I have a Gigabyte 965p-S3 Rev 1.0 board, and as far as I can tell the best bang for buck upgrade from my E6300 1.8 CPU is to either a Q6600 or Q6700.

But I have a fully complemented USB bus, all 8 ports conected, 3 external HDDs, 2 on USB, and one on Firewire, a TV Tuner a printer etc. a card reader, (there are 2 small hubs running only low drain devices), and all my PCI slots filled. 2 LG DVD drives, 5 SATA internal drives and a floppy. Other USb items are my phone dock, my PSP, my camera and an IR device, all of which are interchanged.

I have an ATI x1650 and I run 2 21" Dell Trinitrons (not that I think they have any influence). A creative Audigy Platinum Pro, that runs a power cable on the board for the external I/O box..

I am really concerned about the USB power demands after inserting this higher consumption CPU.

I have an ANTEC quality 500W supply.

The system has been stable for more than a year, with 24/7 operation, the only falls I have had are BSOD from more than 2 flash drives, (some FAT error with XP), and some times the USB system will have the devices disconnect and reconnect after a change, but nothing serious, or strange, maybe a few instances that required a reboot, but very rare.

I am yet to update to SP3, I will at months end.

Any ideas on how this might go power wise putting a Q6600 or Q6700 in?

Sean.

USB has 5V and a current limit of about 500mA per device (550mA if you go for max tolerance). That means 10 USB ports consume a max of about 25-30W worst case. So that shouldn't worry you. 5x15W HDD and 2x25W ODD puts you at around 125W max for all your drives.

E6300 is a 65W and Q6600 is a 95W TDP processor (if you overclock it to say 3.6 that's around 150W max power draw).

USB : 30W
HDD + ODD : 125W
CPU : 150W
MB : 40W
GPU : 75W (max draw for PCIE graphics)
PCI cards : 30W
=====
Total : ~450W

There should be no issues however your PSU is a bit slim.
If you decide to go for a graphics card (one that needs the extra PCIE power plug) upgrade you will likely need to upgrade the PSU as well.
Overclocking might also be limited.

Thanks Andrius,

What is "TDP" processor?

I am not into overclocking, I do well enough with the standard configs, but I see your point on it being slim, maybe a 750W will be more appropriate? I don't see any need to upgrade the GPU, although if it fails then I will need to buy a more recent model which might force a PSU upgrade.

Also, does this config mean it is more important to cool the NB chip due to such a load on all MB functions? I have an ANtec P180 case, that keeps my drives and my system cool and has very low dust, but I hear for longevity they need an extra fan?

Thanks for a very detailed reply.

Sean.

TDP is a way to measure/estimate maximum power draw of a component.
http://processorfinder.intel.com/P [...] lGuideline
Q6700 95W (if you won't overclock I think it is worth the extra money):
http://processorfinder.intel.com/d [...] Spec=SLACQ
Q6600 95W :
http://processorfinder.intel.com/d [...] Spec=SLACR
E6300 : 65W :
http://processorfinder.intel.com/d [...] Spec=SL9SA

If you won't overclock there's no need to upgrade the PSU (I'm not sure how good the Antec is and how accurately it's rated). 80% peak load on the PSU is quite a reasonable value.

Cooling the motherboard and components is always a good idea however it might be difficult since your computer is fully loaded. Look into a Zalman FB-123 bracket if you can get your hands on one (they are hard to get where I live). The Antec P180 is an excellent case. Check the temperatures to see if you need additional cooling (I think 40°C for a northbridge is a good temperature).

Got it, thanks.

I was sure to buy a quality PSU when I got this, and studied many at the time, it has lasted well over 3 years, and this system is BEDROCK stable.

Do you mean electronically or physically? Cause I was considering a small plate fan that can be stuck onto the heatsink, they aree only about an inch in diameter.

I will take a look.

Yes, the case is a dream, it is so quite and easy to work on. The mountings are very stable and have meant much less wear and tear on the drives.

I will look to the temp, but even on 35+ days here, I still only get about 44 to 45 on HDDs and mostly they are from 35-40 (as also reported by the drives via HD Tune).

