Quote Originally Posted by xguntherc View Post
Wow, long time since I've been here. I see Sergio and don don still hanging around in here huh... Exiting.

Anyways I've got some cash saved up and I plan to get rid of my SLI 260's and snag a new Fermi card, either the GTX 480, or a 5870 depending on Fermi performance, once I do I'll no longer need this SLI 750i junker board I've got... so I'm wondering, the Q9650 is still a badass chip and I'm positive mine can go higher with a EP45 board.. but is it worth it to remove all this and get the new Motherboard, or should I just move to i7. i mean I don't really need it...

Basically I'm thinking of getting a Fermi card or 5870, then switching to the UD3P, and i might keep my current ram, or get something better. and try moving higher for a 24/7 clock on this thing. it works perfect for my now, I don't really need anything to much more.. but sometimes when I'm doing to much like encoding a Movie and playing Bad company 2, both CPU intensive I'll occasionally get a freeze, it's probably my 750i n oc.. I'd like to know it's 100% stable with a UD3P that will be much easier to achieve.
The Q9650 is still a kickass CPU. If you don't yet need 8 threaded ability, I'd grab a second hand UD3P, some nice Gkill Pi 9600's and have some fun. You should be able to get 4.2 - 4.5 depending on your chip, which will give you considerable power for less than a platform upgrade.

Quote Originally Posted by l0ud_sil3nc3 View Post
I have been following this thread for a while, since I bought my first Q9650 almost a year and a half ago. I just recently sold my 1.25 VID chip for a 1.1875 VID and the difference in temperatures is unreal. Also the 1.1875 chip has core temps all over the place. Core 1 is the hottest always, Core 2 is by far the coolest running core by as much as 9C, and the other two are consistent with each other.

I am getting higher temps and a lower overall overclock (9X460 @1.28 cpuz 74C only one core vs. 8.5X500 @ 1.376 cpuz 67C) due to the fact I am air cooling. I have a lapped TRUE w/ a San Ace 109R, and I think that I am going to need water to go any further.

Just wanted to say thanks for such a great resource (NapalmV5, Andressergio, Hoss, Radaja)
Now you have a low VID chip, you will need better cooling for sure. Good excuse to move to water cooling, that will really give you some headroom.