Cheap(ish) mobo for Q6600

philjayj

philjayj

philjayj

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Hi. I have a Q6600 which I plan to use for a virtual server host machine. As the chip is so good at being overclocked, I thought I would have a go (I've never done this before).

However, I was hoping you good people could recommend a board which wouldn't cost the earth, ideally had onboard graphics and a good number of SATA connectors (the higher the better).

As the board will be going in a server, I don't need SLI, and RAID isn't needed either.

Hopefully you can help me out.

Phil
 
Thanks for both of your replies. TwistNut, who makes the PQ5? Can you give me a link? Ive searched OCUK but can't find anything.
 
TwistNut said:
ye this is a good board but only got 4 satas and a lot less features dont know what its like a overclocking either
Click to expand...

Well, it's a P35 'lite' board really, and although only 4 sata connectors, that's more than enough for most people.

Overclocking wise, it runs my Q6600 at the speed in my sig.

Not many budget boards were much good at OC'ing quads, but the Gigabyte P31 was one of the exceptions.

The reviews I've read of mobos based on the new P45/P43 chipsets also report decent overclocking even on the base models.
 
Lots of people in this position lately, me included. Despite them not getting much of a mention on here, I'm also seriously considering a Gigabyte (EP45-DS3R). The Asus P5Q is a great looking board but not much use to me (Linux support = dire), and I'm just not quite sold on the IP35 Pro. Had Abit brought out the IP45 Pro on time however... :D

The Abit P45 is almost turning into vapourware LOL Where is it already? Looks like I'm going for the Gigabyte, and I'd recommend the OP look at them too. It has virtually all the features of the Asus boards (and some extras too) and is the same price or cheaper if you shop around respected etailers.
 
There are some memory limitations due to the P31 chipset (see link), but to be frank, if you're looking at dropping 8GB of RAM in there, then you should probably be looking further up the motherboard tree, or questioning whether you really need 8GB?

My logic is that 4GB should be plenty for anything you're likely to want to do with the system now and in the immediate future, and by the time it isn't, DDR3 will be mainstream anyway and your DDR2 will be bookmarks... I presume you've got a 64 bit OS too?

http://www.giga-byte.com/Products/Motherboard/Products_Overview.aspx?ProductID=2615

I've never tried four sticks in mine, but it's running 2 x 2GB quite happily.
 
The Gigabyte GA P43/45 DS3(L) boards have got really good reviews, there appears to be very little difference between the P43 and P45 chips when it comes to o/c....500Mhz is achieveable with dual cores....

A very good P35 board is the Gigabyte GA P35 DS3, this has better power regulation than the P31 (which is exceptional value for the money) and the P35 DS3L, and so will o/c better...:)
 
I already have the 8GB of RAM. The system will be running a number of virtual machines, and I want to allocate about 1GB of RAM to each (or more depending on how each VM runs).
 
Thanks Bledd - and finally, what cpu heatsink would you recommend for that board? I have a Zalman CNPS7700, is that any good?
 
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