My new Q6600 G0 build

[miahallen]

OK, so I wanted to share some of the info from my new build. My new gear includes the G0 Q6600, a Gigabyte GA-P35-DS4 Rev.2.0, 4x1GB Crucial Ballistix RAM, and a Thermalright HR-03 Plus heatsink for my 8800GTX. Everything else is carried over from my old rig.

When I began, I noticed the Ninja was showing signs of convex base:


I lapped it with 240 -> 320 -> 400 -> 800 -> 1200 grit sandpaper to a relatively flat finish. It's not as smooth as it could be, but I'm not too concerned with apperances, just performance:


I stripped and cleaned my GTX to make way for it's new attire, a Thermalright HR-03 Plus I picked up in Akihabara yesterday:


I used Arctic Cooling MX-2 TIM for both the GTX and the Q6600:


I really like the layout of this mobo, everything fit together without any fuss:


Nice clean lines:


I built a duct/shroud for intake & exhaust air for the Ninja:


Intake is on the rear, and exhaust goes out the top. The CPU idles about 32C and gets up to about 72C with all 4 cores loaded:


The chipset cooling is quite effective as well, it idles about 38C and gets up to 44C at load:


I have a total of 8 fans in my P180b. 7 120mm 1350RPM Yate Loon fans; 2 in front for intake, 1 for CPU intake, 1 on the GTX 1 in front of the GTX, 1 in HDD/PSU tunnel, 1 in PSU. The 8th fan is the exhaust fan at the top, it's a 120mmx38mm 2000RPM Scyth Ulta Kaze and is thermally controlled according to CPU temps.


Any comments are welcome, thanks for looking.

[miahallen]

I recieved all my new gear (except the 2nd 2GB Crucial kit, hopefully tomorrow) and got it all installed. I'm very pleased to have a good report.

First off, I did not do a fresh install of Vista x64. I noticed the last machine I rebuilt with XP was very smooth without a fresh install, when going from an old VIA KT333 / Athlon XP1800+ to a newer Intel 945G / Celeron 325 combo. I've heard promissing things about the way Vista is built with the new driver layer. Well my switch from an nForce4-SLI / Opteron 185 to my new Intel P35 / Q6600 was also a very pleasing experiance, and I'll report back if this changes in the future.

Next, just wanted to say I'm very impressed with my new hardware. The Gigabyte board has a great layout and is impeccably finished/sorted. I love having 8 SATA ports onboard, and AFAIK they're the only manufacturer offering eSATA ports via an expansion slot addon. I think this is the best of both worlds and supports a wider range of users. I for one, will probably never use eSATA, and this is why I did not choose a P5K board from Asus. But, if I change my mind in the future, I know I'll be ready to go with Gigabytes innovation. Something else I've very please with about this board is it's stability, even with stock voltages. I have not had to raise any on the onboard voltages to achieve my desired OC Everything is set to it's stock values except the CPU and the RAM. I do have to point out one BIOS setting (version F7) that is missing...a 1:1 memory ratio. My plan from the start was to run my FSB @ 400MHz with DDR-800. The BIOS's lowest setting is 4:5, so 400MHz FSB will put my memory at 1000MHz DDR. Luckly for me, I picked out some good Crucial memory.

Speaking of the RAM, it was definitely up to the task, it's currently running at DDR2-500 5-5-5-15 T2 with only 1.9V I was expecting to have to feed it some more voltage at these speeds, but it's doing just fine right here. I'll post an update when I get the other 2GB.

The Q6600...my new baby (until my little girl is born next month) is running great! Everyone knows these things run hot! And, while I was hoping my Ninja would do a better job of cooling it...it is still able to impress me. So far I have been able to boot Vista successfully at 400x9 3.6GHz WITH ONLY 1.35V Unfortunately with any load my Ninja just isn't up to the task. So my highest stable setting right now is a 400x8 3.2GHz WITH ONLY 1.30V Vdroop at load seems to be about 0.05V so it's actually running on 1.25V at load. This was stable with dual ORTHOS + RTHDRIBL for 7hrs 30min as you can see in the screenie below. I think with another small bump in VID I should be completely stable.



On another good note...my modified (via a low speed fan swap) 500W ENERMAX LIBERTY is powering my OC'ed Q6600 @ 3.2GHz + OC'ed 8800GTX @ 621-1512-2106 flawlessly.

[miahallen]

Just thought I'd show you where my build evolved to so far. I was not impressed with the Ninja's cooling capabilities on the quad, so I ditched it for a "TRUE", which I have been very happy with. I'm now using 4 Scythe Slipstream 1900RPM fans hooked up to my fan controller. For everyday use they stay at 7V (about 950rpm) where they are nice and quiet. Whenever I want to do any extreme OCing/benching I crank the suckers up for 111 CFM each!
I have one used for front intake, one on the CPU HS, one in the rear for exhaust, and one on the HR-03 Plus to cool the GTX.













My newest mod was to cut out a hole in the motherboard tray in order to change CPU coolers without removing the motherboard...best mod in a while!



I also swapped the fan in my PSU again! I was using a Yate Loon, but after learning more about the disadvantages of cheap sleeve bearing designs, I decided a ball bearing modle would make more sense. Also, I've been pushing my rig harder and harder (really getting into OCing these days), I wanted something slightly faster in there. Based on those facts, the most logical replacement would be the Scythe S-Flex F 1600rpm model...I'm amazed how well this 500W PSU has performed for me over the years.

[Asky]

hey neat Rig and the MB Tray Mod is Cool !

[Avman]

Love that Mobo tray hole - I just wish I'd have thought of that before my last change of board - I shorted out a mobo and a hole like that would have saved me all kinds of trouble (and money). Time to get out the dremel.

[TheCarLessDriven]

Q6600 is an a amazing chip, Just got done putting mine together yesterday. I don't care if Penryn is right around the corner. These chips are getting WAAYYY to ahead of themselves.

[Frostybyte]

Nice setup mate. You know I'd like it since it's very similar to my own, heh.

What load temps are you getting with the new air cooler ?

[miahallen]

Nice setup mate. You know I'd like it since it's very similar to my own, heh.

What load temps are you getting with the new air cooler ?

My 24/7 settings are at 8x450FSB = 3.6GHz with 1.4375V and my load temps are about 62-62-68-68 at 22C ambient. However, I can also run stable at 3.85GHz with 1.575V with about the same temps by opening the case's front door and cranking up the fans to their high speed setting.

At 3.6GHz, if I crank the fans up and open the front door, my temps drop to around 54-54-58-58