The Pond Quad Core Thread

[Fluff n Stuff]

Hey Ned, do we have a decent thread here for Quad hardware? I'm shoppin' parts and would love to bounce a few ideas around. The only thing I'm sure about is the PSU, I'm still trying to figure out if the hardware is Quad compatible and freindly... Mobos, PSUs, Memory... its right for too many forums, and wrong for all of 'em 'nStuff.

If one doesn't exist yet, where should I start it?

[JokerCPoC]

Hey Ned, do we have a decent thread here for Quad hardware? I'm shoppin' parts and would love to bounce a few ideas around. The only thing I'm sure about is the PSU, I'm still trying to figure out if the hardware is Quad compatible and friendly... Mobos, PSUs, Memory... its right for too many forums, and wrong for all of 'em 'nStuff.

If one doesn't exist yet, where should I start it?

What size and and brand of psu? Hopefully one with a single +12v rail I'd hope as that is the direction I'm going as I have two like that now, I might even have a 3rd one If I can ever get the danged thing from Uniquely Pathetic Service, Who delivered It to not only the wrong city, But also the wrong address and If It isn't there UPS better pay up for the full $100 as It was clearly labeled on the box Calico Blvd and Yermo, Not Calico Street and Newberry Springs....... They've delivered here before so they have no excuse for this deliberate sabotage of the delivery of My psu.... And I don't care Who I have to talk to to get It either.

[Fluff n Stuff]

I was wondering about a few of 'em, frankly. My idea for a new machine is to have onboard graphics and one Hard Drive... no overclocking planned. Parts List, VERY subject to updating as soon as I learn any facts:

The Quad Unit

Hope that link works 'nStuff.

[JokerCPoC]

I was wondering about a few of 'em, frankly. My idea for a new machine is to have onboard graphics and one Hard Drive... no overclocking planned. Parts List, VERY subject to updating as soon as I learn any facts:

The Quad Unit

Hope that link works 'nStuff.

Yeah It works fluff, Still no psu eh?

Most motherboards like that don't overclock and If You want a Q6600 cpu, Avoid i945 chipset and earlier motherboards as they may support dual core cpus, But no quads. At least Your motherboard is a modern one.

I have a Question for You, Why XP Pro and not XP x64?

[Fluff n Stuff]

Look again; I listed the Zalman PSU... the ZM 500HP. It's one of the things I'm wondering about... I like the silent, for my uses I think the power is sufficient, but it DOES have two 12V lines, and so I don't know if it will support a quad, even if not OC'd.

AS for Windows, I didn't even choose pro... I chose XP Home. I'm going to be using this as my main photography machine, so I DO still need stable, mature drivers.... and as far as I've heard, XP64 is still iffy with some of my equipment 'nStuff.

Since this will be my main rig, I'll need it to be more stable than I need to get every little erg of power out of it... it's so much faster in each core than the machine I'm using now that I'm not going to feel like I'm missing anything!

[JokerCPoC]

Look again; I listed the Zalman PSU... the ZM 500HP. It's one of the things I'm wondering about... I like the silent, for my uses I think the power is sufficient, but it DOES have two 12V lines, and so I don't know if it will support a quad, even if not OC'd.

AS for Windows, I didn't even choose pro... I chose XP Home. I'm going to be using this as my main photography machine, so I DO still need stable, mature drivers.... and as far as I've heard, XP64 is still iffy with some of my equipment 'nStuff.

Since this will be my main rig, I'll need it to be more stable than I need to get every little erg of power out of it... it's so much faster in each core than the machine I'm using now that I'm not going to feel like I'm missing anything!

My mistake, My concentration went poof. Hopefully the psu will be ok, I was going to use a Thermaltake 750w psu for My PC4, But It's staying in PC5 until I have resolved My problem with UPS to My satisfaction. The Ultra X-Connect 500w Titanium psu has a 34A +12v rail, PC4 will ultimately get a SuperMicro 645w psu as It has 46A on It's +12v rail and that for overclocking that should be ok, The Ultra should be ok for a non-overclocked Q6600 cpu though, The Ultra 500w I ordered was for an overclocked E4300 in PC5.

[Ned Slider]

Hey Ned, do we have a decent thread here for Quad hardware? I'm shoppin' parts and would love to bounce a few ideas around. The only thing I'm sure about is the PSU, I'm still trying to figure out if the hardware is Quad compatible and freindly... Mobos, PSUs, Memory... its right for too many forums, and wrong for all of 'em 'nStuff.

If one doesn't exist yet, where should I start it?

Not seen one good thread Fluff - I've been getting bits of info from all over.

Shall we start one here as there's a few frogs going Quad core who could help with input? (I can split these posts off into a new thread if you'd like).

