Critique Parts for Q6600 Overclocking Build

[Lord Gornak]

Looking to run stable and cool at 3.0GHz, basically I just need to know if the motherboard, memory, and power supply are the best choices...


CPU: Q6600 G0 (No E8400 suggestions please, already purchased it for $199)

CPU Cooler: Thermaltake Big Typhoon (also already purchased)

Motherboard: Gigabyte P35 DS3L

Memory: Kingston HyperX 2GB DDR2 1066 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx? Item=N82E16820134586

Power Supply: OCZ StealthXStream OCZ600SXS http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817341010

Hard Drives: Reusing two 150GB Maxtor SATA drives

Video Card: Reusing 8800 GTS 640

Optical: Reusing 2 DVD Optical Reader/Writers

Case: Antec P180


Thanks for your help!!!

 

[pous]

Looks like a solid set up. Make sure you have good cooling in your case. Also if your 8800gts is like mine and exhausts down into the case you might want to look into a pci slot cooler that will exhaust it out the back, just to help with overall cooling.

 

[Lord Gornak]

Mine exhausts to the rear but I'm thinking about picking up another slot cooler anyway. Thanks for the help!

 

[pous]

Sweet, just out of curiosity what case are you using for this build? I just switched mine over to a P180 from a Centurion 534. Managed a 15c drop in temps (at stock) haven't had time yet to OC, lots of OT at work lately.

 

[rockbyter]

Guess the only thing missing is a shotgun blast to the side panel. (speed holes). looks good to me.

 

[trevorblain]

Quite honestly, it seems like overkill to me just to reach 3 ghz. Just make sure you get the G0 stepping and you should be able to reach at least 3.4 with decent air cooling. Can't vouch for the typhoon, but I would think you should be able to top 3.0 without breakin a sweat.

 

[Lord Gornak]

Sweet, just out of curiosity what case are you using for this build? I just switched mine over to a P180 from a Centurion 534. Managed a 15c drop in temps (at stock) haven't had time yet to OC, lots of OT at work lately.

P180 as well over here, it cools great. The only issue I ever have with it is moving the heavy beast!

 

[Lord Gornak]

Quite honestly, it seems like overkill to me just to reach 3 ghz. Just make sure you get the G0 stepping and you should be able to reach at least 3.4 with decent air cooling. Can't vouch for the typhoon, but I would think you should be able to top 3.0 without breakin a sweat.

Which part is overkill? Is the power supply too much?

 

[pous]

Maybe cooler? You can use AF7Pro which is only 27.99 or so, but since you already have that and the P180 there's no worries. Also just in general like he says with that set up, your cooling will be good enough you could probably surpass 3.0

Regardless you'll have a smoking system, and I know what you mean about moving the P180 around it was a lot bigger/heavier than I imagined.

 

[Lord Gornak]

Thanks for the input pous. Just wanted to make sure this thing would last me until my next build 2-3 years from now. I'm only shooting for 3GHz because I doubt I'll see that much of a difference past that and I want rock-solid stability with little to no migration long-term.

With the P180, at least if my desk collapses during an earthquake I know my case will survive!

 

[lukevega]

Lord Gornak, may I ask where you purchased the Q6600 G0 for $199?

 

[Lord Gornak]

Don't worry, I didn't buy it off of the back of a truck
Micro Center down the street has all Q6600s and E8400s for $199.99 in-store only. As of Tuesday they still had 189 Q6600s in stock at my store Tustin, CA.

www.microcenter.com

 

[lukevega]

Thanks man, I'll check it out

 

[Lord Gornak]

Processors are a fantastic deal there right now, but buy your other parts elsewhere!

 

[jevon]

3.0Ghz with a Q6600 on a P35 should be really easy, it's literally just chaing the fsb in bios from 266 (Q6600's fsb) to 333 (P35/X38 fsb). Shouldn't have to mess with voltages or anything else.

The only thing I can see to change is that to get the Q6600 to 3.0Ghz speeds you only need DDR2-667 memory. 667/2 (RAM is double data rate, do divide it by 2) = 333mhz, which is what you want to move the Q6600's fsb up to in order to reach 3.0Ghz and to run 1:1 with the memory's speed.

