Hi all,

Been using this place as a reference for years, but this is the first time I'm posting. I'm looking at building a new system to upgrade from my ol' P4 and have a question about the Intel Chipsets. What I want is a 3.0 GHz Quad core without spending my whole budget on the CPU. From what I read on here, the Q6600 G0 Stepping is the way to go.

I'm confused on the differences on the P35 (or P45) vs. the X38/X48 Chipsets. I've read that the P35 is a better chipset, but it looks like it has slower PCIexpress Bus Speeds (X8 vs. X16). Any explaination, and recommendation for a good motherboard that would get a Q6600 up to 3 GHz easily with air cool would be appreciated.

-Mark

p.s. Will be using system as a gaming rig, for 3D animation and Video work along with all the standard email, websurf, MS office etc.

Any of those motherboard will easily OC the Q6600 to 3GHz. The P45 replaces the P35, thus it's better. Same with the X38s and X48s.

Surprisingly, the cheaper P45 overclocks higher than the high end X48, so unless you want Crossfire at full x16/x16 bandwidth, the P45 is the way to go.

The Q6600 is getting old, although still a great value. Do you really need a Quad core? The E8400 is excellent as well, and overclocks easily to 4GHz using a P45 motherboard. You may also want to consider getting the Q9450.

Make sure to get a proper HS for your CPU. The best one out there for the price would be the Xigmatek S1283.

As far as gaming is concerned high clocked dualies are the way to go. By the time quads will be worth it Nehalem will be out.

You need to understand what Evilonigiri said. x38/x48 will run ATI cards crossfired at full x16 PCIe speeds. The p35/p45 wont. With the newere cards Xfire isnt really needed for a midrange gamer, but if you want to run 2 ATI 38xx in xfire you will want the X38/X48 boards.

If you are going with a single high end vid card then the P boards are fine.

The P45 is the way to go for a single video card. If you intend to Xfire, then the X38/X48 boards are faster.

^ yep absolutely right!

Thanks for all the input everyone. I'd like to understand what makes the P45 vs the X48 better? Isn't 16x PCIexpress better than 8x even with a single card (which I will most likely use only one card). Also I do want a Quad as I do 3D animation and that will dramatically help with that. Also, can I still use a single Nvidia card (looking at the GTX 260) with the intel chipset? I really don't need to overclock more than 3GHz as I don't want the heat issues... Heat means faster fans = more noise.

errr almost all board runs single cards in 16x so the 8x / 16x in crossfire is irrevelant for you. Yes nvidia card will work.

As for the cpu : Q6600 only if it's really cheaper than the Q9300 or Q9450.

I am sorry but i disagree with the others on this!! All the q9X50's are a bit handicapped by the multiplier.. So, if u r looking for value, I wud not suggest the q9450, q9300 or EVEN the q6700.. The q6600 is still a great chip.. It can do 3.6 on air, and if u got a great cooler, can maybe do 3.8...
apart from all this, its a tough old chip and more resilient than the newer 45nms.. The performance advantage per clock goes to the 45nms.. But honestly, the whole 775 platform will be obsolete when Nehalem comes out... So save ur cash for now, n get the q6600 (hope u get VID <1.3250).
u can upgrade later when Nehalem comes out..

^ i disagree with you.

Nelahem have so many threads that needs program support to be really see the performance gain, this which will also benefit all the Quad core now since there arent many problem that support more then 2 threads.

get the 45nm Q9450 and get the P45 will let your overclock to above 4Ghz because dispite the low multiplier the P45 is capable of 500FSB which will get you 8X500=4Ghz. thats something that Q6600 is not capable of on air. just to let you know 45nm quad will do 4.2Ghz on air an the P45 will mostly do 550FSB some even do 600FSB.

so cmashwin i dont get what you mean Q9450 will suffer against Q6600. the Q6600 is getting very old now but no doubt its stilll the best value for money quad you can buy.

when Nehalem come out there wont be any cheap mainstream version, and mainstream of nehalem you will not be able to overclock so what you bought is what you get. and that has been comfirm.

so if you got the money to buy 45nm quad why not?lower heat output, lower voltage to achieve the same speed as 65nm quad. so strictly speaking it can even benefit of putting less stress on your mobo.

