Upgrade path for Gigabyte 965P DS3P Rev 3.3

denyerec

denyerec

denyerec

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5 Jan 2007
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I have the Gigabyte 965P-DS3P Rev 3.3 board with an E6600 Core Duo running in it at the moment, with 4Gb of DDR2 memory. I'm looking to upgrade the processor to a Q9650 which the manufacturer's website suggests is supported. My question is, what RAM goes along with that, as I'd like to whack 8Gb in there in the hope that Lightroom will get off it's backside and perform!

The board supports a 1333 FSB, but only DDR2 memory, so at the end of the day am I just kidding myself and is a new motherboard required to really leverage a Q9650 processor to its full potential?

Many thanks,
Denyerec
 
Are you intending to just run at stock speed or overclock?
Your 965P-DS3P board will allow you to use pretty much any memory you want, obviously the faster the better. I use DDR2 - 800MHz DDR2 on my 965P board.
 
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I can't say as I'm that interested in overclocking, though if the numbers fall right and it's not too extreme I'm not opposed to it (EG I wouldn't be looking to get 4ghz out of a 2.4ghz processor, but a modest OC would be fine).

It's just that I'm a little lost on whether or not the FSB speed is connected to the memory or not. The PC2 6400 is 800mhz RAM is it not? The Q9650 runs on an FSB of 1333, so I wondered if that was going to be a problem.

Further if blowing money on a processor and RAM, whether it's really more worthwhile to throw in another £120, say "sod it" and just update the Mobo to a newer chipset altogether...?
 
denyerec said:
It's just that I'm a little lost on whether or not the FSB speed is connected to the memory or not. The PC2 6400 is 800mhz RAM is it not? The Q9650 runs on an FSB of 1333, so I wondered if that was going to be a problem.
Click to expand...

They are related, but in the same way as there is a multiplier on the CPU to clock the core higher than the FSB, there is a RAM multiplier as well. This can be set to various values in the BIOS so there is no problem running 6400 RAM with a 1333 FSB.
 
Oooh, good good!
Now all I need to do is get the bloody BIOS to update to Rev 7, the flasher util just keeps saying "Update failled", and without the bios update, the latest processors aren't supported.

Bah, there's always something!
 
The past few updates I've done from the windows utility without issue, though with this one giving me trouble it looks like it's time to burn the image to a CD and try from BIOS land... Assuming I can flash from CD, never looked into that before, and I didn't bother building a floppy drive into the machine! :)
 
I'm only running the E6600 at stock speed of 2.4, you have almost 30% in terms of clockspeed on me there, which might be softening the blow for you ? Running Lightroom (The principle use for the machine at present) is a painful experience most of the time, which is what's prompted me to look into this. I've never been much a fan of overclocking as I prefer to run a silent machine, so the requirement for bolstering the cooling on the CPU has never really appealed much. I've got a Zalman CNPS9500 on it at the moment and really don't know what to expect in terms of how far it could OC without needing more air.
 
Get a big enough cooler and it will stay pretty cool and therefore quiet. Anyway, try it! I have no idea what lightroom is, so if its multithreaded, and the dual is struggling, go for the Qxxxx chip! My principal use is gaming with a little bit of solidworks thrown in.
 
Yeah Lightroom chomps up RAM and cores like they're going out of fashion, so that should give me some breathing room. 8Gb RAM and a Q9650 here I come! (BIOS update pending, of course...)
 
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