rsdfender

Hi guys I have been building machines for a long time but have never overclocked. I am planning on building me a new machine with the core 2 quad processor and want to OC to 3.0ghz with air cooling. here are all specs of parts I am going to purchase with links:
motherboard will be buying this board in a ATX instead of a micro ATX form
processor
RAM I will be using x3 of this
heatsink
powersupply
videocard
and a 250 gb HDD and 2 dvd rw drives

Now my question is how do i overclock this system to 3.0ghz with the given cooling? and how do I overclock? (keep in mind that i have NEVER done it before and i know my RAM is fast enough. can someone walk me thru the dummy proof steps whilst sparing me the deep physics/philosophy behind each step ( just need the step 1 thru step 10, or 20, or whatever). because I dont spend or have too much time for myself anymore.

Thanks guys I really appreciate you putting up with a no0b like me and would greatly appreciate ANY help!

ericeod

First of all, I would recommend the Thermalright Ultra 120, dont get me wrong, the Zalman 9700 is still a decent cooler, but the Thermalright is one of the best.

I would also recommend the DFI Blood Iron (lots of features, but might be complicated) or the Gigabyte P35 DS3L (easy setup)motherboard.

The last recommendation is for 2Gb of RAM. Buy.com has 2 ea 1GB ballistix for $49 after MIR. You want 2 modules so that you can run them in Dual channel. 3 GB is overkill, and with the odd number of modules, you will be forceed to run in single channel, which will be a big performance hit!

You will do all your overclocking by increasing the Front Side Bus (FSB). The default FSB for the Q6600 is 266 with a CPU multiplier of x9, giving you a default speed of aprox. 2.4GHz. You should be able to easily go to 3.24GHz with a FSB of 360. 360 x 9 = 3.24GHz.

You will most likely have to increase the CPU's voltage to get the higher clock, otherwise the system will crash on you or might fail to boot. Intel states the max vcore the CPU can handle is 1.5v, but you should be nowhere near that for a 3.2GHz OC. I would imagine you can do it with 1.35v - 1.4v. You might be able to go it at even less, each CPU is different and as such OCs different.

The most important thing to do when overclocking is to watch your temps and run a 7 hr stress test. Go to the download section and get Coretemp and speedfan to monitor temps, then grab Orthos to stress test the system with your overclocked settings. These utilities all work in windows. The last program to get is Memtest. It will test your memory from bios. The download is an ISO image you can burn a bootable CD from.

Hope this helps!

__________________
eVGA 680i Overclocking guide .......... ASUS P5E/Maximus Thread ............... 4.0GHz CPU-Z

dranom

i agree w/ ericoed
and i wanna add what i think is very important your PSU
ive read post that says your PSU of choice have problems
might i recommend this a PC power and cooling 750watts silencer
GREAT psu! have one myself and never had problem w/ it.
this has a large single rail of 60amps also matches you card

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690 Crew

rsdfender

thank you guys... big help. I was reading around and bit-tech.net said that they had their Q6600 @1.40V and at 3.4Ghz. By the way, what is an Ortho that the first respondant refer'd to and where can I find all these softwares and ISOs for these stress tests?

I only want to go to 3.0 ghz to try my skills first so I guess I would have to go to 333 on the FSB eh? or did i calculate wrong?

Thanks guys! I appreciate all of you on this forum a LOT!

ericeod

Every program I referred to can be found here in the downloads section.

I only recommended 3.24GHz because it can be done with little increase in vlotage, but try 3.0GHz if you feel more comfortable. You are correct with the FSB of 333 to reach 3.0GHz.

As for Orthos is just a program that stresses your system. Its like driving a manual strick shift car and keeping the RPMs redlined. If your system is stable, it will not crash when you run orthos for 7 hrs. It will cause your CPU to heat up (as it should) so thats why you want speedfan and coretemp to monitor the temps. FYI. all the programs except speedfan are not installing programs, Speedfan is the only one that will have to be installed.

__________________
eVGA 680i Overclocking guide .......... ASUS P5E/Maximus Thread ............... 4.0GHz CPU-Z

rsdfender

dude ericeod! you the man! thanks a ton! One final question, I was looking at the thermalright 120 heatsink that you recommended and it seems like it doesnt come with a fan. Is it just regular 120mm case fans that fit that heatsink? which ones would you recommend?

dranom

yes regular 120mm fan works. but if you have extra cash get a high air flow fan like this
White fan
Black fan

make sure to get the thermalright 120 extreme w/ 8 pipes
its cheaper here at jab-tech TR 120 extreme
i bought mine here

__________________
Linksys Fan MOD w/ heatsinks

9800 GX2 HDMI Fix

690 Crew

glYcerine

ok, got similar system and was wondering to oc it, but never did an OC before.
Think maybe bit scared to loose some parts
Is it really that easy to OC, or are there any other things besides the temp monitoring afterwards?
I really don't wanna burn anything here, If you know what I mean

ericeod

Intel has recently upped their specifications for CPU voltage.


As long as you have good cooling, I would try 1.35, then 1.4v. If you are still having problems getting stable, try 1.45v max on Air. The Intel CPUs will throttle back if you are overheating them (AMD doesnt). The motherboard's bios also has a setting, usually under hardware motitor, that will allow you to specify a CPU temp shutdown.

Just remember, the CPU can handle 1.5v, but you need adequate cooling.
And no 2 CPUs OC the same. Just because someone can run 3.2GHz on default voltage, doesnt mean you can. it is all trial and error.

__________________
eVGA 680i Overclocking guide .......... ASUS P5E/Maximus Thread ............... 4.0GHz CPU-Z

rsdfender

im in the same boat of glycerine. I am a TOTAL NO0b at oc'ing. I have never done it so i am scared to burn something up (granted it is a $1200 rig- powerful that I will only use on gaming, but it is hardearned money that I have worked my ass off for :P). I am first gonna try 3.0ghz then go to 3.24 in a couple of months if i feel confident. so correct me if I am wrong here ericeod:
all i need to do is increase FSB to 333 and voltage to 1.35-1.4 V, then do stress tests right?