Upgrading mobo from Intel 965 to Asus P5QL Pro

[sulimc]

Dear All,

I have an Intel q6600 quad core CPU that I wish to overclock (Intel mobo does not allow this) and running on Windows XP SP2 with 2 GB of RAM and an nVidia graphics card. I was thinking of upgrading the mobo for an Asus P5QL Pro (p35 chipset). Reason I want to overclock is that I wanted more performance when doing video editing. The current setup does seem to pause sometimes, as I am editing HD video content.

A couple of quick questions:
1. If I were to swap the mobo, would I need to re-install Windows XP? Could I just re-install the board drivers and XP will work fine? Got lots of software installed, so it would be a pain if I had to re-install.
2. Would I get much performance from the overclock since I need to spend $100++ to get the new mobo?

Would appreciate your kind help on the above.
Many thanks and cheers!

 

[outlw6669]

1) There are Ways Around It but it is probably a good idea to backup your data before you make the switch and plan on reinstalling.

2) It all depends on how far your parts overclock. If your program is extremely CPU dependent, you should get a nearly linear increase in performance with the clock increase.

A few things to keep in mind.

The motherboard you are looking at (P43 chipset, BTW) is not made for overclocking.
Not to say that it can not do it, just not as well.
Take a look at the P5Q Pro (not the P5QL Pro) for better voltage regulation and a full function P45 chipset for not much more after MIR.

You will probably need a better CPU cooler than a stock one to get a good overclock.
Take a look at either an Artic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro or a Xigmatek 1283 for an inexpensive performer.

Editing HD video you REALLY need more RAM!
2Gb is nowhere enough for what you are doing.
Many of your slowdowns are probably due to a lack of free memory.
If you want to increase your performance, you MUST get 2Gb more RAM.
Even more may be useful but then you must upgrade to a 64 bit Os.

 

[sulimc]

Hi outlw6669,
Many thanks for the great advice. Since I don't know much about overclocking, it's really helpful.
It might be cheaper (and easier) if I got more RAM, but when I am running Pinnacle Studio 11, the RAM consumption does not seem that high when I check in Task Manager. Also, does XP Sp 2 support up to 4GB RAM? I remember reading somewhere that it maxes out below 4GB?

It might be worth a try to add 2GB indeed Pinnacle needs more and XP can support it.

Looking forward to your thoughts on this. Cheers!

 

[outlw6669]

With DDR2 prices what they are now, upgrading to 4Gb would defiantly be the way to start.
It may not give a massive increase in performance but it should help smooth it out when you are working with very large files.

Yes, Xp does support 4Gb of RAM.... Kinda.
It can address a total of 4Gb.
This would include your video card, sound card, BIOS, RAM and other system devices.
In reality, you will probably see around 3.5Gb of the 4Gb installed depending, of course, on how much RAM your GPU has.

What is your current P965 motherboard?
Old as it may be, the P965 chipset is still an able overclocker when on a decent Mb.
If you have options in the BIOS to do so, I would not be surprised if you could get it to 3.0Ghz quite easily.

Overclocking it self is really quite easy.
As you probably already know, the speed of your CPU (2.4Ghz) = the multiplier (9) * the FSB (266Mhz).
To overclock, you only need to change one of the variables, in your case the FSB.
There are a few more steps you must take, such as adding voltage and changing the RAM frequency/timings, but the process is prety simple. As a good primer, take a look at the Core 2 Oveclocking Sticky.

 

[sulimc]

Thanks. The mobo is an Intel DP965LT, which does not support overclocking, or at least I can't find the options you mentioned to tweak the FSB in the BIOS settings. Was told that Intel boards have overclocking disabled.

Might think about the RAM and give it a try but I just checked as I was editing videe and Task Manager report 1.2GB physical memory available, so not really sure if it will help that much.

Thanks for your help. Cheers!