teK0wnzU

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TriBeCa

In that price range the q9300 is probably the right choice, depending on your needs. The e8400 will outperform it on single threaded apps (e.g. most games), but if it's a quad core you need the q9300 is a step up from the q6600. People are down on the lower multi and the smaller L2 cache (admittedly both drawbacks), but if you look at the xbit labs review I posted at the top of page two the q9300 comes out looking pretty good, and as more applications adopt SSE4 it'll continue to get better. Even just for that reason alone I'd say a purchasing decision today should go with the q9300, unless you plan on upgrading in the next year or year and a half. Even then, the q9300 outperforms the q6600 most of the time when both are OC'd.

In other news, I'm trying my current OC at a lower voltage to see if it's stable, will report back in 8-10 hours. I seriously hope RealTemp or Speedfan are correct and CoreTemp is wrong, otherwise I'm riding dangerously close to the thermal rating for this chip during these stress tests

__________________


Pictorial Lapping Guide--Check this out if you're thinking of lapping an HSF and/or IHS!!

ASUS P5N-E OCing Guide

Best RAM timings guide I've seen

"Incorrect using it may cause your system broken. For power End-User use only!"
-Gigabyte MB manual (8I865GME-775-RH-Rev2.0)

TriBeCa

Stable at 1.2725 in BIOS

Will try lower sometime in the next couple days.

For reference for other users, I wasn't stable above 460 FSB at 1.3525v, I wasn't stable at 460 FSB at 1.3125v (which produced acceptable temps in my rig, whereas 1.3525v didn't), but 450 FSB is stable at 1.2725 and possibly lower.

__________________


Pictorial Lapping Guide--Check this out if you're thinking of lapping an HSF and/or IHS!!

ASUS P5N-E OCing Guide

Best RAM timings guide I've seen

"Incorrect using it may cause your system broken. For power End-User use only!"
-Gigabyte MB manual (8I865GME-775-RH-Rev2.0)

ZDarryl

Hi Guys,

Can't believe I just found this thread! I have my Q9300 currently at 415x7.5=3.113 GHz at 1.25 Vcore. Got there pretty easily with my Gigabyte DS3L board.

Why am I the only Q9300 owner on the Intel-Penryn-45nm thread?

I have read at another forum that Core Temps, HW Monitor, Everest, everything but Real Temps gives wrong temps on 45nm chips.

The temp issue is related to the TJmax temp. See the attached discussion

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14,549 3DMark06.............. GA-P35-DS3L Bios Options Spreadsheet

EVGA 8800GTS 512MB at 775/1000/1936........CPU-Z Validation........16.89 Sec SuperPi....

Fan on NB Cooler..........Pic of Zalman 9500A on Mobo.......... Better then DUAL-BOOTING XP & Vista

holty

Nice. Finally some more people with the Q9300. I've been working on my overclock too, after getting my water loop set up. So far up to 3.3.

vastelectron

My last attempt was at 3.4Ghz and then stupid me I tried to update the bios picked up from one of the forum. It's not officially released from Asus yet I think cuz it's not on their website and ended up not being to boot with my striker II formula. I've been waiting for the RMA board this past week.
I'm interested in oc it to 3.4Ghz stable for 24/7 but seem some are getting better results at 3.3 and lower. I like to see the settings for Vcore and also for other related voltages like NB, SB, HT, CPU VTT, cpu PLL, which I dont' really know what to set these to for a stable system.

I was using the Cooler master liquid cooling for my cpu but I just bought a zalman 9700 NT to see if I get any better temp. My idle temps better @ 3.4 were about 54-56 C and 60-65C load if I remmember correctly. I forgot which software I used for the temp.

Please post your stable o/c settings in bios. But I guess different MB will behave differently on the settings.

TriBeCa

Yeah, you might not get quite the same results on a 780i as I'm getting on a p35, but here's my settings for just shy of 3.4GHz:

1.2725vcore
1.48v on MCH
1.13v CPU VTT voltage

...and that's it. RAM is at 1:1 ratio with slightly loosened timings.

@holty: how do you like DDR3?

__________________


Pictorial Lapping Guide--Check this out if you're thinking of lapping an HSF and/or IHS!!

ASUS P5N-E OCing Guide

Best RAM timings guide I've seen

"Incorrect using it may cause your system broken. For power End-User use only!"
-Gigabyte MB manual (8I865GME-775-RH-Rev2.0)

holty

Honestly, I cant tell much of a difference vs. DDR2 (cant remember the Everest memory benchmark results from my old setup, but it had crucial ballistix in it), but then again this is an entirely different setup than my last. I went for one of the cheaper DDR3 options from OCZ, but so far its been a good performer for the money.

teK0wnzU

@ holty

So how are you liking your Q9300? Do you have any plans on OCing? Have you updated your Mobo BIOS to P4? Sorry so many questions but I'm looking for people that can prove that the Q9300 equal if not better than the Q6600. So far me and a friend with just about the same setup have found that my Q9300 is always slightly better than the Q6600. He is running the Q6600 on the Maximus with DDR3 and Ati 3870 x2. But more to come on that... And yes we are testing @ stock and 3.0Ghz.

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TriBeCa

The q9300 will always outperform the q6600 at stock or at the same speed. The q6600 makes up for some of that by having a higher multi that allows for faster core clock speeds. However, for most applications the q9300 is still stronger, even at slower speeds and with the smaller L2 cache. But for some things the q6600 will still outperform it.

Just check out the xbit labs review I posted at the top of the second page.

__________________


Pictorial Lapping Guide--Check this out if you're thinking of lapping an HSF and/or IHS!!

ASUS P5N-E OCing Guide

Best RAM timings guide I've seen

"Incorrect using it may cause your system broken. For power End-User use only!"
-Gigabyte MB manual (8I865GME-775-RH-Rev2.0)