So you're definitely not planning to overclock?

Motherboards: Generally, any P35 board would be a good bet. Asus and Gigabyte seem popular, so that looks like a good choice if you want onboard graphics.

PSU: The Q6600 draws about 10A (I've seen figures of 105 and 130 Watts) at max load not overclocked, so any high quality 500Watt PSU should do you fine. The Corsair models are extremely popular here so the 520HX would also be an excellent choice (they're based on Seasonics models). If you're planning on overclocking then the PSU becomes critical as you can very quickly approach the 18A limit on a single 12v rail.

Cooling: Is critical. These Q6600 chips run nearly twice as hot as the equivalent Core 2 Duo as they're essentially two C2D's slapped on one die. High end air cooling is probably almost required and certainly don't expect cool temps with the stock cooler. As usual, a lot will depend on your case temps and room temps. The high end air coolers are massive though, so keep that in mind depending upon your case. If you want to replace the stock cooler, then you're probably looking towards something like the Thermalright Ultra-120 plus 120mm fan to see any significant improvement.

Memory: If you're running at stock speeds, then no point in using expensive overclocking RAM. Quality DDR2-800 (or even DDR2-667) should do fine. Also note WinXP 32-bit won't support a full 4 GB, so probably best to stick with 2x1GB RAM). Crucial would be my choice too given their excellent warranty

[Fluff n Stuff]

Not seen one good thread Fluff - I've been getting bits of info from all over.

Shall we start one here as there's a few frogs going Quad core who could help with input? (I can split these posts off into a new thread if you'd like).

I think that would be a fine plan, Ned... lots of Quad stuff in individual forums, but nothing centering around a whole system. I think it might be popular, too... :shrug:

...and no, I don't plan to OC the rig. Like I said, my current machine is an XP M3500+ with a Gforce 4 vid card... onboard graphics will be a step up, and the difference between the CPUs is a yawning canyon. After a 16x increase in speed, overclocking it to 17 x would be a minor accomplishment 'nStuff.

Besides, I'll be doing my Photowork in this rig, I can't afford for it to be down if I mess up the BIOS 'nStuff.

[Ned Slider]

Split here from the Boinc Bar

I think that would be a fine plan, Ned... lots of Quad stuff in individual forums, but nothing centering around a whole system. I think it might be popular, too... :shrug:

...and no, I don't plan to OC the rig. Like I said, my current machine is an XP M3500+ with a Gforce 4 vid card... onboard graphics will be a step up, and the difference between the CPUs is a yawning canyon. After a 16x increase in speed, overclocking it to 17 x would be a minor accomplishment 'nStuff.

Besides, I'll be doing my Photowork in this rig, I can't afford for it to be down if I mess up the BIOS 'nStuff.

Yep - that makes sense re the overclocking

I just saw some benchies for Photoshop on a quad, and it loves the extra cores. That should be an awesome rig for photo work

[Ned Slider]

Here you go:

http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets...spx?i=3038&p=1

Take a look at P14, Photo processing performance in Photoshop:

[JokerCPoC]

Not seen one good thread Fluff - I've been getting bits of info from all over.

Shall we start one here as there's a few frogs going Quad core who could help with input? (I can split these posts off into a new thread if you'd like).

So you're definitely not planning to overclock?

Motherboards: Generally, any P35 board would be a good bet. Asus and Gigabyte seem popular, so that looks like a good choice if you want onboard graphics.

PSU: The Q6600 draws about 10A (I've seen figures of 105 and 130 Watts) at max load not overclocked, so any high quality 500Watt PSU should do you fine. The Corsair models are extremely popular here so the 520HX would also be an excellent choice (they're based on Seasonics models). If you're planning on overclocking then the PSU becomes critical as you can very quickly approach the 18A limit on a single 12v rail. I do have a minimum single +12v rail psu for dual cores, But this is the Quad core thread.

Cooling: Is critical. These Q6600 chips run nearly twice as hot as the equivalent Core 2 Duo as they're essentially two C2D's slapped on one die. High end air cooling is probably almost required and certainly don't expect cool temps with the stock cooler. As usual, a lot will depend on your case temps and room temps. The high end air coolers are massive though, so keep that in mind depending upon your case. If you want to replace the stock cooler, then you're probably looking towards something like the Thermalright Ultra-120 plus 120mm fan to see any significant improvement.

Memory: If you're running at stock speeds, then no point in using expensive overclocking RAM. Quality DDR2-800 (or even DDR2-667) should do fine. Also note WinXP 32-bit won't support a full 4 GB, so probably best to stick with 2x1GB RAM). Crucial would be my choice too given their excellent warranty

Motherboards:I happen to like Abit and they have the IP35, So far It looks good too.

