DescentBB

Anybody here got experience with the Intel BX2? I'm about to put a Core2Duo machine together and the Asus P5B-D has alot of mixed reviews. I'm leaning towards an Intel board because I've heard they are solid for the most part and that the newest ones have pretty good OC options. Plans are to overclock E6600 and cool it with Tuniq Tower. This will be my first build so any advice is welcomed.

Get some testing programs like super prime and super pi handy to test out the CPU while you overclock it, find the highest stable setting you can run at (24+ hours of testing with no errors), and then back off 100-200 MHz.

Thanks Krom. Yeah I've actually heard of these programs on several different forums. The point being to find the highest stable OC, running these programs (one for each core) for at least 12 hours, then trying to back voltages down one notch to finalize.
At this point I'm still looking for hardware suggestions. I'm sure of the E6600, and the cooling (water does'nt seem like such a good idea to me lol), but I'm needing help with motherboard choice. I'm leaning heavily towards the Intel BX2(Bad Axe). Any thoughts on motherboard selection?

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/for ... y.php?f=59 is a good source for info.

ASUS boards give you more control than Intel boards. 965 chipset clocks higher on the memory bus usually, the ASUS Commando allows very fine control over memory settings. If you want a 975 chipset, the BX2 isn't a bad choice. Alternative would be the ASUS P5W DH Del, nice OCer, good control over all kinds of settings.

Thanks Grendal. Awesome link. Got any opinions on the DFI Infinity or any thoughts on DFI period.

I second the ASUS P5W DH Delux... (in fact I am waiting for one to arrive now) ASUS consistently gets high marks in review from the o/c comunity. My understanding is that the 975 allows you to use faster memory, whereas with the 965 you are limited:

(copied from newegg)Notice: Only DDR2-800 memory supporting JEDEC approved 1.8V operation with timings of 5-5-5 or 6-6-6 is supported on Intel Desktop Boards based on Intel 965 Express Chipsets.

I overclocked my E6600 to 3.0GHz (FSB 334) without problems. I probably could have gone way further, but it runs stable like this and the temps are ok (default voltage). I'm fine with it as it is.

I'm usign an Asus P5W DH Deluxe and a Zalman CNPS9700 NT.