Advise on motherboard for Q6600

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Ok I have £500 ish and I'm going to pick up a Q6600 and 4 gig of 1066 DDR2

I'm not sure what motherboard to get though, I don't want a 780i series or anything for SLI as I have SLI at the moment and its rubbish. I want a mobo for my single 8800gt.

I know the IP-35's are good, but according to specs the ram only goes to 800mhz and I'm getting 1066, also they are getting a little old now, I'm tempted by the x38 chipset but not sure if its any good as I haven't heard anything.

I'm tempted by the Abit iX38 Quad-GT, is it any good? anyone know anything about it.

It says DDR2 1066 as well as PCIE2 port, is PCIE2 ok with a 8800gt?

or should I be looking at a different mobo entirely?

any advise would be appreciated
thanks
 
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I might be wrong here, but I don't think 1066 memory 'officially' exists in that the standards body that sets the specifications for these things have only ever officially 'rubber stamped' up to 800Mhz DDR2 RAM. This might explain why so few motherboards show they support it in the specs, and those that have been out for a while won't necessarily mention it either. Perhaps some have supported it retrospectively via Bios updates?

So, you mentioned the IP35 which is a solid choice and good value for money too, and I notice plenty of those say they support 1066Mhz RAM. Sadly, I have no experience of the iX38 so can't comment.

PCIE2 will be just fine with the 8800GT, that card was designed for that spec slot anyway, although it also works fine in PCIE1.1 slots too.

As you aren't going SLI again, you'll automatically avoid the poor quad overclocking 650i and 680i boards.

What's your budget?
 
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HeX

HeX

Soldato
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Well I can highly reccomend the P5K-E/WiFi, costs around £90, is running my PC8000 mem at 1000Mhz no fuss, has the option for far higher memspeeds if required, also has my Q6600 at 3.6Ghz, couldn't ask for more than that really!
 
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Got to agree with hex, I'm also on the P5k-e which is fine for the Q6600, I'm not sure I would bother with anything over PC800 mem as with a good clocking chip you can reach 3.6Ghz without even over clocking the memory (9x 400), might save yourself a few quid?
 
Man of Honour
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All the Abit IP35 series will support 1066 (IP35-Pro is declared) but as sepulchre said, you can get 3.6 Ghz (400 x 9) with a Q6600 and 800 Mhz memory so why spend more on 1066?

It says DDR2 1066 as well as PCIE2 port, is PCIE2 ok with a 8800gt
8800 GT IS PCI-E2 but it makes no difference, works just fine on P35 (PCI-E1).
 
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Official 1066Mhz DDR2 is just around the corner. I know Elpida has chips stamped for 1066Mhz@[email protected] ready for the JEDEC standard. Don't be too put off about those timings, they're just so they work with the 1.8v and they go higher at tighter timings with a bit more voltage.

As for you situation, 3.6Ghz should be achievable on most mobos, P5K-E is good, my P5K Deluxe is great. IP35-Pro and even the P35-DS4 would be ok. 800Mhz DDR2 is an option, especially as it's at rock bottom prices at the moment. 2GB for £25 and therefore 4Gb for £50.

And as Tetras said, the 8800GT is PCI-E 2.0 but works in PCI-E 1.1 as well with zero performance difference.

Pick your preferred brand and then one in your price range and enjoy.
 
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As per sig! :)

Only Issue I am having is that the PWM is high but I have a plan to change that ....

I know that the board will do 470 FSB (With an E6550) so all round it seems OK as I also have tested the RAM to DDR 1150.

Oh - My X-Fi does not seem to work on this board .... but it may just have dies on me!
 
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Associate
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thanks for the advise all :)

as per first question, budget for mobo is probably £150 or less which covers most boards.

i'll have a look at P5K-E and see what I think

as for IP35...it states 800mhz only are people sure its fine with 1066?
Also has the issue where by when the pc turns on it powers up then off then on again briefly been fixed with the p35 chipset?

cheers
 
Man of Honour
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Afaik any uGuru equipped mobo (IP35-Pro) never had it anyway. The vanilla and -E model are fixed in later BIOS releases.

Don't know about the Asus models.
 
Soldato
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ok kewl, any one know about the off/on issue? is it resolved on new models?
IP35 Pro has never had it due to uGuru.
IP35-E/IP35 are supposed to have it fixed by the last BIOS (except if you remove all power from the mobo in which case it'll do it on the first boot after reconnecting power but that's common to all other P35s afaik).
 
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well I am tempted to get the IP35 now, what about Abit iX38 Quad-GT? Anywone had any experience with this? Is it any good?
 
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