System upgrade questions

Hi,

My motherboard died and I am looking to upgrade and replace it and the
CPU. I want to use a quad core cpu and don't really understand the
difference between the "Core 2 Quad Q6600 G0 Stepping (2.4GHz
1066MHz)" and the lower power version "Core 2 Quad Q6600 Energy
Efficient 95W edition Socket 775 (2.40GHz)"? Does the reduced TDP of
95W vs 105W for the energy efficient version mean it is less stable at
high overclock rates ? Or is it just lower power at the same
overclock rates ?

Also, I am trying to understand the differences between the Gigabyte
GA-X48-DQ6 and GA-X48-DS5 motherboards. As far as I can tell the only
difference is that the DQ6 has 2 extra eSATA ports over the DS5, can
anyone tell me whether this is correct ? (I don't really need eSATA
ports at all so meh if true).

Finally, can anyone tell me what RAM is best for these boards ? I
will eventually want to run with 8GB so would prefer to buy 2GB
modules. This seems to restrict my choices in respect of memory speeds
and I wondered whether the advantages of PC2-8500 are significant wrt
PC2-6400 memory with this mobo/cpu combo ?

Many thanks,

Mike

Mike wrote:
> Hi,
>
> My motherboard died and I am looking to upgrade and replace it and the
> CPU. I want to use a quad core cpu and don't really understand the
> difference between the "Core 2 Quad Q6600 G0 Stepping (2.4GHz
> 1066MHz)" and the lower power version "Core 2 Quad Q6600 Energy
> Efficient 95W edition Socket 775 (2.40GHz)"? Does the reduced TDP of
> 95W vs 105W for the energy efficient version mean it is less stable at
> high overclock rates ? Or is it just lower power at the same
> overclock rates ?
>
> Also, I am trying to understand the differences between the Gigabyte
> GA-X48-DQ6 and GA-X48-DS5 motherboards. As far as I can tell the only
> difference is that the DQ6 has 2 extra eSATA ports over the DS5, can
> anyone tell me whether this is correct ? (I don't really need eSATA
> ports at all so meh if true).
>
> Finally, can anyone tell me what RAM is best for these boards ? I
> will eventually want to run with 8GB so would prefer to buy 2GB
> modules. This seems to restrict my choices in respect of memory speeds
> and I wondered whether the advantages of PC2-8500 are significant wrt
> PC2-6400 memory with this mobo/cpu combo ?
>
> Many thanks,
>
> Mike

DQ6 has "quad BIOS". There are probably not four BIOS chips, but rather
four BIOS images stored somehow on the board.

Looking at the pictures of the boards, I notice the DQ6 has all one brand
of caps (red ones). The DS5 is mixed red and blue ones. Maybe some
enthusiast site can tell you what brand the red ones are, and how
that makes a difference.

There are two steppings of Q6600. The G0 and the B3. The G0 would be
a newer stepping, and it may overclock a bit farther. I don't think
"energy efficient" is a term that Intel uses to describe these. To
Intel, it is just a new stepping.

http://processorfinder.intel.com/det...px?sSpec=SL9UM (B3)
http://processorfinder.intel.com/det...px?sSpec=SLACR (G0)

Gigabyte has a memory list for their board. But the list doesn't
look that practical. I think I'd want to find an X48 review
article, to see what FSB/DDR2 clock combinations are supported.

http://www.gigabyte.com.tw/FileList/...ga-x48-dq6.pdf

Not many comments on Newegg.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813128331

You could get some CAS5 PC2-6400 (2GB sticks) for a reasonable price,
and use that to test that all the rest of the hardware is working.

Paul

> > I want to use a quad core cpu and don't really understand the
> > difference between the "Core 2 Quad Q6600 G0 Stepping (2.4GHz
> > 1066MHz)" and the lower power version "Core 2 Quad Q6600 Energy
> > Efficient 95W edition Socket 775 (2.40GHz)"? Does the reduced TDP of
> > 95W vs 105W for the energy efficient version mean it is less stable at
> > high overclock rates ? Or is it just lower power at the same
> > overclock rates ?
>
> There are two steppings of Q6600. The G0 and the B3. The G0 would be
> a newer stepping, and it may overclock a bit farther. I don't think
> "energy efficient" is a term that Intel uses to describe these. To
> Intel, it is just a new stepping.

There are 2 versions of the G0 stepping a 95W TDP one and a 105W TDP
one. My question is : which is the best for overclocking ? If you
don't know then don't answer. Sorry to sound grumpy but...

>
> http://processorfinder.intel.com/det...px?sSpec=SL9UM (B3)http://processorfinder.intel.com/det...px?sSpec=SLACR (G0)
>
> Gigabyte has a memory list for their board. But the list doesn't
> look that practical. I think I'd want to find an X48 review
> article, to see what FSB/DDR2 clock combinations are supported.

