• Welcome to Overclockers Forums! Join us to reply in threads, receive reduced ads, and to customize your site experience!

Budget board for q6600/q9450 - recommendations, plz!

Overclockers is supported by our readers. When you click a link to make a purchase, we may earn a commission. Learn More.
V

veryhumid

Member
​
Joined
Apr 22, 2004
Location
New Hampshire
I'd like to build a basic desktop for around $500 to act as a backup computer and full-time folder. I'm up for ATX of mATX. What motherboard do I go for? Is it best to go with integrated graphics to keep costs low? Also, I will definitely be overclocking.
 
Hotrod performance and rock solid reliability at a budget price, you need look no further: Abit IP35-E I've got two of them engaged primarily as folders. 24/7 operations 2 X SMP each (that's a full load!), Q6600 each overclocked to 3.5GHz. You cannot get a better overclocker for the money.

EDIT: Yeah, Newegg looks to be out again. They sell them pretty fast. I linked ZipZoomFly above. Haven't looked at TigerDirect.
 
Yes, you are correct. The IP35-E does not have integrated video. I don't know of any enthusiast (overclocking) board that has onboard video.

What video card? That's pretty wide open. Do you just need the card for monitoring the computer - no games, no photo editing?
 
Do you have any old pci cards sitting in your closet?

If not then hit up ebay, you can get pretty decent PCI Express cards for under 40 bucks
 
The D3SL is a very popular motherboard. Many users overclock quite nicely with them, too. Were it me, I'd be a bit nervous overclocking high, considering the MOSFETS/PWM chips around the CPU socket are not sinked. Others though, seem to OC the DS3Ls without a problem.

If you decide you need an inexpensive video card. I have a PCI-e and PCI Quadro I could let go really cheap. I had been keeping them as emergency spares, but in reality I don't need both of them.
 
VH, :) Hi

Hey,

Abit P35 is suppose to be very good, CW is having us use them for the BAR rigs.

I agree.

Leonardo does have a good suggestion with the Gigabyet board though.
A -bit cheaper too. no pun intended there.

A PCI vid card with 16-32mb of memory works well too.
I have one or 2 here if you need one.
 
I can vouch for the PCI cards too. I have an old tnt pci that I use for OS installs, then after they are configured I pull it out for use in the next board. Just tell the BIOS to halt on no errors. It'll beep when it boots for no video, but it keeps booting anyways.

That is for dedicated rigs of course.
 
Leonardo does have a good suggestion with the Gigabyet board though.
Click to expand...
Well, it wasn't actually my suggestion. veryhumid had linked to it and I just gave my remarks. Like I said, I would be nervous putting much of an overclock on that board due to no cooling of the PWM/MOSFETS. I destroyed a motherboard once - overclocking what was supposedly overclocker friendly. The MOSFETS destroyed themselves and components around them.

Don't just go on my comments. Read different overclocking threads of the DS3L's overclocking history. My fears may be completely unjustified.
 
Last edited:
Well for any board, you should modify it when overclocking anyways. I don't ever leave them stock. They get artic silver under every heatsink, some lightweight sinks get replaced, fans get oiled at the sleeve (BB fans don't need it) etc.
 
Running my Q6600 on a DS3L at 3.4ghz, im new to overclocking and i dont think my Go Quad is a very good one, not having much luck on upping the vcore on this board as no matter how high i set the cpu voltage it never seems to go much past 1.36v (vdrop) ??

But it was a doddle to get to this speed and the board was as cheep as it gets over here in the uk.. I think the DS3R has the option to feed the NB a bit more juice, dont quote me on this tho :)

Griff
 
If you are maxing out no matter what, you may be overtaxing the mosfets. I saw this as well and immediately started actively cooling them. I've seen the same issue on heavily modified video cards with poor power regulator cooling as well. In that case I stuck some tall heatsinks on the tiny regulators and vgpu stabilized just fine.
 
EVGA 8800GT with the Akimbo cooler is a great budget solution, however, the 8800GTS is nearing the same cost so that would be a better choice.
 
Thank you all for the posts. And thank you Warrior for offering up a pci card. I'll let you know. I may still consider the Gigabyte if I can't get an Abit, but I'll be sure to get some sinks and some adhesive. Additional advice is more than welcome. This is on the 1-month plan...
 
all my DS3s (DS3, DS3L) have no problem in Linux along with onboard networking. pretty much all my folder are using a variety version of DS3.

but I do heard some very good thing 'bout the IP35 too.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

D
A new gaming build for 2024
Replies
3
Views
329
BugFreak
BugFreak
ZetaRevan
Planning new build
Replies
8
Views
630
Johan45
Johan45
Al_bundy
Alucryl - 3DFX - CNC - Retro pc
Replies
2
Views
395
EarthDog
EarthDog
G
Need critique for new build plz.
Replies
6
Views
725
gravitywell
G
Overclockers.com
FRONTPAGE Biostar Announces B660M-Silver Motherboard for the budget MicroATX Space
Replies
0
Views
509
Overclockers.com
Overclockers.com
Back