[Solved] Best OC Mobo for i5-750

I'm strongly considering a CPU/Mobo/RAM upgrade for Christmas (or earlier) this year. This is in part to feed my own desire to be more up to date, and also because I can use my existing Q6600/680i/DDR2 setup to update my wife's PC (Athlon X2 4400+).

Here's an example of what I'm currently looking at:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Comb [...] mbo.280597

When I got my Q6600 a while back, I made the mistake of going with the 680i chipset, which isn't that great for OC'ing Quads. I don't want to do that again this time around. Budget wise however, I'm looking at the i5-750 based on it's price and over-all performance. I've considered AMD's PII's, but the i5-750 seems to even beat out the PII 965 BE when both are at stock speeds (i5 @ 2.66Ghz / 965 @ 3.4Ghz). So what's the point?

Requirements:
1156 Socket Type (P55 Boards)
SLI Capability (I have 2 GTX 260's now)
Very good possibility of hitting at least 4Ghz OC on CPU.
IDE Connections (still have couple IDE optical drives)

As Cheap as I can get without seriously compromising performance/reliability. Also, somewhat worried (not hugely) about the issue Tom's discussed a couple days ago about some of the P55 boards dying after OC'ing due to chipset issues?

I've read several reviews/benchmarks on the Gigabyte, Asus, MSI, & EVGA boards and unfortunately I'm really not sure which is my best choice. Each review I've read seems to have a slightly different takes. I'm a gamer, so gaming performance is my overall goal.

I guess I'm looking for experienced feedback from owners who can give me their opinions on the boards they've purchased.

Thanks for your reply OvrClkr. I've always been a Corsair memory fan, and they've never given me a problem before. OCZ is something I've never dealt with. Nor have I owned any G.Skill stuff either.

The biggest thing for me is the motherboard. The combo deals certainly help shave money off the whole thing (which is important) but I want to make sure I'm getting a rock solid board. Reading about P55 boards having faulty chips doesn't help any.

I also looked at the AsRock motherboard on NewEgg, but I've never done business with AsRock either. I like the $139 price point though.

Here's a cheap setup with the AsRock & GSkill RAM:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Comb [...] mbo.281102
Plus
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6819115215

Ends up @ $420.

I just read a review of the ASRock P55 Extreme that says it has support for socket 755 coolers. Wonder if my Xiggy will fit. That would save on the upgrade costs quite a bit. I have another 755 cooler that's almost as good that I can put on my current board for my wife's use.

There is a kit for mounting S1283s on 1156 and 1366 sockets now.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6835233038

I have to say, not that I'm opposed to the ASRock board, but I'm pretty attracted to the Gigabyte boards.

So after reading Tom's review today on Enthusiast P55 boards, I'm really leaning toward the Gigabyte UD4 board. Here's what I'm tempted to do:

Gigabyte P55-UD4P $149 @ Tiger Direct (Free Shipping)
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applica [...] =G452-0100

i5-750 + GSkill DDR3 1600 @ NewEgg.com (Free Shipping)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Comb [...] mbo.286426

Total of $434.97.00

However, this would mean I either need a new aftermarket cooler, or need to locate a modified bracket for the S1283 I already have (preferred).

http://www.cpu.com/computer/parts/ [...] 47501.html

Okay, placed my order today. Unfortunately, TigerDirect raised their price on the Gigabyte board today by $10. I was a bit annoyed to see this considering it wasn't "on sale" yesterday.

So, NewEgg.com got my business (yet again!).

GSkill 2x2GB DDR3-1600 (12800) 9-9-9-24 @ 1.5V $94.99 (Free Shipping)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6820231193

Combo Deal:
Intel i5-750 (Retail) & Gigabyte GA-P55-UD4P $369.98 -$25 Combo Deal = $344.98 (Free Shipping)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Comb [...] mbo.290314

Grand Total:
$439.97

Having trouble finding someone who has the XIGMATEK ACK-I5361 in stock though.

Just a 60 dollar discount and the coolermaster PSU's are not the greatest.... That's why it's on the combo =)

Thanks dude!! I just wanted you to know that the Asrock Extreme was a flawless board for the price. There really is no such thing as the "Best" board when in fact the best is what works for you. As long as the board has all the bells and whistles that YOU will use, then that is considered the "BEST" in my opinion. Now, when it comes to overclocking and so forth, there are boards that are better than others but not by a wide margin. All brands with the exeption of INTEL and ELITEGROUP are considered good buys, of course there are a few good brands that have their share of not so good boards, but as long as you buy something with a decent/good track record you should be fine.

As far as the RAM goes, the modules that you picked are superb, the best thing about them is they do not run hot like other models. I even overvolted them a bit and they did't flinch... Anyways let me know how your build went once you are done....

