Search
Sign in with
Sign up | Sign in

Wich motherboard to buy for Intel Core 2 Quad Core?

Last response: in Overclocking
Share
Register or log in to remove

Quote:
Is there any available motherboard for the Intel Core 2 Quad Core?

What should I search for?


From my most recent experience building my own C2D E6600 system...
Look into the Gigabyte 6-Quad GA-965P-DQ6. Great Mobo, very stable & it's excellent for OCing. Their tech support, should you need them, is exceptional as well.
PS: If you get a non-retail box CPU (the OEM type that is), make sure the CPU fan uses the push down button type, not the ones that use the under the motherboard locking mechanisms cuz they won't fit. A lesson I learned.

What about your memory, choose that yet?
Look into:
CORSAIR RAM
OCZ-2 RAM

Good luck.

The DQ6 is a good choice as far as "budget" mobos go...hahaha, I know that it was once top of the line, but the new 680i chipset mobos are CRAZY expensive. It's ridiculous, but the performance is exceptional as are the amount of options. The eVGA board is actually not too too bad at 269.00 on newegg. The new badaxe is out too, that would be a good choice as well. What are you looking to do with this computer? Gaming, work, etc?

There's a wide variety of mobo's supported the C2D. Depends on what you what and how much you are will to spend.

The ASUS P5B-E had the best OC'ing here.

The Gigbabyte GA-P965-S3 or -DS3 is also good. The Abit AB9 Pro was used by Tom's Hardware and also had good OC'ing ability.

There's the new one by eVGA that has the nVidia 680i chipset. But it's pricey at $270 but it's an excellent motherboard.

You may not want a board that overclocks well and is inexpensive. There are those for under $100.

Get the one that meets your needs.
Related ressources
Ask the community

Quote:
The DQ6 is a good choice as far as "budget" mobos go...hahaha, I know that it was once top of the line, but the new 680i chipset mobos are CRAZY expensive. It's ridiculous, but the performance is exceptional as are the amount of options. The eVGA board is actually not too too bad at 269.00 on newegg. The new badaxe is out too, that would be a good choice as well. What are you looking to do with this computer? Gaming, work, etc?


The DQ6 a "budget" board already??? 8O
I just got this thing back in early Sept. for $260.!!!! They've dropped for sure.

Newegg.com price: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E1681...

Zipzoomfly.com price:
http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDetail.jsp?Product...

eWiz Price:
http://www.ewiz.com/query.php?categry=0&s=dq6&Go+Search...

He was asking about core 2 quad, not duo. The P5B supports quad, but nothing below $100 will support it. The motherboard needs to be a 965, 975X, Nvidia 500 or 600 series. Further, the 680i chipset mobos completely spank the P5B in terms of overclocking, they managed a 525Mhz FSB!!! But he hasn't said if he wants to overclock yet. Let us know what you wanna do.

Quote:
The DQ6 is a good choice as far as "budget" mobos go...hahaha, I know that it was once top of the line, but the new 680i chipset mobos are CRAZY expensive. It's ridiculous, but the performance is exceptional as are the amount of options. The eVGA board is actually not too too bad at 269.00 on newegg. The new badaxe is out too, that would be a good choice as well. What are you looking to do with this computer? Gaming, work, etc?


The DQ6 a "budget" board already??? 8O
I just got this thing back in early Sept. for $260.!!!! They've dropped for sure.

Newegg.com price: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E1681...

Zipzoomfly.com price:
http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDetail.jsp?Product...

eWiz Price:
http://www.ewiz.com/query.php?categry=0&s=dq6&Go+Search...

I know, it's sad isn't it? With the Striker Extreme poised to enter the market at over $300, and the rest of the 600s up around 300, the motherboard market keeps going up. Remember when a great mobo could be had for less than a hundred? Yep, thems were the days.... Just to make myself clear though, I was being sarcastic, the DQ6 is still a great board in my opinion, but the 600s have a pretty clear performance advantage in overclocking and even in sheer bells and whistles....

Quote:
He was asking about core 2 quad, not duo. The P5B supports quad, but nothing below $100 will support it. The motherboard needs to be a 965, 975X, Nvidia 500 or 600 series. Further, the 680i chipset mobos completely spank the P5B in terms of overclocking, they managed a 525Mhz FSB!!! But he hasn't said if he wants to overclock yet. Let us know what you wanna do.


Uhhh, the DQ6 is 2 QUAD & I believe was the 1st to get it supported.
Clicky here: "Gigabyte Dq6 Info Site".

Quote:
The DQ6 is a good choice as far as "budget" mobos go...hahaha, I know that it was once top of the line, but the new 680i chipset mobos are CRAZY expensive. It's ridiculous, but the performance is exceptional as are the amount of options. The eVGA board is actually not too too bad at 269.00 on newegg. The new badaxe is out too, that would be a good choice as well. What are you looking to do with this computer? Gaming, work, etc?


