Q6600-B-3 to G-0 Stepping Conversion: What do the changes mean?

[Nightowl0707]

The new Q6600 G-0 is being touted as the “Energy Efficient 95W Edition” but what does this really mean beyond the hype and in terms of actual performance? The TDP will change from 105W to 95W so if I understand this correctly, it consumes 10W less power---theoretically generating less heat---making it a better candidate for overclocking. But how much better? If the B-3 version could be over-clocked to 3.2Ghz with air cooling what should be reasonably expected of the G-0 on air?

Below excerpts are from the “Product Change Notification” at http://intel.pcnalert.com/content/eolpcn/PCN107463-00.pdf

“The converting products will change from the 2005 Performance FMB(105W) to the 2005 Mainstream FMB (95W)”

“Tcase for the Intel® Core™2 Quad processor Q6600 and Intel® Xeon® processors
X3220 and X3210 on G-0 stepping has been increased by 11 oC. Tcontrol offset will
remain the same relative to increase in Tcase which will help reduce acoustics”

 

[andybird123]

doing a bit of searching, the general consensus seems to be in the 3.6-3.8 range on high end air with good case cooling, 4.0-4.1 on water

 

[Hatman]

No the general stable overclock for the older stepping was around 3ghz, the new one should be stable at around 3.2ghz. On air.

 

[Synthetickiller]

I'll be getting a GO stepping from tankguys whenever the recieve them. I plan on OCing it on water, so I guess I'll find out first hand what the q6600 can do. If I get 4.0ghz, I'll *$#^ my pants, then post the screens. If not, I'll be happy 3.6ghz.

 

[Nightowl0707]

doing a bit of searching, the general consensus seems to be in the 3.6-3.8 range on high end air with good case cooling, 4.0-4.1 on water

No the general stable overclock for the older stepping was around 3ghz, the new one should be stable at around 3.2ghz. On air.

Thanks a lot for responding but can either of you provide sources to your information? Quotes, and references to them, would be much more informative (IOW, don't reference the beginning of a 25 page review that isn't clearly subdivided into categories).

I found a few references since my original post back on Saturday that support the seemingly standard 3.2Ghz overclock on the Q6600 with B-3 stepping. Here%u2019s one I bookmarked since the reviewer provided details%u2026

Overclocking:

"What I like about this processor is the fact that it overclocks so easily..."

“Using the Asus P5K Deluxe motherboard, we changed several settings in the BIOS. We managed to overclock the [Q6600] processor to 3.6GHz, however…”

Source:CPU3D.com
http://tinyurl.com/24kym9
(select "Overclocking" from the Article Index)

Conclusion:

“When is comes to overclocking, the Q6600 is a real winner. With little or no effort at all, I was able to overclock the Q6600 to a whopping 3.2GHz (8x400) with rock solid stability, and all done on standard air-cooling. Quad core with 8Mb L2 cache at 3.2GHz ... now if this processor isn't fast ... then I need to give up computers all together! “

Source:CPU3D.com
http://tinyurl.com/24kym9
(select "Verdict and Conclusion" from the Article Index)

 

[gamester5]

Where can I find a Stepping chart for the Intel core 2 Duo's? What do I look for on my CPU to determine its stepping?

 

[Nightowl0707]

Where can I find a Stepping chart for the Intel core 2 Duo's? What do I look for on my CPU to determine its stepping?

Download CPU-Z and it will tell you what stepping/revision you have.

 

[Drudge]

Wasn't there a way to tell if the processor had G0 stepping by a sku number or something on the outside of the CPU box? I can't remember where I saw that.

 

[GTengineer]

doing a bit of searching, the general consensus seems to be in the 3.6-3.8 range on high end air with good case cooling, 4.0-4.1 on water

I think you are overestimating them by 200MHz or so... here is a database.
http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?t=157690

My G0 is at 3.8GHz on water with 1.51V vcore. Typically 3.6GHz-3.8GHz is a good average for daily use whether on good air cooling or water.

 

[Nightowl0707]

Wasn't there a way to tell if the processor had G0 stepping by a sku number or something on the outside of the CPU box? I can't remember where I saw that.

The product code will end with SLACR if it's the GO (on the box).

 

[dragonsprayer]

depends on the mobo some mobos only give you 3.1-3.2ghz since they can not keep up with the power demand

some mobos can give full perforanve of 3.4-3.6 such as p35, evga 680i will give 3.2-3.4 with the vdroops and power demand - that is if you want perfectedly stable computer - one that runs all 4 cores at max