Of course X16 is better than X8
I believe X48 is the way to go and it OC's easily
Also your choice to go with Q6600 is good even it is 65 n technology
and better than new 45n 9450 processors as lot of reports about heat issues and defective heat sensors
Seams Intel were in a hurry to release it and it was born immature

well the first 65nm Q is heat monster as well all know. so i think there isnt much to be criticised about that. plus many can do 3.5ghz+ on the Q9300 which translate to 3.6Ghz on the same FSB.

what is the heat issue anyway? i only heard defective heat sensor which doesnt mean the 45nm core dont OC well like the 65nm DOES IT!?

So is there any difference between the P45 and X48 other than the two 16xPCIe slots? Will the P45 run cooler than a X48 board at 3GHz? I very much appreciate everyone's opinion but I'm still trying to understand the difference between the two chipsets. I would like to update to Nelahem when it comes out and is affordable... I can use the extra threads for my 3D rendering program. Is there a specific board (Gigabyte, or MSI etc.) that works better or is more stable than the others? Thanks again...

From my experience with an X48 Mobo I have ( Asus Rampage Formula) it comes with official FSB 1600 support
And it OC's without any hassle and without the need to play with voltages here and there
Of course I'm not a crazy overclocker
With my E8500 I just had to set FSB to 400 to reach 3.8GHz and everything else on Auto
Everything is working amazingly
And it has 2X16 PCI Express 2.0 slots ready for 2 X 4870 cards
By the way you can update to Nehalem
You have to build a new system
Cause Nehalem is not 775 socket
So you'll need new mobo and new processor and DDR3

how high can the FSB go on the X48 kad? only P45 broke the world record not the X48.

P35 - PCI-E 1.0 1X16 or 2X8 - ICH9R
P45 - PCI-E 2.0 1x16 or 2x8 - 1CH10R
X38 - PCI-E 2.0 1x16 or 2x16 - ICH9R
X48 - PCI-E 2.0 1x16 or 2x16 - ICH9R - official 1600 FSB support (doesn't mean much)
PCI-E 1 vs 2 - 2 has double the bandwidth - comes into play with Crossfire at high resolutions 1920x1200 or higher.
All of these boards are fully capable of overclocking the commonly used chips to their practical limit - I use a GA-EP35-DS3R with Q6600@3.2 with default voltage settings - running all 4 cores at 100% for weeks now without any stability or heating issues - OCZ V2 cooler.

X38/x48 typically go to at least 2000mhz. This performance is actually the same as normal p45 boards.

It's only one model of p45 that broke the record. It's a large step above the others. BioStar did something strange to it.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6813138118

Thanks everyone... rgsaunders, appreciate the breakdown. One last questions, any significant difference between ICH9R and ICH10R?

erm its not something noticable in everyday life. but of course the newer one is better.

http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1317165 pre-release info.

User Pinning for Intel Turbo Memory (ICH10 Feature)

In addition to Intel Matrix Storage Technology (MST), Intel Rapid Recover Technology, and Intel Turbo Memory - features all included in Intel's ICH9(R) - when paired with an Intel G45 Express chipset, ICH10(R) now allows the user to easily control the application binary information or other data saved in the Turbo Memory cache. The technique, called User Pinning, can boost system performance by decreasing the time needed to access and load frequently referenced data or any other information the user prefers to be available in the prefetch storage space. Intel 4 Series chipsets are also rumored to support a Turbo Memory address space of up to 4GB.
http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipse [...] i=3325&p=2

Practically speaking, at this time, no real difference between the 2 southbridge chips.