DDR2-1066 is overkill. It would theoretically bring a Q6600 up to 4.8Ghz (1066/2 = 533 x9 [Q6600's multiplier] = 4.8ghz) which is definately impossible. DDR2-800 would let you overclock all the way up to 3.6Ghz, but even that is on the crazy end of overclocking and would almost certainly require an intense watercooling setup.

So, if you're sure you don't want to go past 3.0Ghz, just get some DDR2-667. I'd recommend DDR2-800 incase you DO want to (at some point) go past 3Ghz, but also because the stuff can be had for so cheap. Try to get a set with timings as low as possible, like 4-4-4-12 (as opposed to 5-5-5-15, for example).

Cheers

 

[asymetriccircle]

the g92 8800gts with 512mb ram will be better than the 640. other than that looks good. i run my q6600 at 333x9 on stock voltages and its completely stable. at full load it gets to about 58C after 5-10minutes and thats with a zalman 9500 so you should be fine.

 

[Lord Gornak]

Thanks for the memory advice jevon, will do the low timing DDR2-800 and save some cash! I've studied the quad OC guide and didn't know it would be that easy with the P35. The fact that I won't have to change voltages is also very exciting!

Asymetriccircle, I've had my 8800 640 for over a year now and don't see any point in upgrading just yet, definitely wouldn't buy another one with all of the better choices out these days!

 

[Lord Gornak]

Just ordered this memory, heard good things about GEIL and even though my case has no window I like the color of the heat spreaders. Timing is 4-4-4-12.

http://www.newegg.com/product/product.aspx?Item=N82E16820144062

 

[trevorblain]

DDR2-800 would let you overclock all the way up to 3.6Ghz, but even that is on the crazy end of overclocking and would almost certainly require an intense watercooling setup.

No way, I'm at 3.52 using a Thermalright 120. Watercooling I'm sure would allow me to go higher.

To the OP, nah, your PSU is fine, it's just your cooling should be overkill for 3.0. Don't limit yourself on the clockspeed, especially with that setup.

 

[Lord Gornak]

No way, I'm at 3.52 using a Thermalright 120. Watercooling I'm sure would allow me to go higher.

To the OP, nah, your PSU is fine, it's just your cooling should be overkill for 3.0. Don't limit yourself on the clockspeed, especially with that setup.

Do you notice a large difference between 3.0 and 3.52 in applications and gaming or just synthetics?

 

[Shadow703793]

Looks good to me. I would personally switch the PSU to a Corsair or a PP&C ( my personal choices imo, Corsair and PP&C happens to be better PCB design )

Check out:
P35-DS3L Overclocking HOW TO and GUIDE - Overclocking P35/X38 Chipsets v1.0

PS: Can you post your OC results/ settings on guides please? This could help others with smiler/same setups.

 

[Lord Gornak]

PP&C would be my first choice, but I can't find anything under 80 bucks which is my budget for the PSU.

Edit: Okay I lied, found the Silencer 470, think I might have to order it: http://www.pcpower.com/power-supply/silencer-470-atx.html

26 Amps on the 12V rail sound mighty fine!

 

[trevorblain]

Do you notice a large difference between 3.0 and 3.52 in applications and gaming or just synthetics?

A respectable difference I think, never been much for synthetics. It's probably more noticable with games like Crysis to where every little bit helps.

And like I said, with your setup you should be able to hit much higher than 3.0 anyway, so it would only be a matter of fine tuning your settings to make it stable at higher speeds. Piece of cake really with all the guides floating around.

 

[Zorg]

Good choices, 800 RAM smart change. Make sure you lock the PCIe to 100 when you OC, and be sure to change the memory multiplier to 2.4 or the GA-P35 mobos will OC the RAM too far. 1333 FSB is 333 base clock X 2.4 = 800. You will not have to do anything else to get a stable OC to 3G/1333. You may also want to manually lower the voltage after you confirm stability. I took mine from a VID of 1.3V to 1.275V and dropped 10-11C under load.

You do not need the additional PCI fan at all, don't waste your money. Disable the fan control in BIOS Health. It's not really that noisy.

 

[Lord Gornak]

That makes sense. I do own Crysis but I've never gotten farther than the first level/demo level because of timing with work and family. I plan to take some time off soon to give it a good attempt.

Thanks for the advice, I think I might try running it above 3.0 with some tweaking. I just have to make sure I do my tweaks early in the evening before I touch my happy bottle that makes me forget work ;-)