You should be fine as far as the building goes, just make sure you are grounded before you touch the mobo.

Im still reaserching the availabilty of the bracket... Will keep you posted =)

Xigmatek Crossbow ACK-I5361 Update:

I contacted Xigmatek USA today by phone (+1 888 839 6898). A representative there informed me that they're currently waiting on a shipment of these kits that they expected to receive LAST WEEK. However, he said they've had Customs delays or something like that.

He was hoping their online retailers like NewEgg might have them in stock again by the end of this week perhaps. I thought I'd share this with everyone in case anyone else has been trying to find one of these kits.

*crosses fingers*

True enough. I just hope I'm able to get one ordered before they go back out of stock again. LOL Who knows. Probably shipping out of Tawain, and shipping on a big freight ship that's dealing with pirate attacks...

I'm itching to get my Xiggy on this i5 so I can start to truly play with it and this Gigabyte board.

Nice. Nice timings on that RAM. Is it the 1333 or 1600Mhz stuff?

I used Gigabyte's EasyTune 6 program this evening just for fun. It gives you three automatic OC options (1, 2, 3). It offers to automatically OC the i5-750 to 2.8Ghz, 3Ghz, or 3.2Ghz.

Everything booted up fine @ both 2.8Ghz and 3Ghz seemingly without voltage change on ET6's part. Prime 95 seemed stable for several minutes. However, since I'm stuck with Intel's boxed cooler, I didn't try the 3.2Ghz. Unfortunately, Prime 95 puts my CPU at about 73C @ 3Ghz (Turbo'd to 3.1Ghz).

So I've restored default clock settings for now. Was nice to see one of the reviews I read was correct. It appears you really can OC this sucker to 3.2Ghz without having to modify the voltage. Pretty substantial OC for not having to bump up voltage if you ask me.

Can't wait until I can finally get my Xiggy cooler on here. Part of me is tempted to find another good 1156 cooler and just order one. I'm itching to do some OC testing.

EDIT: BTW, I installed Gigabyte's @Bios program and downloaded and installed their latest Bios. My board shipped with "F3" on it. Their latest is "F4". However, even though it said it was successful, after reboot it claims to still be using the F3 bios version. So either it just simply didn't work, or the Dual-Bios setup restored the initial one for some reason...

CPU-Z Confirms it is "F3". Weird. Will have to try again in the future perhaps. Otherwise, it works fine at this point. So there may not really be a reason to update. Will have to read the change log for the BIOS update and see if it's even worth doing I guess.

NewEgg.com now has the Xigmatek ACK-i5361 bracket back in stock as of this evening. Just placed my order, plus some AS5, and an extra Thermaltake iCage for my case.

Cooler is better.

After the fact comment.
Recommend you use QFlash from the BIOS and not @BIOS program. There have been several posts of @Bios hosing up the Bios. You do not need a floppy drive, just copy the dot Fx to root directory on C: drive. (That's was what I did last night when I upgraded to the F4 bios.

I ran Prime95 Last night at stock and at 3.2 and My core temps were 48 -> 50 C. Your HSF is probably better than Mine, I have the Zalman 9700. For the 3.2 OC the ONLY thing I did was change the CPU multiplier from 17 to 20.

yea, post an update once you are done installing the new cooler ......

jerreece, You asked "Is it the 1333 or 1600Mhz stuff?" - It was 1600 1.6 volts

Interested in how your S1382 does, I think I'm going to redo mine using AS 5.

I tried loading ET6 into Win 7 RC - no workee. I have not loaded my upgrade version yet as I am waiting for Intel to get there Firmware for their SSD FIXED! - suppost to be by the end of the month. I did try installing Vista Windows mail program into Win 7 - seems to work, Need to config it (Have to figure out my Password).

Also noted that CPUID HWMonitor does not display my +12 V and is incorrect on +5V usb. Same same with Speed fan. Using DVM, they are fine +5 = 4.99 V and + 12v = 12.3 V. Have to wait tell the fix their program.

Okay, just got my Xiggy installed. Got Windows to boot with the following settings:

200 x 20 = 4Ghz @ 1.32V CPU (All else Auto)

I turned off the C1E, etc. Also turned off Turbo Boost. Load Line Calibration is on Auto (disabling showed a large VDroop & was unstable in Prime95)

Idle temps are 34-40C depending on core. Quite a variation between cores though. May not have gotten a great seat on my cooler, or didn't get the AS5 distributed well enough or something.







So far Prime95 is stable after about 23 minutes anyhow. Showing some good maximum temps with all 4 cores @ 100%.

Of Note: I did notice while mounting the 1156 Xiggy bracket, that the metal plate behind the CPU socket is labeled "Foxconn". This is a bummer considering I thought I'd read somewhere that my motherboard didn't use the Foxconn chip.