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Most powerful BTX form factor PC

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Misternumberone, is your board a microBTX (264x267mm)? I can't seem to find the exact specs on this.
 
I'm bringing this one back from the dead to mention something. I just got a Xeon x3363 processor to work on this board. It required no software modification whatsoever, just modifying the processor and the socket. I'm excited about this find, and thought I'd share. viva 775!
 
Dell Dimension E520, QX6800 @3.45GHZ (13X266), 8GB DDR2, 240GB SSD, GTX750Ti O/C 2GB DDR5 (single fan versions)
D9729 heatpipe cooler bolts in, T9303 better but requires slight mod. to cover. Over 3.2 GHZ heatsink everything (easier said than done).
Software overclock using Throttlestop program. Controls vcore, and multiplier. also Speedstep etc.
Delta GFB1212VHG fits in stock cooler mounting, Trying for 3.73GHZ. (not tested yet)
Cheap and easy-QX6700, D9729, rock solid 3.2GHZ. 1.400 vcore (12X266)

BTW the fan I mentioned above draws 3.4A, and has 2 motors and 69Db at full speed (which you won't ever need).
ATX PSU's fit just fine.
 
Last edited:
Retrorockit said:
Dell Dimension E520, QX6800 @3.45GHZ (13X266), 8GB DDR2, 240GB SSD, GTX750Ti O/C 2GB DDR5 (single fan versions)
D9729 heatpipe cooler bolts in, T9303 better but requires slight mod. to cover. Over 3.2 GHZ heatsink everything (easier said than done).
Software overclock using Throttlestop program. Controls vcore, and multiplier. also Speedstep etc.
Delta GFB1212VHG fits in stock cooler mounting, Trying for 3.73GHZ. (not tested yet)
Cheap and easy-QX6700, D9729, rock solid 3.2GHZ. 1.400 vcore (12X266)


BTW the fan I mentioned above draws 3.4A, and has 2 motors and 69Db at full speed (which you won't ever need).
ATX PSU's fit just fine.
Click to expand...

That's pretty nice - I had little hopes for overclocking on p965, but it seems you've done well. However, it's not possible to use the 12MB cache of a yorkfield CPU or DDR3 memory :\
 
It's not possible to put an i7 in it either. Here's the rundown on the E520 MB. Supported PentiumD (130w tdp), Pentium4 (3.4GHZ, 3.73 in Xeon), DDR2 is faster than DDR3, less latency. DDR2@800 = DDR3 @1066. The PCXXXX numbers (band X clock) were invented to cover this up. I paid $40 for the QX6700 with 8MB cache. $15 for the heatpipe cooler = 3.2GHZ.
For what it's worth my Windows experience is 7.2 limited equally by CPU and RAM. It is what it is and it ain't what it ain't.

- - - Updated - - -

But yes you're right it's 1066FSB and 65nm chips only.
 
i used to think I needed DDR3, 1333fsb. I bought some Dell motherboards, and cut out a spare case to make them fit. But since I started with Throttlestop and X chips I haven't found that I need them. The problem with Dell 1333 MB is that they went from the 4 phase VRM to 3 phase, often as not just removing the extra chips and leaving the empty pads. Probably 95W max. I also bought some Heatsinks and fans TS120, Nitrogon, Silverstone 140, and 180mm. Ditto- the cooling is already there.
So my point is that it's the P4, PentiumD connection that's working for me , and 1333fsb, and DDR3 didn't exist yet. If this board had IDE and AGP it would've been in the dumpster 5 years ago! So P4,PD support, and SATA, PCIE2.0 is what's needed to do this, and a BIOS that supports C2Q. I didn't mention the FSB and CPU limits because I figured E520 owners would know this but for general interest readers yes that's a very real limit. I don't know if the Xeon based microcode trick would let me run them or not. It's on my to do list.
 
