Does adjusting the processor speed rely on the motherboard?
Does adjusting the processor speed rely on the motherboard?
I own an old G41 Zebronics motherboard with e6850 and 4GB DDR3 1333 MHz RAM. I want to upgrade this PC for gaming on a low budget. I recently purchased a GTX 1050 Ti with 4GB DDR5 for this and am searching for a quad-core Q9550. Is my motherboard suitable for overclocking the Q9550?
No, I would not try OC'ing on that board. Not designed for that. And be sure your BIOS doesn't need an update to recognize the Q9550. The Q9550 is about 6 months newer than the E6850, so there is a slim chance it needs a BIOS update.
However, the Q9550 is indeed listed as compatible with that board, so you may be OK.
http://www.pc-specs.com/mobo/Zebronics/Z...tible_CPUs
No, I wouldn't attempt an OC on that board. It's not intended for that purpose. Make sure your BIOS can handle the Q9550 without needing an update—it's roughly six months newer than the E6850, so a minor BIOS tweak might be possible. However, the Q9550 is confirmed compatible with this board, so it should work fine.
You may want to check if a 4 core is necessary for your tasks. A faster 2 core would suit many users better. The choice hinges on whether your applications can leverage four cores. If not, an e7500 with a tape mod to 1333fsb will reach around 3.66GHz. Throttlestop software from TechPowerUp can help increase voltage to support overclocking, which mainly affects the CPU. The 2 core 65W unit would consume roughly 85W at that frequency. The MB supports CPUs up to 95W and should perform well.
Need more RAM! That GPU is grabbing memory addresses from top to bottom to save textures, leaving nothing for the OS. Even with an 8GB system and a 32-bit OS, it's still 4GB. The 4GB rule existed when GPUs had only 512MB of RAM.