Gigabyte GA-P35T-DQ6: DDR3 comes a knocking, again
by Gary Key on May 30, 2007 2:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Motherboards
QX6700 Quad Core Overclocking
Needless to say, quad core overclocking on the P35 platforms has been an unknown to some extent due to the limited availability of boards. Our board reached a final 365FSB that we found to be extremely stable during testing and exceeded the 361FSB we have reached on the ASUS DDR3 board. Of note is that our processor will actually do 3920MHz but we had to run slightly higher voltages on this board and reached the limits of air-cooling at 3650MHz. Our memory timings had to be relaxed slightly with CAS being set to 9 and voltages increased to 1.60V for 2GB and 1.70V for 4GB configuration.
We dropped the multiplier on our QX6700 to eight and were rewarded with a final 8x457FSB setting that was limited to air-cooling. However, even with some quick test runs with water cooling we found our final FSB would not exceed 470MHz due to problems with our memory running stable once we neared the 1600MHz mark with it. Gigabyte is currently working on this problem and we hope to have an update shortly. We see the 8x457 setting offering the best write and copy scores with read and latency performance just trailing the 10x365 settings. In preliminary testing, our 8x457 setting generally scored about 1% better in most of our application and game benchmarks. We will have overclocked scores in our roundup article.
| Gigabyte P35T-DQ6 Quad Core Overclocking Testbed |
|
| Processor: | Intel Core 2 Extreme QX6700 Quad Core, 2.66GHz, 8MB Unified Cache 1066FSB, 10x Multiplier |
| CPU Voltage: | 1.4750V (default 1.3500V) |
| Cooling: | Tuniq 120 Air Cooling |
| Power Supply: | OCZ ProXStream 1000W |
| Memory: | Corsair DDR3 CM3X1024-1333C9DHX (2x1GB, 4x1GB) 9-7-7-20 |
| Video Cards: | 1 x MSI HD 2900XT |
| Hard Drive: | Western Digital 150GB 10,000RPM SATA 16MB Buffer |
| Case: | Cooler Master CM Stacker 830 |
| Maximum CPU OC: | 365x10 (9-7-7-20, 1460MHz, 1.60V), CPU 1.4750V 3650MHz (+37%) |
| Maximum FSB OC: | 457x8 (9-7-7-20, 1462MHz, 1.60V), CPU 1.4750V 3656MHz (+72% FSB) |
| . | |
Needless to say, quad core overclocking on the P35 platforms has been an unknown to some extent due to the limited availability of boards. Our board reached a final 365FSB that we found to be extremely stable during testing and exceeded the 361FSB we have reached on the ASUS DDR3 board. Of note is that our processor will actually do 3920MHz but we had to run slightly higher voltages on this board and reached the limits of air-cooling at 3650MHz. Our memory timings had to be relaxed slightly with CAS being set to 9 and voltages increased to 1.60V for 2GB and 1.70V for 4GB configuration.
We dropped the multiplier on our QX6700 to eight and were rewarded with a final 8x457FSB setting that was limited to air-cooling. However, even with some quick test runs with water cooling we found our final FSB would not exceed 470MHz due to problems with our memory running stable once we neared the 1600MHz mark with it. Gigabyte is currently working on this problem and we hope to have an update shortly. We see the 8x457 setting offering the best write and copy scores with read and latency performance just trailing the 10x365 settings. In preliminary testing, our 8x457 setting generally scored about 1% better in most of our application and game benchmarks. We will have overclocked scores in our roundup article.
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yzkbug - Wednesday, May 30, 2007 - link
Will we ever see boards supporting both DDR2 and DDR3 memory? It would be nice to be able to run DDR2 for now, and switch to DDR3 in the future without buying a new mobo.Stele - Friday, June 1, 2007 - link
There's already at least one in existence - the Asus P5KC. Check it out http://www.asus.com/products.aspx?l1=3&l2=11&a...">here.It would be interesting if Anandtech could get hold of this board and see if having support for both memory types sacrifices fine tuning and hence performance/overclocking capability by a measurable degree.
slayerized - Wednesday, May 30, 2007 - link
I know it is a bit premature, but do you have n estimate on the targeted price points for these boards and ddr3 memory modules?gigahertz20 - Wednesday, May 30, 2007 - link
You can already buy the Asus P5K Deluxe for $225 from here.http://www.xpcgear.com/p5kdeluxe.html">http://www.xpcgear.com/p5kdeluxe.html
My guess is once Newegg and some other places get them in hopefully around $200 or below but maybe not. They will be expensive at first.
xsilver - Thursday, May 31, 2007 - link
are p35 boards recommended for midrange overclocking systems just yet?a gigabyte ds3 + e6320 vs. a asus p5k + e4400 combo; which system is likly to have better performance after OC?
Sunrise089 - Wednesday, May 30, 2007 - link
The above comments reminded me of something many reviews have said recently - that "additional airflow needed to OC" line. What exactly does that mean? Does it simply mean airflow inside the case, as in you first tested with so case fans at all, and had to add some? Or does it mean you added some sort of motherboard specific additional cooling? If the latter, a motherboard that does not require such an added part would be much more appealing.Googer - Wednesday, May 30, 2007 - link
Good Article. But where are the disk and I/O benchmarks?Treripica - Wednesday, May 30, 2007 - link
What the hell is a niggle?johnsonx - Thursday, May 31, 2007 - link
a 'niggle' is a minor complaint, or perhaps a complaint about a small detail. It's completely unrelated to another word like that with an 'r' at the end.TallBill - Wednesday, May 30, 2007 - link
All applications were run with administer privileges.