Need advice- motherboard choice on upgrade q6600

EllisD

March 8, 2010 1:06:21 PM

I am buying a used machine from a friend that has a q6600.

Option 1: His current set-up is gigabyte ep45-ud3p motherboard with OCZ pc-8500 memory. The cpu runs stock 2.4ghz with this set-up. graphics card 8800gtx. (unable to overclock this option - he says most likely memory incompatible for oc)

Option 2: q6600 @ 3.0 ghz on MSI p6n platinum motherboard (nvidia chipset) and patriot 800mhz ram. same gpu.

I am buying this to play games. what is better? 3.0 ghz on older chipset or p45 chipset and faster ram with cpu at 2.4ghz?

Thanks for your input. If you can tell me why one is better than the other I really appreciate it.

More about : advice motherboard choice upgrade q6600

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lindley010

March 8, 2010 10:09:33 PM

I can see no reason why you are unable to overclock the q6600. the q6600 is a very good cpu without overclocking, i currently am running it at stock (2.4ghz) and i see no reason to overclock it. although i may push it to 3ghz once i upgrade the gfx card.

The pc-8500 is only slightly faster anyway. why are there two options in the first place?

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shortstuff_mt

Homebuilt system Master

Motherboard Authority

March 8, 2010 10:16:03 PM

The EP45-UD3P is an excellent motherboard. I bet your friend just doesn't know how to manually set the RAM speed/timings/voltage in the BIOS. It likely won't overclock using "Auto" settings, but is a great overclocker with some manual settings.

I would pick the Gigabyte board over the MSI one any day.

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lindley010

March 8, 2010 10:20:29 PM

shortstuff_mt said:

The EP45-UD3P is an excellent motherboard. I bet your friend just doesn't know how to manually set the RAM speed/timings/voltage in the BIOS. It likely won't overclock using "Auto" settings, but is a great overclocker with some manual settings.

I would pick the Gigabyte board over the MSI one any day.

I'd agree, even though i know nothing about the two specific motherboards. Gigabyte is simply better than MSI, ive had 2 gigabytes and the msi im using now & i prefer gigabyte over msi. And like i said in my previous post, there is absolutely no reason you cannot overclock the q6600.

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