buying a Conroe from retail and Overclocking question

[Raja@ASUS]

Hi,


Are the first batch of Conroe's that will be released retail likly to overclock as well as the ones that have been tested by the mebers here?

Also is there any advantage of going for the 6700 over a 6600 if overclocking, I am watercooling with a storm waterblock, pa120.3 rad and d5 pump?


regards
Raja

[Hassan]

who knows most are testing ES chips not retail chips... if the higher multi is worth an extra $200 to you go for it!!!

[thunderstruck!]

I don't see how anyone would know how the retail chips overclock. There's no gaurentee, can't see into the future.

[cirthix]

step5=retail

[andyisc00l]

step5=retail

Do people actually know step5 is retail or is it just a selling point/random speculation?

[Ad1tya]

It has to be retail.

Since Step 5, is the last weve seen from Intel.

If they want to release the CPU by 27th July, then they have to had started production already. So, as we speak, the various Fabs of Intel are cranking out Rev. 5 Conroe's!

[Raja@ASUS]

What about ram, for a 6600 what brand/speed would be best?

[uOpt]

Revision/step 5 does not have the unlocked multiplier. They seem to overclock better than r4, though.

That makes r5 identical to release design-wise but you don't know what wafer they'll come from.

Personally I think it is unlikely to get much better than what we see from R5 now.

[vapb400]

Revision/step 5 does not have the unlocked multiplier. They seem to overclock better than r4, though.

That makes r5 identical to release design-wise but you don't know what wafer they'll come from.

Personally I think it is unlikely to get much better than what we see from R5 now.
ALL CONROES HAVE DOWNWARD UNLOCKED MULTPLIERS. This is due to the EIST which drops the multi in idle. The current BIOS did not entirely support Stepping 5 so multiplier adjustment didn't work. Its as easy as a BIOS update.

[freecableguy]

ALL CONROES HAVE DOWNWARD UNLOCKED MULTPLIERS. This is due to the EIST which drops the multi in idle. The current BIOS did not entirely support Stepping 5 so multiplier adjustment didn't work. Its as easy as a BIOS update.

Bing! We have a winnner. ;)
Microcode update for 06F5 is required for full BIOS options again.

[andyisc00l]

Hey so are conroes like amd? Someone mind explaining the stepping situation? Well, how it will be..

[pcoffman]

What about ram, for a 6600 what brand/speed would be best?
The P965 chipset will take DDR2-800. However, it's expensive. You might want to go with the DDR2-667 instead.

[Jumba]

Buy some good DDR2-667 (such as Mushkin, OCZ, Corsair, GSkill etc.) and you should have no problem running it at up to DDR2-1000 (with relaxed timings).

[Raja@ASUS]

Thanks for the help,

Can the DFI 975x support ddr2-800mhz?

Regards
Raja

[pcoffman]

Can the DFI 975x support ddr2-800mhz?I believe the 975 chipset only officially supports 667MHz DDR2. The P965 supports DDR2 800. DDR2 800 is expensive, tho', so you might be better off with DDR2-667.

[Raja@ASUS]

I was thinking of going for the E6600, and just overclocking it to around 3.4ghz, results so far show this may well be possible. Considring the lower mutiplier, I need the 965 chipset then. Looks like most 667 ram is capable of hitting 800..


edit: I've never overclocked with Intel so perhaps I'm a little confused about ram speed and potetential overclocking with the 975 chipset..

[vapb400]

I was thinking of going for the E6600, and just overclocking it to around 3.4ghz, results so far show this may well be possible. Considring the lower mutiplier, I need the 965 chipset then. Looks like most 667 ram is capable of hitting 800..


edit: I've never overclocked with Intel so perhaps I'm a little confused about ram speed and potetential overclocking with the 975 chipset..
Yes you are a little confused.

Support for 667 ram is basically just saying that their is a divider. Your FSB runs at 266 while your ram runs at 333 at stock. You can knock this down to 1:1 (266:266) or in the case of 965 you can run it at 266:400. This is all native support, as some motherboards allow you to run non reference dividers.

Everything changes when you overclock. I am thinking 400MHz FSB will be a cinch on the retail E6600s so with good air cooling you could see 3.6GHz.

That would leave you with a couple options because your FSB will either be 1:1 (typically the lowest Intel offering) requiring you to have RAM that can run at 800MHz (by overclocking or not) or you could run them at 4:5 requiring even faster RAM. It seems that Conroe does not yield large benifiets from running anything greater than 1:1, but if you can budget it for it shoot for a higher clocking RAM.

Hope it makes sense now.

[Raja@ASUS]

Thanks for the reply! I understand now..

I was thinking of going for the Team Group 667, which seems to overclock pretty well for a good price, I like the DFI boards (have a CFX3200-DR), so I guess I'd go for the DFI 975X until the RD600 stuff comes through.

Thanks once again,

Raja