The MB I have is WG864,OWG864,0WG864. It's unusual in that the a lot of the MOSFETs are mounted vertically which makes heatsinking them a challenge. I heatsinked my chips while waiting for the QX6800 to come from China so I never tested it without them. Befor HS I got 1.450V. max. after I've gotten over 1.5V. The QX6800 G0 has run between 1.3875, and 1.4265V. and my chip is not in good shape core0 runs 9*C. hotter than core3. So heatsinking might not be necessary to duplicate my result. My guess is that any BTX board with 4 phase VRM would be a good candidate for this. The VRM in BTX is always between the CPU and the fan. Count the chokes there. 3 phase I would stick to Core2 Extreme. There are some BTX MB with 2 PCIe 16x slots. They're mot Micro BTX so won't fit my E520. The Intel "Big Arm" has the power connector right by the PCIe slot which ruins the one advantage BTX has there. ECS made another one. I don't know about Crossfire support on that one. Now that C2X chips don't cost $1000, and there are decent video cards that can be easily made to fit, BTX might be worth one last look.
 
Ok I see what stock cooler is. There's no way to mount that in BTX, and there are no aftermarket BTX coolers, so it is what it is. That wasn't actually a serious attempt at anything. I haven't even turned up my fan speed. The chip I have runs 10*C hotter on core0 than core2.and 3 so I ordered another chip and just for fun set 1.5V and ran it. At OCN they use CPU-Z validations, so I got one. I'm hoping with a more consistent chip and more airflow 3.72 will be a stable setting and not just a validation run. I have a Delta GFB1212VHG fan that fits in the BTX fan holder. 2X1.7A. motors counter rotating. Once I've got the cooling working as best as I can I have an X6800 for speed runs. I'm really more into 3Dmark than CPU-Z. I do see people asking if they should keep their E520's and I just post the validation link and let them make up their minds.
 
I have a stock Dell BTX cooler. I don't have a stock ATX cooler. I'm posting in a thread about BTX motherboards. The cooler you show is for an ATX. It won't fit in a BTX. You can decide for
yourself whether I have a stock cooler or not. I have no plans on entering an HWbot competition.
If a stock ATX cooler sucks that's not my problem.
The only non stock parts in my computer are the 500W psu, the GTX750, and Enzotech chip heatsinks. The BIOS recognizes the QX6800 as a Q6800.
 
The coolers I run are the D9729 whcih fits Dell Dimension w/o any changes. You can Google images off them or check Ebay. they sell for $10-15. The other I use is T9303, it has fewer fins and helps with GPU cooling if I have a heat issue. The heatpipes are arranged differently. Same price surplus. I have no reason to run anything else. BTX was alll about cooling from the start. Intel needed to cool P4 and Pentium D's. Stock BTX fans are all 120X38mm, Delta, Nidec, Matsu****a. They range from 1.3Amp on single core machines up to 1.7Amp on higher end .
!.6a, 1.7A Deltas are so common they sell for $10. I pay that for whole computers and get the fans that way. They almost never run at full speed 30-40% typically. Very loud at 100%.Delta AFC1212DE (Dell#Y4574) is typical. There are Deltas that run up to 5000rpm and draw 4.8A. BTX is based on 1 fan to cool everything, that's why the big fans. A BTX MB can handle a 1.7A. PWM fan. That's where most of them came from. So that's my stock BTX setup.
 
First thing is a reply to the original question "what is fastest BTX motherboard". Dell T3400 workstaion supports QX9650, and 2 double slot PCIe 2.0 16x video cards. Justajohn at Tomshardware got one running at 4.15GHz. using Throttlestop software O/C method with 2x HD7850 GPUs. Scores 7500 in Firestrike. DDR2 1066 memory up to 16GB. RAID 0,1,5,10 support also.
I got the R9-285 installed, scored 7000 in Firestrike in Dell Dimension E520 @ 3.72GHz. But the card won't support the Dell BIOS VESA resolution, so BIOS Setup can;t be viewed. PITA but no big deal with locked BIOS anyway.
Just for fun I put a QX6800 in an Optiplex 745 and it ran 3.72GHz. No serious testing done with it.
 
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