes, it's really snappy at this clock.
 
I agree that you should just sell the Dell to off-set a new Sandy Bridge build. IMO it will be well worth it. Load it up with 8GB ram, and get a nice SSD and watch that machine even at stock slap your Q6600 build around in the face.
 
^ you can bet SB will be a giant upgrade from what you have...with an ssd it will ne lightning...
ssd's make such a big,big difference in any rig...im a 1366 guy but if i was due for an upgrade id go SB in a heartbeat...just think 4.5ghz with cool temps and low voltage...
 
Thanks for all the replies. As I said at the outset, I'm only a casual gamer, and I have found the system's performance to be not too shabby in that department. I imagine the weak point is the now totally-outdated nVidia 8600 GTS. If I follow moogs lead and clock the CPU higher, I doubt I'd have any problems getting good performance out of this little thing for at least the next couple of years - at least enough to get me through university.

I bought the EP45-UD3P along with 4GBs of Gskill 1033Mhz DDR2 RAM, so hopefully by next week I'll have had a chance to get everything set up and running. At the moment I'm having to deal with serious blue screen problems attributed to the 'nv4_disp'... Reinstalling the nvidia driver has had no effect - I'm starting to wonder whether this has been caused by me recently updating the driver to a 2011 version rather than the older one. Either way, the computer is totally unusable at the minute...
 
3 year Q6600 user here, been running @ 3.6/3.8ghz, doing heavy encoding I sit at 70-75C and never crash. This chip is an absolute beast.
 
EllisCEC said:
Thanks for all the replies. As I said at the outset, I'm only a casual gamer, and I have found the system's performance to be not too shabby in that department. I imagine the weak point is the now totally-outdated nVidia 8600 GTS. If I follow moogs lead and clock the CPU higher, I doubt I'd have any problems getting good performance out of this little thing for at least the next couple of years - at least enough to get me through university.

I bought the EP45-UD3P along with 4GBs of Gskill 1033Mhz DDR2 RAM, so hopefully by next week I'll have had a chance to get everything set up and running. At the moment I'm having to deal with serious blue screen problems attributed to the 'nv4_disp'... Reinstalling the nvidia driver has had no effect - I'm starting to wonder whether this has been caused by me recently updating the driver to a 2011 version rather than the older one. Either way, the computer is totally unusable at the minute...
Click to expand...

DOOOOD , I have that mobo in the machine I am using now, with an e8400 @ 3.6, 4 gig of ddr2(Corsair 1066) @800mhz, gtx480(a little OTT I admit), T/take 850w PSU, 'old' 300gig Velorapta plus a 1Tera storage drive using Win7HP retail and it plays ALL new games plus a few 'oldies' like Crysis, which I still play for a buzz, just fine. My point is, what you want is doable, though you may also need a bit of a vidcard upgrade. I also have a TV tuna and full X_FI setup with the bay etc. ALL in this little Gigabyte mobo:confused::confused::eek::eek::eek::cool: a-a-and, unlike my main build, this is in an Antec p180 case, attached to a Samsung 305t monitor.
So yes, when you get it all sorted this should last till you finish UNI..gl !!!

PS If your Q6600 is a SLACR (G0 stepping from memory) it should o/clok pretty easy but they do get a bit hot...:):)
 
You could just do the BSEL mod to the q6600 and have it run at 3.00 GHz.
 
Ok, so my simple attempt at upgrading the mobo has turned into a fairly comprehensive overhaul of the machine, due to 2 unforeseen problems:

1 - The Dell power supply being custom built for the case with leads far too short for the new mobo/case. I've bought a 550W PSU.
2 - My graphics card dieing. Hence I have bought a ATI Radeon 5770.

Hopefully I will get the rig built next week. The mobo and case arrived today, so I have got almost everything ready and waiting. The mobo+case certainly look like a more serious piece of kit then what I'm used to! :)

-Ellis
 
EllisCEC said:
Ok, so my simple attempt at upgrading the mobo has turned into a fairly comprehensive overhaul of the machine, due to 2 unforeseen problems:

Hopefully I will get the rig built next week. The mobo and case arrived today, so I have got almost everything ready and waiting. The mobo+case certainly look like a more serious piece of kit then what I'm used to! :)

-Ellis
Click to expand...

the new stuff is easily transferable into your next machine, gl with the build..and UNI;););)
 
OK so I've got everything up and running now. I've been running my games maxed out, and am AMAZED at how much better it performs then my old rig. I suppose that it is because of the massive leap from the nVidia 8600 GTS to the ATI HD 5770.

One thing though - when I turn on the computer, it often sits there for a good few seconds before bios says it's done the memory test. Does anyone know why? The POST check takes far longer than the Win 7 boot time?

Regards
 
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EllisCEC said:
OK so I've got everything up and running now. I've been running my games maxed out, and am AMAZED at how much better it performs then my old rig. I suppose that it is because of the massive leap from the nVidia 8600 GTS to the ATI HD 5770.

