Questions about EVGA 750i SLI FTW & Q6600/9450

[AgentGOD]

I've always been an AMD user since 2005, so I'm new to the current Intel products. Since I want to build a new machine this summer, I want to know whether to go AMD or Intel.

I have these questions about Intel:

Is the EVGA 750i SLI FTW is a good Intel board? If there are better boards for the price, please list and state the reasons why.

Will the Q6600 (current steppings) overclock well on the FTW?

Will the Q9450 overclock well on the FTW?

I know Nehalem may be coming soon, but will there be more price cuts for current 65/45nm quads?

What's with this "6-phase power, 16-phase power" thing I'm hearing about?

How much voltage can Intel's 65nm and 45nm quads respectively take at max?

What is the maximum temperature allowable for Intel quads 65nm and 45nm respectively (in Celsius)?

Will this cooler allow me to take the Q6600/9450 to 3.6+ GHz?

[AgentGOD]

So many views, and no replies?

[Elementnz]

The xigma is a good cooler. And the 750i is also a very stable and capable board. Not cheap where I come from but any decent mobo will set u back a lot.

Read the HARDOCP review that will tell how she handles the 65nm and 45nm processors. Based on price alone the Q6600 wins. Thing is do you really need a quad. This is the question i failed to ask my self , Should have gone E8500 / E7200. For I just game hard. Burning dvd's and the odd decode goes like the clappers but I dont do it often enough to really truelly justify it.

As for temps google each cpu an the stepping and that will render the results u desire. But about 70 degres Celcius. Of course less is desireable.

Now the main thing to ask your self is what do you need. What games or apps will benefit from any expendature. If gaming just go E7200+ some sort of Video card arrangement thats game orientated. 9600GT's in SLi or 8800GTS 512 are good shots for the money. If only light gamer just go for one 9600GT or a 8800GT. Also have a think about what screen your using. If that needs an up date a cheep and cheerfull TN can do the trick. Other wize save a good chunk and read up on Anandtechs LCD thread and others.

Phases in the power regulation are a gimic IMHO. but the more the merrier right ?

[Reinvented]

1) The 750i board is NOT an Intel board because it's not using an Intel chipset. It uses and Nvidia chipset, hence why it's an Nvidia board.

Seems to be an okay board. Seems solid, and not many problems. If anything, it can definitely get better with bios updates. May want to check the eVGA forums and see what some of those users are getting.

2) Current steppings of Q6600's? You'd have to try it yourself. Not everyone's Q6600 is built equally and will not always yield the same results.

3) What's your definition of "well" ? Again, something you'd need to try and find out.

4) Yes, probably more price cuts, but not so insanely low.

5) In short, it helps deliver stable and clean power to the system. So, you can have a nice stable system with very little drops on the voltages.

6) Voltage max is a preference. If you want to stay safe, then don't overclock and use stock voltages.

7) I'd say under 55c is good for Quads. Even lower than 40 is better.

8) Maybe...

[AgentGOD]

I think quad will benefit me in gaming as more and more games are multi-threaded. It should benefit me in DVD encoding as well. So I kinda do both gaming and DVD encoding, but mostly gaming. I think it's worth spending $10 - $20 more to get a quad-core over a 3 GHz dual-core for simply physically having 2 more cores.

3) What's your definition of "well" ? Again, something you'd need to try and find out.

Higher than 3.4 GHz.

6) Voltage max is a preference. If you want to stay safe, then don't overclock and use stock voltages.

I mean like an exact value to stay away from. Like, for ex: pushing 1.8v into the processor will most likely kill it very soon.

7) I'd say under 55c is good for Quads. Even lower than 40 is better.

Really? I thought Intel processors could take like 75*C, like the guy above said.

[Leeghoofd]

Phases in the power regulation are a gimic IMHO. but the more the merrier right ?

With a quad each phase counts mate... a quad puts loads of stress on the PWM... and can lead to high droops/drops... having to give excessive volts liek on mos tNvidia based boards to idle 0.0.5 lower and under stress almost 0.1 lower is not good for daily ops

I mean like an exact value to stay away from. Like, for ex: pushing 1.8v into the processor will most likely kill it very soon.


Really? I thought Intel processors could take like 75*C, like the guy above said.

Max 24/7 I use with a 65nm is 1.5 for a 45nm (Yorkfield or wolfdale ) stay below 1.4 Vcore... It's always safe when you try to stay around 65°C core max temps...

Do you intend to run 2 GfX cards ? if NOT buy an Intel chipset based board plz...

[hellcamino]

I would stay away from nvidia boards unless you intend to run paired nvidia cards . 65nm will take a 75c as a 24/7 on air but that's about as far as I would let it get , 45nm I'm still figuring out and being as 2 of my 4 core sensors appear to be duds...I will say I am liking the 16 phase power so far with much cooler board temps and seemingly better consistency in vcore ( less fluctuation ) . If you aren't waiting for nehalem to be released I would stick with an e8500 as the quads bang for buck is poor and recent Q6600's have high vids making them poor for overclocking and HOT . The xigmatech is a good cooler and for a 45nm to hit 3.6ghz with good temps will be no problem but a recent Q6600 might not be so good . I just sold my 1.25 vid Q6600 and it was the best I had seen ( personally ) in a while , the last few have been in the 1.375 range :/

[AgentGOD]

I would stay away from nvidia boards unless you intend to run paired nvidia cards . 65nm will take a 75c as a 24/7 on air but that's about as far as I would let it get , 45nm I'm still figuring out and being as 2 of my 4 core sensors appear to be duds...I will say I am liking the 16 phase power so far with much cooler board temps and seemingly better consistency in vcore ( less fluctuation ) . If you aren't waiting for nehalem to be released I would stick with an e8500 as the quads bang for buck is poor and recent Q6600's have high vids making them poor for overclocking and HOT . The xigmatech is a good cooler and for a 45nm to hit 3.6ghz with good temps will be no problem but a recent Q6600 might not be so good . I just sold my 1.25 vid Q6600 and it was the best I had seen ( personally ) in a while , the last few have been in the 1.375 range :/

I may or may not do dual-GPU.

If you think the EVGA 750i SLI FTW isn't good enough, would you kindly recommend a few other boards in the $100 to $200 price range that would better suffice? (Doesn't matter if it's SLI or non-SLI)

[Elementnz]

I may or may not do dual-GPU.

If you think the EVGA 750i SLI FTW isn't good enough, would you kindly recommend a few other boards in the $100 to $200 price range that would better suffice? (Doesn't matter if it's SLI or non-SLI)

Gigabytes DS3L's the abit like mine or the E/non PRO versions. Asus does some very good work on their boards.

[AgentGOD]

Gigabytes DS3L's the abit like mine or the E/non PRO versions. Asus does some very good work on their boards.

Would you kindly link me to some on Newegg?

And please do take into account that I may want the ability to use high FSB (> 400 MHz perhaps), especially for the Yorkfield quad-cores (like the Q9450) when the time comes to upgrade.

[AgentGOD]

Bump

#EDIT:
Also, should I get the Q6600 or the Q9450?

[postumus]

ur going to pay a lot more for the q9450 for not much more performance, but for some reason I'm tempted too. I'm trying to hold off till nehelem comes out + gets more affordable.