q9450 help

[daves2998]

im thinkin of building for first time and not sure what to get for gaming and mutimedia capabilities i think i want the q9450 but not sure what board i need i want one that will last and upgrade in future and how much can i overclock the q9450 safley without damage if u know what i need plz help with any other suggestions such as vid card coolers etc...

 

[jaguarskx]

I intend on buying the Abit IP35 Pro.

http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/mainboards/display/abit-ip35-pro.html

However, I cannot guarantee it will work with the Q9450 right out of the box because it (and nearly any other motherboard) may come with an older BIOS. To update the BIOS you will need to install a CPU the mobo can recognize; i.e. and older Core 2 Duo or Pentium 4. An alternative is to call the manufacturer and explain that the motherboard has an older BIOS and they will probably sell you a chipset with the updated BIOS. You will need to switch the chipset yourself.

This latest release of the Q9xxx and E8xxx series (Yorkfield and Penryn respectively) is the end of the line for Socket 775 (a.k.a. LGA 775). Intel's next generation CPU (Nehalem) will be released for the yet to be released Socket B and Socket H; not compatible with LGA 775.

Safe overclocking (OC) can be done with almost any motherboard, but some mobos are more OC friendly than others. The Abit IP35 Pro is OC friendly. Since it is your first time OCing, I recommend being careful and increasing the OC slowly. Visit the Overclocking section of the forum for more info.

 

[gudodayn]

I'd go with
CPU: Q9300 (2.5GHz ~ 7.5 x 333)....you can pretty much change the FSB to 400 right out of box for effective 3.0GHz without turning up the voltage

Motherboard: MSI Neo2 FI or FIR (with raid capability) .... comes with heatpipe for North / South bridge & very very overclockable!!!

RAM:cant go wrong with decent brands (Corsair, OCZ, Kingston, Adata, Transcend, Patriot) ~ I've got 8GB (4 x PQI 2GB DDR2-800 @ 900)

Video: For gaming, a 8800GT 512MB will be fine unless you have a high budget for this machine

* make sure you get a good power supply, I'd go with 600W+ with efficiency rating of 80+

For your reference, my specs are Q9300 @ 3.375GHz (7.5 x 450 @ 1.3V) + MSI Neo2 FIR + 8GB DDR2-900 + MSI 7900GTO + 650 Seasonic PS + Vista x64 (Paging file turned off)

 

[satanpro]

If for some reason you decide to go with an sli setup, make sure you get something newer than the 680i, which doesnt support the 9450.