The DQ6 a "budget" board already??? 8O
I just got this thing back in early Sept. for $260.!!!! They've dropped for sure.

Newegg.com price: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E1681...

Zipzoomfly.com price:
http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDetail.jsp?Product...

eWiz Price:
http://www.ewiz.com/query.php?categry=0&s=dq6&Go+Search...

I know, it's sad isn't it? With the Striker Extreme poised to enter the market at over $300, and the rest of the 600s up around 300, the motherboard market keeps going up. Remember when a great mobo could be had for less than a hundred? Yep, thems were the days.... Just to make myself clear though, I was being sarcastic, the DQ6 is still a great board in my opinion, but the 600s have a pretty clear performance advantage in overclocking and even in sheer bells and whistles....

Yep, I just bought the ASUS P4S800D-X mobo for my old rotting Prescott 2.8Ghz backup PC for $46, locally. I recall watching this mobo two years ago when it sold for $150+ & this was the top of the line for it's time. This time I'll sit back & wait 6-10 months b4 I buy another one of these mobos.
I'm hurt and :x & the same time. I'll go Quad next year around this same time when prices have dropped a heck of a lot more. I'll bet my E6600 which I paid, hmmm, I think it was $350 back in mid August will cost about $150 next year this time, if that much.
Oh well, que sera-sera....

Quote:
He was asking about core 2 quad, not duo. The P5B supports quad, but nothing below $100 will support it. The motherboard needs to be a 965, 975X, Nvidia 500 or 600 series. Further, the 680i chipset mobos completely spank the P5B in terms of overclocking, they managed a 525Mhz FSB!!! But he hasn't said if he wants to overclock yet. Let us know what you wanna do.


Uhhh, the DQ6 is 2 QUAD & I believe was the 1st to get it supported.
Clicky here: "Gigabyte Dq6 Info Site".

The 2 QUAD in the DQ6 description refers to the unusual VRM configuration, not Core 2 Quad support. It IS Core 2 Quad compatable, and the platform THG used to bench the kentsfield.

Currently I'm running the Quad Core QX6700 with Asus P5W Deluxe almost 3 weeks without any problem after the newest BIOS updated. Haven't try to OC it yet since I don’t play games or run any heavy applications.

There have been varying... results with the 680i... they have generally been good, but there are certain things to keep in mind:

Quote:
One of our X6800 processors reached 2100 FSB, confirming NVIDIA's claims of overclocking an X6800 in their labs to 2070 FSB. Not only did we reach 2100 FSB (525) at a 7X multiplier (3.675GHz), we managed to reach that speed at default voltage. The system has run at those settings for several days without incident and has handled every test and benchmark we have thrown at the system. However, it should also be pointed out that a second X6800 CPU would not overclock 1 MHz higher than 1900 FSB (450) on this same motherboard, even though that X6800 reached a similar 4GHz maximum overclock and similar "default voltage" overclocks.


http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/showdoc.aspx?i=286...

Quote:
NVIDIA talked up the overclocking on the 680i chipset so much that I was almost on the verge of anger when my Core 2 Duo E6700 processor would ONLY overclock to a FSB of 1500 MHz. However, apparently that processor had some issues, because after putting in the Core 2 Extreme X6800 processor, our results were even more impressive.

This was the highest FSB overclock I was able to achieve using stock voltages througout the system - a 1625 MHz FSB is nothing to sneeze at. Not too bad but I think we can do better...


http://www.pcper.com/article.php?aid=320&type=expert&pi...

I don't know whats up with the 680i OC'ing, it's apparently spotty at times on certain procs, but when it does work, it works great...

Yea, there seems to be problems with the 6600 and 6700 chips under certain conditions. To be fair though, these chipsets have JUST been released and it's probably a strange bios issue, we all know the 965 had some issues of its own. It could also be a processor issue. Too early to tell, hopefully we'll find out more soon. In the meantime, it's worth noting that even with the mentioned processors the results have been outstanding, so I definately feel this is the best overall chipset for C2D/Q
Anonymous
Motherboard Authority
Overclocking Expert

In my quest for a balanced system, I don't see why you would spend a grand on a cpu to slap it in a 100$ motherboard.

The DQ6 is a nice mobo, just not a big fan of that huge copper plate at the back.

I would personally go with a P5N32-E or the eVga 680i because these board offer a great feature set, with high Ocing which makes them somewhat future proof. Still waiting for RD600!!! :evil: 

Eh, ATI and Intel... all this is reminding me of high school again, who's in bed with who... shrug...

We'll see, as of now, I'm still concentrating on which one offers the best performance, but I'm starting to grow wary of ATI chipset and Intel procs...

Quote:
Eh, ATI and Intel... all this is reminding me of high school again, who's in bed with who... shrug...

We'll see, as of now, I'm still concentrating on which one offers the best performance, but I'm starting to grow wary of ATI chipset and Intel procs...


Why are you growing wary? Because AMD bought ATI?
Register or log in to remove
 
Ask the community
Read discussions in other Overclocking categories
!