Me I'm not crazy about Asus or Gigabyte motherboards & I have a few reasons:

• Gigabyte first.
• Bios chip is soldered down, If the Bios goes(It has happened twice to Me so far), It's teardown time of a PC...
• The high end motherboards have a plate on the back that if removed or modified will void the warranty, This plate will interfere with many Heatsinks and Waterblocks, Except for Intel Retail type mounts of course.
• Asus on the other hand has It's own niggles, Mainly an over aggressive temp warning that is mostly phony, Too low for TEC based heatsinks.
• Asus has been noted on their P35 motherboards (P5K series) to be a bit power hungry by some reviewers on the web, vs others that don't seem to share this peoblem.

PSU: I'm moving away from limited +12v multi-rail psu crap, To Single rail psus that have some real muscle, For Quads My minimum will be the SM(SuperMicro) 645w psu as It has 46A on It's single +12v rail, Note: This psu has no sata or pci-e cables at all, For those wanting sata and pci-e I'd suggest the 650w Silverstone OP650 w/54A or the 750w OP750 model w/60A psus(Depends on what one equips the cruncher with).

Cooling: I use mostly vigor Monsoon II cpu coolers and have bought one Ultra ChillTEC cpu cooler for PC6, They work pretty good as a whole(Their better with Duos than Quads, But they do work with Quads, Their just warmer of course) and you'd better keep the room cool too, Like below 85F or the alarm will go off If You overclock them like I do(You'll see It flashing RED and hear It too). Oh and I replace the stock cooling of the NB chip with the best available solution to fit the motherboard in question(PW5 DHD=Noctua NC-U6 w/a 70mm delta fan, AW9D-MAX=HR-05 w/a 70mm delta fan), Also I'm going to yank the Mosfet heatsink in the P5W and replace It with an HR-09U heatsink as I don't know If the NB heatsink heatpipe can be removed from the stock Mosfet heatsink or not.

Memory: I can't really add much to It, As I have both PC2-8000 Gold and PC2-6400 Platinum OCZ Dimms, The PC2-8000 does overclock pretty well on My AW9D-MAX motherboard and the one dimm runs at 374MHz(Yeah I said one). The PC2-6400 Dimms on the other hand don't go quite so high as It barely clears 306MHz, I had It at 408MHz for a bit, But It may not have been able to hold that speed as It might be a psu issue(Not enough Amps).

Main Drives: Of course sata connectors aren't needed with Raptors as they have Molex and Sata power connections. And yeah I like Raptors, Although I do keep one Seagate around for excess storage capacity(Downloads and what not).

Optical Drives: These either have Old Connectors or New Sata Connectors, I haven't yet seen one with both type of power connectors and a Sata data connection.

Drive Connectors: Sata power connectors are all on the far side of the drive and are set for the failed BTX platform Intel tried to foist on US, At the moment the connectors are arranged in the wrong order, It should be power cable connectors first, Then Data, Maybe somebody someday will see that the current setup is a royal pain(Besides Me that is, Everyone say, Where's the Flashlight[Torch for Ned]).

[Ned Slider]

Me I'm not crazy about Asus or Gigabyte motherboards & I have a few reasons:

[list][*] Gigabyte first.[*] The high end motherboards have a plate on the back that if removed or modified will void the warranty, This plate will interfere with many Heatsinks and Waterblocks, Except for Intel Retail type mounts of course.

That's only on the DQ6 models, and there's detailed instructions in the motherboard manual on how to remove if necessary if it's not compatible with your heatsink, so I seriously doubt that would void your warranty

[JokerCPoC]

That's only on the DQ6 models, and there's detailed instructions in the motherboard manual on how to remove if necessary if it's not compatible with your heatsink, so I seriously doubt that would void your warranty

So Gigabyte changed some, ok, Now how about the Bios chip? As long as that is soldered down I wouldn't touch It as It's a pain in the neck.

Hopefully It's not simply a Jedi mind trick.

[Ned Slider]

So Gigabyte changed some, ok, Now how about the Bios chip? As long as that is soldered down I wouldn't touch It as It's a pain in the neck.

Hopefully It's not simply a Jedi mind trick.

If you've fried your bios, most MB vendors are going to RMA the board. I don't know many that would send out a new bios chip and expect the user to perform a swap (I don't know that many users that would be happy extracting and replacing a bios chip, or have the correct tools to even do it!). Either way, you're going to be down until a replacement arrives so I don't really see the problem.

[RATIFIED]

You guys do know most PSUs, even if listed as having multiple rails, are still single rails just divided up.Had to do that to meet the new standard.