One thing though - when I turn on the computer, it often sits there for a good few seconds before bios says it's done the memory test. Does anyone know why? The POST check takes far longer than the Win 7 boot time?

Regards
Chris
Click to expand...

I would still recommend that you overclock your computer based on how far you can push a Q6600 on a EP45-UD3P. You can get at least 3.6GHz out of it if you have good cooling. You could easily do 3.0GHz just on the stock voltage.

If you want the computer to boot faster, adjust the bios settings such as the quick boot option, display logo, etc. I found however, that on the EP45-UD3P that if you do a quick boot (avoids startup tests), sometimes the ethernet port will fail to initialize but this is a rare occurance.
 
I do plan on overclocking, although I will probably do so quite conservatively. I bought myself a copy of Crysis specifically for seeing how far I can push this PC, since none of the games I play at the moment are even mildly taxing it with everything maxed out.

Since this is my first overclock, I'm still a bit unsure on where to begin. I think I understand the basic theory (increase CPU multiplier or FSB speed and then increase voltage to CPU as necessary to maintain stability) but I wouldn't know where to start beyond that...

I've been trying to get a method of monitoring CPU temp just to make sure nothing gets out of hand. I've got CoreTemp, Real Temp and SpeedFan, but all three programs give wildly different temperatures for each of the 4 cores, so I'm not sure who to trust?
 
EllisCEC said:
I do plan on overclocking, although I will probably do so quite conservatively. I bought myself a copy of Crysis specifically for seeing how far I can push this PC, since none of the games I play at the moment are even mildly taxing it with everything maxed out.

Since this is my first overclock, I'm still a bit unsure on where to begin. I think I understand the basic theory (increase CPU multiplier or FSB speed and then increase voltage to CPU as necessary to maintain stability) but I wouldn't know where to start beyond that...

I've been trying to get a method of monitoring CPU temp just to make sure nothing gets out of hand. I've got CoreTemp, Real Temp and SpeedFan, but all three programs give wildly different temperatures for each of the 4 cores, so I'm not sure who to trust?
Click to expand...

The Q6600's TJMax is 90°
CoreTemp and Realtemp might be miscalibrated. I think Realtemp is correct and Coretemp needs to be calibrated with a +5 offset since it thinks the TJmax is 80°

Q6600 on UD3P is ridiculously easy.

You can just copy some of the settings people have posted here:
http://forums.guru3d.com/showthread.php?t=338559

Ask about anything you are unsure of.
 
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Thanks for your help Sabre-Flair. I dialled in a couple of the settings from that thread, and got it to boot @ 3.6Ghz easily with temps between 45-69C depending on load. However, I got BSOD on the intel burn test, so, as easy as it is for me to copy the settings into BIOS, I have no hope of problem solving system instability without a more comprehensive understanding of what each setting does. If there's a decent starter guide out there I'd be keen to give that a read.

Or alternatively, if you think I'd be better off starting a thread in the processor section, I'd do that.

Regards
 
It's not recommended to use someone else's settings to overclock your board. Settings will vary from board to board even if they have the same component. Use what others have posted as a reference point. When I OC'd my Q6600 to 3.6 (9x400fsb), it required more than 1.3v. I bumped up the CPU NB and VTT just incase. Post what settings you're using and we might be able to tweak it from here. What kind of memory are using? If it's the orginal one that came with the dell, then that might be your problem. It's probably not rated at 800mhz (2x400fsb).
 
EllisCEC said:
Thanks for your help Sabre-Flair. I dialled in a couple of the settings from that thread, and got it to boot @ 3.6Ghz easily with temps between 45-69C depending on load. However, I got BSOD on the intel burn test, so, as easy as it is for me to copy the settings into BIOS, I have no hope of problem solving system instability without a more comprehensive understanding of what each setting does. If there's a decent starter guide out there I'd be keen to give that a read.

Or alternatively, if you think I'd be better off starting a thread in the processor section, I'd do that.

Regards
Click to expand...

Like the other posted said, use those settings as reference. The biggest differences will be the voltages and speed you use for your ram to keep it stable and same for the CPU.

I would run Prime95 to determine if the problem is CPU or ram related. Due the SmallFFT test to test the CPU. Do the blend test to test everything including RAM.

Whichever one crashes should give you a better idea of which item is unstable.

Do you know what revision your CPU is? It will be in CPU-Z under the stepping. I'm guessing you have G0 since you managed to hit 3.6GHz with the settings from the link I sent you which are for G0s. I'm guessing your CPU voltage is between 1.3 and 1.4V? That's one thing you can easily to do step by step incrementally add a bit more voltage and run stability tests again.

If you have a G0, you are lucky. I have a B3 and I need almost the Intel Spec of 1.5V (1.488V after Load Line Calibration in CPU-Z) in order to be stable at 3.6GHz.

What is your cooling setup btw? Make sure you have adequate cooling.
 
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