Cheap socket 775 mobo with P45 chipset

Hey guys

Has anyone got one of these old mobos knocking around?

My mobo will not let me overclock past 3.1ghz on my quad. I am told the best chipset is P45 to let me get past this 3.0ghz barrier.

I have been over to the overclockers forum and I am told my mobo is a complete pain for this and everyone gets stuck at 3.0 or 3.1ghz.

So if anyone has an uber cheap socket 775 mobo for a core2quad with the p45 chipset that would be great. It does need at least one pci express slot for my graphics card. Will also need overclocking features in the bios itself. This should all be standard anyway I believe.

We are going away for a week on Monday so money is a tad on the tight side.

Cheers

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Jimbo1979

Hey guys

Has anyone got one of these old mobos knocking around?

My mobo will not let me overclock past 3.1ghz on my quad. I am told the best chipset is P45 to let me get past this 3.0ghz barrier.

I have been over to the overclockers forum and I am told my mobo is a complete pain for this and everyone gets stuck at 3.0 or 3.1ghz.

So if anyone has an uber cheap socket 775 mobo for a core2quad with the p45 chipset that would be great. It does need at least one pci express slot for my graphics card. Will also need overclocking features in the bios itself. This should all be standard anyway I believe.

We are going away for a week on Monday so money is a tad on the tight side.

Cheers

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Does it have to be a P45 chipset? If you need a board that has PCI-E 2.0 then also consider the X38 or X48 chipset (my old Abit board with an X38 chipset managed 3.6Ghz with a Q6600... It could have probably gone further but i was on air cooling :)).

I'd see if you can get a nforce 790 chipset.

That rocks, my Q6600 runs at 3.6 quite happily using an asus striker ii nse. my 8gb ddr3 runs at 1600mhz also. still haven't ever felt a need to upgrade past that tbh after a few years owning it.

don't touch the lower numbered force boards though as they're the chipsets with horror stories. they sorted al the problems with the 790 +

@ Jimbo

See if you can locate an Asrock 775Quad-VSTA board. One of my machines is a 775Dual-VSTA and I was easily able to push a 3.2 Celeron D352 to 4Ghz using that board and Corsair XMS2 memory.

If the Quad-VSTA is as good, you should get there. They are VIA chipset and I wouldn't get too hung up on what chipset is best.

your main concern is the FSB on the MB. your overclocking will always be restricted by the boards FSB.
Im sure you know how it works but il just type it out any way..

the cpu is 1/4 the fsb x by the clock multiple. the cpu dictates the multi adjustable via the bios.
so if you have a 1066mhz rated cpu and a 1333 motherboard. you can overclock the 1066 cpu higher than you could on a 1066 motherboard.
The limits to the FSB overclocking of the board are much easier to reach than the cpu limits. so higer FSB = better OC potential.


as stated the chipset may not be something you want to worry about, but the cap's are something that IMO need to be of really good quality to limit the vdroop.
"i go for solid state caps"

Just thought id mention it :)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by ShambleS1980

as stated the chipset may not be something you want to worry about, but the cap's are something that IMO need to be of really good quality to limit the vdroop.
"i go for solid state caps"

Just thought id mention it :)

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I also think the CPU's voltage regulators and mosfets (located around the CPU socket) need to be of high quality *WITH* heatsinks if you're going to be pushing a 65nm quad core chip beyond 3Ghz :nod:

Quote:

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Originally Posted by ShambleS1980

your main concern is the FSB on the MB your overclocking will always be restricted by the boards FSB.
Im sure you know how it works but il just type it out any way..

the cpu is 1/4 the fsb x by the clock multiple. the cpu dictates the multi adjustable via the bios.
so if you have a 1066mhz rated cpu and a 1333 motherboard. you can overclock the 1066 cpu higher than you could on a 1066 motherboard.
The limits to the FSB overclocking of the board are much easier to reach than the cpu limits. so higer FSB = better OC potential.

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^^ This, and the good old 'Rule of 33', in that whatever you push the FSB up by, for best results and stability you sould try to keep to a multiple of 33, so that the PCI bus is happy.

Although the Corsair XMS2 DDR2 memory I use in my Asrock board is rated up to 675Mhz, I was only able to push it up to 633 without things becoming unstable. Still, a 25% overclock, for a Celeron rated with an original FSB of 533 is not to be sniffed at.

I dont much bother with ram oc. what you gain in mhz you tend to have to lose in timing. so when i oc the FSB i adjust the ram down so its back at its nominal value.
basic example so dont take the numbers to literaly..
oc cpu from 2.4 to 3.0 by changing the board from 1066 to 1333 (no oc on the board as its rated 1333) ram goes up to 1000mhz so step the ram back down to 800mhz, and adjust the timings to the fastest stable speeds.

if i didnt do that and left the ram oc'd id have to adjust the voltage to the ram increase the cooling for the ram and slow down the timing. so it's better for me to just oc the cpu. (and gpu obviously, but i will oc Gfx ram)

After all this did anyone have a board to offer lol?

I know how to overclock, just my mobo is rubbish past 3.0ghz. So I just need a cheapo board for the q6600 that will let me go above 3.0, tbh I only want to go to around 3.4ghz.

Cheers

I wish I could hep you with a board, but all the same for a bit of free advise;

Avoid nVidia chipsets if you can. They are the hottest chipset supporting Intel DUO CPU's & their RAID transfer speeds suck immesureably.
Don't touch VIA with a barge pole for an Intel CPU. They suck worse than than nVidia & are well on par for crapiness as are SIS chipsets (if they still exist?)
Stick to an Intel chipset board for unsurpassed performance with the DUO CPU. RAID0 speeds are mental & chipset temps are really cool in a case with good airflow.
P35, P45 or X48 is the way to go for pure stability & maximum compatability. Be sure you buy a good brand name like Abit, Asus etc & avoid the Mr. Chips brands at all costs.
Micro-ATX versions of these intel chipset mobo's may not offer you what you really need, so check the boards specs to your requirements before you dive in.
There are lots of UK websites offering skt775 boards if you look around & ball park figures are around £40 from what I've seen. Google is your friend here & good luck finding a suitable candidate if you get no offers on AmiBay. :)

PS. Use detailed discretion when selecting any board to support the DUO. Some are DDR3, the majority being DDR2. DDR2 Ram is very expensive these days & performance wise with an Overclock on the System, there is next to nothing in performance gains for using DDR3 over DDR2. Look @ your costs before deciding. ;)

Also, your mileage will vary on any overclock you apply. The Mobo brand can help big time, but you will always be limited to your CPU's ability to actually overclock. If it's a 95W DO Q6600 you're using, 3.6Ghz on Air with a good 5 x or greater heatpipe heatsink is easily do-able for 24/7 reliability. Don't foget to give it a decent PSU too, especially if you are running a power hungry graphics card to boot.