To me, these are very good temps, considering there are 5 drives, 2 system, and three internal that sit below with there own fan that goes over the PSU. I really do not expect anything over 40 where the board sits, but I will have to take a look. AFAIK the CPu's run at about 50.

Sean.

Based on this, the present Antec 500wt, though it may have been good enough in past use, would be very slim indeed. A new PSU in the area of 550wts to 650wts would be a good idea, especially since the Antec 500wt PSU is over three years old and the capacitors have aged a bit during that time and new PSUs are generally more efficient than the older ones. One of these Seasonics would probably work well:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6817151027

for stock CPU clocks, or if you plan to overclock, try this one:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6817151030

Um there is no need to overclock a Q6600 anyway ... apart from the brag factor ... given what you want the pc for.


You won't get any more FPS on the games because you have a low end graphics card.

On that basis there is no need to upgrade the PSU unless you get a higher end card ... like an 88 or 98 series Nvidia or a 38 series ATI card.

You will get uber gains on applications that will utilise the other cores though ... like encoding etc ... and it will run a lot smoother across all of your applications in general.

If you put a Q in the box make sure you tidy up the wiring and have plenty of airfow inside the case ... to keep it cool.

So many people on the forums do overclock, I try to give that in consideration when recommending parts such as PSUs. Except for a very few games, I find there is little reason for clocks much higher than 3ghz, but as you say, there is the "brag factor" that many people go for.

If not overclocking and the extra money isn't a problem, I would recommend the Q6700 over the Q6600, as the higher multiplier gives a worthwhile increase in speed. Even those who overclock can find the higher multiplier advantageous.

Running stock frequencies, your load will go up 30 watts, all on the 12 volt rails.

As a matter of fact, in an EP35-DS3P, a Q6600 OC'd to 3.6 GHz pulls about 9.5 amps ( < 120 watts) while running Prime95.

You could save a little money (put it toward a more powerful PSU) by buying a Q6600 instead of a Q6700 and doing a moderate OC to 2.7 GHz or 3.0 GHz. A G0 Q6600 will should run that fast on the stock voltage which means the stock HSF will be more than adequate.

@Sailer and seanoz
The 3 years old makes a bit of a difference. I agree with sailer on this however I doubt it will be an issue as I've taken everything to the theoretical maximum values (even for a heavily overclocked quadcore).
Investing in a quality PSU is indeed a good idea (I change mine every 3-4 years anyway).

@jsc
I agree on the cooling, but since he said he's not interested in overclocking I think the Q6700 is worth the extra money. If he were to overclock a Q6600 and a good cooler would be the best value.

I overclocked my Q6600 to 3.0GHz for a very simple reason. It's what the P35 board runs at stock and my Q6600 runs 3.0GHz below CPU stock voltage. The "brag factor" is irrelevant for me as this a workhorse build and 100% stability is more important than cutting edge performance.

No insult intended ... it just seemed a waste when hooked up to a low end graphics card ... and a power supply close to the edge ... on an old board.

See my point here?

The difference between in performance for the Q66 vs the Q67 given the above is just wasting more money for no reason I think too.

^I never thought about that. Good thinking. The difference in performance will likely be very small yes. The Q67 might run a bit cooler (since it requires 95W at 2.67GHz vs the Q66s 2.4GHz) but that's about as relevant as the speed increase.

That's not right. Just because they share the same TDP doesn't make the Q6600 more power hungry or hotter. In fact it's quite the opposite. Due to the high demand for Q6600, often parts that could be binned for higher clocks are down clocked and sold as Q6600s. Anyway TDP is a sort of worst case scenario rating and the method that Intel uses differs from AMD's (I'm not talking about ACP here).

@Modtech
You are right about the binning (it's a lottery), but since they are both rated at 95W for stock speed and Q6700 gets it's speed reduced more than the Q6600 by idling I'd say the Q6700 should in general be cooler at idle (the difference would be small if there's any at all). But like I said. The difference should be irrelevant and I like the higher multiplier.