Or you could post the question here, like I did ? </sarcastic>

> http://www.gigabyte.com.tw/FileList/...rboard_memory_...
>
> Not many comments on Newegg.
>
> http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813128331
>
> You could get some CAS5 PC2-6400 (2GB sticks) for a reasonable price,
> and use that to test that all the rest of the hardware is working.

Well thanks all round for an entirely useless response.

--
Mike

> Going for a > $300 US motherboard along with a plan to expand to 8 GBytes
> DDR2 memory might not be the best choices at this point in the Intel
> 'tick-tock' roadmap ('Nehalem' in fourth quarter 2008.)

Can you clarify for me what you think are the drawbacks with that in
your opinion ? I want a cheapish board and cpu with good performance
and that combo seems like the current sweet spot, or pretty near.
Nehalem doesn't look like a reasonable prospect for my desktop before
this time in 2009 and that's too far away to bother about as far as
I'm concerned. As you say, I really do need a PC now and you can
forever put off getting a decent one on the grounds that next years'
will be better.

> Clearly you need a
> motherboard replacement NOW, but perhaps now is also the time to recycle as
> much of your present system as possible.

Sadly the CPU I have is not worth spending money on to buy a
replacement board for and ditto the RAM. I was due for a new PC
anyway so...

....snip...

> For the system you ask about the performance difference
> will depend on the application mix (how efficiently the software uses the L2
> cache), buy in no case will the performance difference between DDR2 800 and
> DDR2 1066 be more than a few percent.

Thanks. I had no idea it meant so little to buy RAM with a higher
spec. I will surely go for the higher density RAM in that case

> You do realize that you can't use physical memory above 2 GBytes completely
> with a Windows 32-bit operating system, nor any physical memory at all above
> 4 GBytes with a Windows 32-bit operating system?

Yes, I intend to go for either XP/x64 or else Vista 64 bit in the
near future.

>
> And have you found a source for both motherboards you mention?

Yep, several in fact : Misco and tekheads do both of these. If the
only difference between the -DQ6 and -DS5 is the 2 extra eSATA ports
then I will go for the DS5 version for sure. Can anyone confirm
this ? It does seem to be what the manuals say but you know how
subtle these things can be.

> I suggest you look through posts from the last year or so by 'Ed Medlin' on
> his progress from an E6600 to a nicely overclocked and water cooled Q6600.
>

You wouldn't recollect the title of the posts would you ? I did look
but couldn't find the thread you refer to.


I still need to know which is the better of the 105W Q6600 and the 95W
Efficiency Edition of the same CPU in respect of overclocking if
anyone here knows the answer ?


Thanks,

Mike

Mike wrote:
> There are 2 versions of the G0 stepping a 95W TDP one and a 105W
> TDP one. My question is : which is the best for overclocking ? If you
> don't know then don't answer. Sorry to sound grumpy but...

But that's just the way you are?

If there are two versions of the Q6600 G0, it's news to me, but I see that
the Q6700 is also G0. The new 45 nM parts are the ones you want:
http://processorfinder.intel.com/List.aspx?ProcFam=2774

Some price drops on the 65 nM parts on April 20.
http://resources.vr-zone.com/newspic...ktop-price.gif

> Or you could post the question here, like I did ? </sarcastic>

No, he's just pretty sure that none of us are stupid enough to buy a $300 board.

> Well thanks all round for an entirely useless response.

Pretty rude.

> The new 45 nM parts are the ones you want.

There are some LGA775 Xeons, also.
http://processorfinder.intel.com/List.aspx?ProcFam=528

All these new parts are hard to find because of Intel's limited release.
The caveat is that the 45 nM CPUs have lower multipliers for your dollar.
The only reasonably priced 45 nM parts currently available at Newegg
are Q9300 with a 7.5 multiplier and the X3320 with a 7 multiplier. Both
have the lesser amount of L2 cache, which is 6 MB as opposed to 12 MB.
The 65 nM parts have 8 MB. The Q9450 has an 8 multiplier, and the Q9550
has an 8.5 multiplier. One reviewer of the Q9300 said "...this processor
was NOT faster then a Q6600 at any other setting then stock."

But you probably knew all this and you really need something now. Just get
a bottom feeder dual core to tide you over. Seriously. I have a G0 stepping
Q6600 with a 9 multiplier. It doesn't like a high CPU clock, so I have it set for
333 x 9. It is power hungry, so I need to counter the vDroop with more voltage.
It runs hot as hell even with a gigantic cooler.

And 8GB of memory? You're planning to run a 64-bit operating system, I trust.
P35 works fine. Gigabyte DS3L if you don't need RAID and more SATA.
Otherwise DS3R. Cheap firewire card works fine for me.