Need to OC my CPU, help?

[ralfidude]

So, i had dells for like my whole computing life, and i gave up on that for, well hopefully ever. So i have this custom built machine, its sweet, but one problem, my CPU is running at only 2.4 GHz.

So the machine has an asus mother board which i am absolutely unfamiliar with, hence the BIOS screen is quite different from that of dells MOBO BIOS.
The chip i have is a quad core Q6600 at 2.4ghz, and i got a 9800GTX. So all is sweet, i run my games at pretty much almost highest settings, aside from crysis of course.

So as far as im concerned, OC ur CPU is done in ur BIOS or by a program u download. I preffer the BIOS way.

Also, iv been told in confidence that the only really hard part is to make the voltage just right, too much and boom, too little and BSOD, or just epic fail. So its done by trial and failure.

I went on google and googled this sucker, and one site, i think it was CNET or something, had done some OC testing for CPUs and certain MOBOs, and they gave the required good voltage requirements for the CPUs.

(By the way id like to OC it to at least 3GHz)

This is the kicker, i didnt know that there are like 5-6 different voltage settings you have to change. Its not just the voltage itself.... ????

So...

Any recommendations as to how i go about doing this? The increments for all the different voltage types is different.


Also, i will need a new fan, as the custom fan that came with the Q6600 will not do at the 3GHz temperatures its gonna give off. So any suggestions to a cheap but ok fan for that type of requirement?

[spacemanc]

You want to keep the fsb and cpu at 1:1 so its usually the memory and north bridge voltages that you have to tweak - you will probably have to do very little, if anything to the cpu voltage. In fact getting the RAM settings right in general, is the secret really

Do a search for "your board name + overclocking" and I'm sure you'll find a guide ( Be warned - they always make it look much more complicated than it is! ) You'll get a 6600 to 3GHz no problem, but thats probably a good speed to keep it at.

I use an Arctic cooling Freezer 7 Pro for my cpu - they're so effective that you can do some serious OCing and keep it silent but Ive had zalmans in the past and theyve been great too. The recent intels are so overclockable, that you may even be able to get away with the stock cooler.

PS make sure you lock down the pci-e at 100 MHz.

[ralfidude]

Ow my brain


(Jk)

il look into it definitely.
I NEED THIS! So far, i can only see 5 thousand meters away in my cobra as gunner in Arma, i need more, MORE I TELL U!

[ralfidude]

Well, i checked online for some stuff and i might have found what i need. The biggest problem resides in trying to find the appropriate fan.

I need somethign good, but i wotn spend above 50$ for it, im preety much an insane newegg customer and i can get it cheap from there. Problem is in the HUGENESS in some of these fans. I have a sagitta gaming case which "should" get the job done, but... i dunno. Some kid on other forums said he just BARELY got a fan to work that was 148mm in height.

This case has a fan on the window, so it kind of restricts my height for the CPU.

Anybodyse else here with a good fan and that case?

[Deadfast]

You don't need a new fan.

I have Q6600 OC'd to 3.0 with the boxed one. Temperature keeps bellow 60 at all times

[Bamboo]

Deadfast is right to a point, but to extend the life of the CPU and make it as good as possible, spending $35-40 on an aftermarket cooler is the way to go. In test after test they compare coolers to the stock Intel, and it is a huge difference. Also, the thermal paste that comes with intel's is crap. Some good Artic Silver 5 even used on the stock intel heatsink can bring temps a few degrees cooler.

You didn't list your motherboard model, or I would guide you through the steps by looking up their online manual. But I do have an asus and also helped a guy the other day overclock on a new p45 board his own q6600 (which I also have).

If you want to give it a test on stock, you should download CoreTemp
Core Temp

Run it so it makes a log of your temps for a few mins. at idle, then jump in a game and see what it does under load.

Then save it so you can refer back to it later, but notice what your high temps are.

Next up, you will need to go into the bios and look at the AI section for something like "jumper free setting". Once you find it, it is probably set to Auto. Change that to manual. Then scroll down till you find your FSB (front side bus) setting, which should be something like 266 or 270.

To easily overclock, without running a huge risk of hurting the CPU, you want to up your FSB just a bit. You CPU freq. is gotten by taking the CPU multiplier, which for the q6600 should be set to 9 by default (you will see that in the BIOS near the FSB setting). When you multiply the 9 by what ever your FSB is, you get the CPU frequency, so if you set the FSB to say 300, you CPU should be running around 2.70, because 300 times 9 is 2700. You just move the decimal over for the 2.7.

I would start with that small overclock, go back into windows and use it as normal for about a day or 2. Use coretemp again to check the temps at idle and load. Make sure at that speed it shouldn't go over about 60C, maybe 63C at the most at load. If it does, I would really start considering a better cooler. If it is in the 50C range, you can consider going higher.

I have my FSB at 333, so my CPU is at 2.997, pretty much 3.0. Going much higher than that you will have to start using more northbridge voltage, which can in the long run start hurting your CPU, if you use too much. The thing is, I run a dual monitor setup, and in the 2nd screen I use the vista sidebar with a gadget that shows me the usage on all 4 cores all the time. When I'm gaming, and running at 2.99, not even crysis runs at 100%, usually around the 70-80%. PR is in the 80-90% when things start going really crazy, but that is on a single core. ARMA is the same way as PR, though ARMA2 is supposed to support multi-core.

Anyway, if you need help picking out a good aftermarket cooler, I'll be happy to help. I have a ton of bookmarks saved from when I was trying to decide on mine. And of course, pretty much everything I've gotten from newegg.

By the way, how long ago did you get your q6600? Just wondering if you got a GO stepping or not.

[[R-CON]ice_killer]

i can get my Q6600 to 3.5 Ghz under 60 idle

what for ASUS motherboard do you have ?

[Nick The Bubble]

Is this suitable for overclocking? My Vista performance manager says that my processor is the weak link.

[Bamboo]

Your temps are really low. WOW.
But just so you know, what I posted above only applies to Intel CPUs. The AMD you have is supposed to be overclockable, but you have to go about it differently. There are lots of guides out there. Just didn't want you to go looking in your bios and change things you shouldn't for an AMD.

[Nick The Bubble]

my uni room is really cold, we like to save on heating!!
http://xtreview.com/review167.htm
This is an overclocking report for my exact one but I can't really follow it. I think it says that overclocking won't achieve anything, but does anyone know better?