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Please help me with Q6600 mobo recommendations

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Vektor67

Registered
Joined
Aug 11, 2008
I'm about to jump ship from AMD to Intel for the first time. My computer serves me as my Entertainment center as well as computer. In other words it's my TV, Stereo ect. I used to game like crazy but now it's not that important to me so X--Fire/SLI isn't essential. I currently use a X-Mystique Gold 7.1 sound card optical out to an Onkyo TX-SR503 and it serves me just fine. I've decided on the Q6600 for my sweet spot proc. Now I need to choose a motherboard and memory. I noticed that some of the high end mobo's have optical outs and I'm curious if they would be as good as or surpass my current soundcard. Naturally I'd like to OC but I'm not going to push it like crazy I want a stable and fast computer I'm npot interested in setting any records. I enjoy photography and will use the computer for photoshop, I also encode music/video. I'm not even sure why I'm upgrading except that I like to multitask and my current build chokes every now and again.
The last time I built a box I went whole hog crazy spent a mint and never overclocked the thing anyways. I'd like to be moderate and smart this time and use as much of my old machine as I can. So, P35? 45? X 38/48?
DFI? Asus? I'd really appreciate some input. I've always had good experiences with Asus My DFI while being a good board overall is really touchy and won't even post if you don't use particular memory, I'd prefer my next board to be more forgiving.. Thanks in advance, Mike

P.S. Not sure why my cuild isn't showing up as a sig. so here it is:
AMD X2 4400+, DFI NF4Lanparty SLI-DR, 2GB OCZ Platinum DDR400, EVGA 7800GTX KO, X-Mystique 7.1 Gold, Samsung 203N Burner, Lite On SHOC 5236V. Seagate 500GB HD501LJ, Maxtor 300GB7L300SO.
Lian Li PC60 Case. My Fancy OCZ PSU Died Now Running a 500Watter from Radioshack.
 
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Abit IP35 Series are Solid
DFI x38 /x48 are solid as well

i own a DFI x38 Dk T2R board and enjoy it.
 
I just went with an Asus P5Q (P45) vanilla board for my Q6600. I added 4GB DDR2-1066 GSKILL and it's been terrific so far. I don't do very much overclocking anymore myself, so I didn't need all the bells-and-whistles of most other boards. There's plenty of settings available, however.

I have G0 and run it a 3.2GHz on 1.325V. Memory is at stock, but is still an improvement over the 965P and DDR2-800 I had (to me anyway).

The onboard audio is perfectly fine for SPDIF if you plan on using it. I would use mine if I were going to a digital-capable receiver, but I'm not, so I continue to use my age-old Audigy2 ZS (I have three HTPCs that use Realtek HD audio for SPDIF to a receiver and they work perfectly well).
 
DFI..

i currenty use the board in my sig with no issues...Great board...as for optical out..doesnt really matter if its an addon card or on board..still produces digital sound...
 
P35, P45, x38, x48. Asus, Gigabyte, DFI are common and quality brands. I currently use a Gigabyte x48 and love it so far. But many good things are being said about the cheaper p45 and p35's. Some of them are stellar clockers.

Probably something you won't hear from anyone else, but I will add that a full on 680i SLI(non LT) Rev.a1 reference board with a p32 bios is also a good choice for a quad due to the price and easy to understand BIOS. Very easy to overclock, and cheap if you want to go the SLI route, and aren't looking to push your system to extremes. My Q6600 reached a 3DMark06 Stable 4.0GHz and everyday stable 3.6Ghz on my xfx 680i reference board.
Also, with the p32 bios you can also run 45nm CPU's. Dual Core's at least.
 
Well I got my processor and now I've got some decisions unfortunately I got one of the newer batches with the higher vid that supposedly overclock poorly so I'm tempted to send her back and get a Q6700 or an E8600, not sure really. I stll need to buy a mobo and ram today though if I can I'm not at all concerned with SLI or X fire so looks like a P45 would be a good choice perhaps a P35... too many decisions and ivariably I seem to make the wrong ones. Had I known that the new Q6600 batch weren't doing well and needed higher vids I would have paid a little more to insure I got a better chip. :~(
 
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