Overclock that beast, you'll get more nounces/s, I once had that processor installed on a http://www.gigabyte.us/Motherboard/GA-EP45-UD3P-rev-11#ov and had it overclocked. Man at the time it was a beast.
http://www.overclock.net/t/289573/my-experience-overclocking-the-q6600-a-basic-guide-walkthrough
Also, yes, it's best to use AIO wallet to plot as it uses xplotter.