45nm on 680i, problems?

[Fry750]

Hi.

Old question, I know but I'm considering getting a Q9550 for my PC to tide me over until I can afford a full fledged i7 jump.

My motherboard is an Abit IN9 32x Max running the 680i chipset and I'm unclear as to whether my mobo can take 45nm quads; better yet, being able to overclock them.

So simply, can my mobo support such CPUs?

Any help is much appreciated.

Cheers

 

[Geek.]

i think you will be ok with that cpu here is the list of your motherboard http://www.abit.com.tw/cpu-support-list/mb/nv_nforce680sli_in9-32x-max.htm
i hope this helps!

 

[MeatLoaf]

Dual core 45nm are fine but as far as im aware quads are no go, unless you get something liek a Q6600/Q6700

However looking at that cpu list does suggest that your board supports them

 

[setter]

Unless the abit board is signifigantly different from other 680i boards, i distinctly remember that my evga 680ia1 would only support 45nm dual cores and not the quads, this was one of the reasons for the introduction of 780i which could support both the dual and quad 45nm chips.

 

[cmndr_andi]

From that page, it looks like the Yorkfield(45nm) Quad cores are supported - so long as you have BIOS version 15.

However, 680i chipsets universally hate quad cores - so don't go expecting anything other than stock performance. If you do manage to overclock it, then its all gravy.

However, as a Q9550 costs almost the same as i5 + mobo, I don't think it makes much sense, especially when your board won't play with it too well.

 

[johnerz]

Thats a bit hars it should get itro 3.2/3.2 (had that on a Q66oo on the EVGA board) But not the 4 GHZ that others do on #P45 boards

 

[cmndr_andi]

Thats a bit hars it should get itro 3.2/3.2 (had that on a Q66oo on the EVGA board) But not the 4 GHZ that others do on #P45 boards

Perhaps, but the yorkfields (like the Q9550) require 333MHz FSB at stock - so for these chips I wouldn't expect huge overclocks using 680i boards.

 

[setter]

Unfortunately the 680i's were never that great with quads, i had the supposed quad friendly a1 revision of the evga, couldnt get it to clock a q6600 over 3.0ghz, the same quad ran at 3.8ghz with ease in a p45. I will say though they were great boards with a dual core, 3.7ghz with an E6600 (my first decent oc), plus the bios was really easy to use.

 

[Fry750]

I have my E6600 at 3.4ghz, would trying to source a QX6700/QX6850 be worth it?

 

[cmndr_andi]

I have my E6600 at 3.4ghz, would trying to source a QX6700/QX6850 be worth it?

I suppose it depends on what you are doing and how much the CPU would cost you.

If you are doing CPU heavy, multi-threaded tasks like video encoding then having a stock/slightly quad core would be much faster than your current CPU. However, if your primary use is gaming then you will get no performance boost, or possibly run slower - as getting a quad up to 3.4GHz is very unlikely on that board.