Best overclocking motherboard for Q9650

jonnylaris · 9 Sep 2008 at 21:17

Im looking on rebuilding and i have around 200 for a mobo. Which would you guys recommend as the best for overclocking and what kind of speeds are you acheiving with air cooling?

also, would anyone recommend going for the q6600 instead and saving a bit of money?

Is the Q9650 THAT much faster ?

Cob · 9 Sep 2008 at 21:21

One of the p45 based boards will go hand-in-hand with a Q9650.

But personally I'd save the £160 and get a Q9550, alongside an ASUS P5Q Deluxe or Maximus II Formula.

jonnylaris · 9 Sep 2008 at 21:25

ok cool and what kinda speeds would be expected if i was to overclock with say a tuniq tower ?

and again, is the q6600 far behind that ?

Cob · 9 Sep 2008 at 21:31

Should be able to get over 3.6ghz with a Q9550 and a TT. How much more than 3.6ghz depends on luck.

The recent Q6600's haven't been all that great for overclocking past 3.4-3.5ghz, and will run a lot hotter than a Q9550. Then ofcourse the Q9*50 range are a good 10% faster clock-for-clock and they have SSE4.

The Q6600 is still a damn good chip, but if you have the cash then the Q9550 is worth the money.

jonnylaris · 9 Sep 2008 at 21:36

thanx for the info m8, and not to be a complete pain in the ass but would you recommend any particular memory to tie in with the maximus + q9550 ? and would it be a big increase to go to 4gb or just stick with 2 ?

mr griffin · 9 Sep 2008 at 21:40

Q9650 Looks a very nice CPU. on air you should get 4.0ghz which will be a nice bit faster than a large proportion of Q6600 will do plus its also faster clock for clock. I would say if you have the money get the Q9650. I saw on a competitor website a prebuild system running that CPU at 4.4ghz on water cooling. coupled with some cheap 1066 memory your be good to go. G-skill or OCZ make fine ram that will get you where you want to be and get 4gb.

Cob · 9 Sep 2008 at 21:46

Which operating system are you running? XP tends to be ok with 2gb whilst Vista (x64 in particular) loves 4gb. Tho I would suggest going straight for 4gb as memory is pretty cheap these days.

I would go for some CAS 4 PC2-6400 or some PC2-8500, such as the Geil Black Dragon PC2-6400, OCZ Reaper PC2-6400, G.Skill PC2-8000, OCZ PC2-8500 Platinux PC2-8500 or the Geil Black Dragon PC2-8500.

jonnylaris · 9 Sep 2008 at 22:03

gona be running XP m8, had to many problems with vista, and theres no point overclocking and then running vista, u may aswell not overclock and run XP, same performance.

heres what im thinking so far:

MiNxYyY · 9 Sep 2008 at 22:53

i would go for 2 x 2GB instead of 4 x 1Gb sticks

Cob · 9 Sep 2008 at 23:03

Crap didn't realise that was 4x1gb.

Kelt · 10 Sep 2008 at 17:24

Price for that TT is mad.

I'd spend the extra £17 and go for this:

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showp...t=1038&name=XSPC X2O Pro CPU Watercooling Kit

I know it's WC and more hassle, but it's what I'd go for.

Be more quiet as well.

Cob · 10 Sep 2008 at 17:27

Nearly £60 for the Tuniq :/

1kiwi · 10 Sep 2008 at 22:27

I would buy a Rampage formula (£170) + 1 X 4870 but the i guess i would say that

Also, whilst the tunic is good, i would personally get the TRU 120 Extreme.

jonnylaris · 10 Sep 2008 at 22:58

beh* said:
I would buy a Rampage formula (£170) + 1 X 4870 but the i guess i would say that Also, whilst the tunic is good, i would personally get the TRU 120 Extreme.

sorry but i *** never get ATI they suck compared to nvidia

and im only gona run 1 card, SLI is for idiots so the p45 chipset will do fine

il take a look at the rampage formula tho, all i want is the best mobo for clocking

Cob · 11 Sep 2008 at 01:05

P45 is much better at clocking 45nm quads.

Kelt · 11 Sep 2008 at 01:46

Cob said:
P45 is much better at clocking 45nm quads.

Not too shabby at clocking Q6600's as well!

Popov · 11 Sep 2008 at 01:53

Good lord what happened to the TT prices, weren't they on a special for just over 30 quid recently? wish I'd got one then now *shakes fist*