Overclocking Q6600 on a P5KC

[Sybex]

I'm not very well up on overclocking and have spent my PC years using all systems at their standard speed. I have just started playing about with overclocking and would like your opinion on weather i'm doing the right thing or not...
The Bus speed I have changed from 266Mhz to 333Mhz, using Stock cooling, everything else set up as Auto...

Antec 900 Case
Asus P5KC Motherboard (stock HSF)
Intel Q6600 CPU
4 X 1 GB Corsair XMS2 DDR2 Ram
Novatech 8800 GTS 320 Mb GFX PCI-E Card
2 X WD CAVIAR 500GB 16MB 7200 SATAII
2 X SAMSUNG 22X DVD+/-R/RW/RAM SATA
THERMALTAKE Purepower W0049 680 WATT PSU
Creative X-Fi Platinum Fatal1ty Champion Series Sound Card
VISTA HOME PREMIUM RETAIL
ASUS 22" WIDESCREEN LCD TFT

[wuyanxu]

you WILL want a better cooler, stock cooler can't handle anything other than stock.

also, get a temperature monitoring software such as CoreTemp to keep an eye on your temps, try not to get it go over 70 under load

[Brad]

You would get a small OC on stock cooler but nothing worth while. As above depending on budget will depends on how high you can get it.

[Sybex]

you WILL want a better cooler, stock cooler can't handle anything other than stock.

also, get a temperature monitoring software such as CoreTemp to keep an eye on your temps, try not to get it go over 70 under load

What would you say was the best cooler for my Q6600

[Admiral Huddy]

I have the same board and CP but as said already, you may nned a decent cooler like the Freezer 7 pro

Give these my blogs a read.. they might give you some clues. Start from the Stock to 2.7 in steps to 3.4GHz The settings are at the foot of each page..

Overclock from stock to 2.7GHz (http://www.huddysworld.co.uk/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=66:overclocking-1&catid=46:the-admirals-log&Itemid=53)
Overclock from 2.7GHz to 3.0GHz (http://www.huddysworld.co.uk/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=67:overclocking-2&catid=46:the-admirals-log&Itemid=53)

Overclock from 3.0GHz to 3.2GHz (http://www.huddysworld.co.uk/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=68:overclocking-3&catid=46:the-admirals-log&Itemid=53)
Overclock 3.2GHZ to 3.4GHz (http://www.huddysworld.co.uk/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=71:overclocking-4&catid=46:the-admirals-log&Itemid=53)

I have found the motherbaord quite restrictive.. I think it might have something to do with the DDR2/DDR3 memory controller. I can't get Orthos Blend stable on any of these but it passes the Gromac test. However, in real apps and gaming it's made no difference so I've stuck with them.

I can't get to 3.6 without Gromacs failing so 3.5 is as high as I've got.

[Sybex]

I have the same board and CP but as said already, you may nned a decent cooler like the Freezer 7 pro

Give these my blogs a read.. they might give you some clues. Start from the Stock to 2.7 in steps to 3.4GHz The settings are at the foot of each page..

Overclock from stock to 2.7GHz (http://www.huddysworld.co.uk/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=66:overclocking-1&catid=46:the-admirals-log&Itemid=53)
Overclock from 2.7GHz to 3.0GHz (http://www.huddysworld.co.uk/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=67:overclocking-2&catid=46:the-admirals-log&Itemid=53)

Overclock from 3.0GHz to 3.2GHz (http://www.huddysworld.co.uk/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=68:overclocking-3&catid=46:the-admirals-log&Itemid=53)
Overclock 3.2GHZ to 3.4GHz (http://www.huddysworld.co.uk/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=71:overclocking-4&catid=46:the-admirals-log&Itemid=53)

I have found the motherbaord quite restrictive.. I think it might have something to do with the DDR2/DDR3 memory controller. I can't get Orthos Blend stable on any of these but it passes the Gromac test. However, in real apps and gaming it's made no difference so I've stuck with them.

I can't get to 3.6 without Gromacs failing so 3.5 is as high as I've got.

Many thanks for your help, your blog makes very interesting reading

[Admiral Huddy]

Thanks.. It's there to help :)

[Sybex]

I have the same board and CP but as said already, you may nned a decent cooler like the Freezer 7 pro

Give these my blogs a read.. they might give you some clues. Start from the Stock to 2.7 in steps to 3.4GHz The settings are at the foot of each page..

Overclock from stock to 2.7GHz (http://www.huddysworld.co.uk/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=66:overclocking-1&catid=46:the-admirals-log&Itemid=53)
Overclock from 2.7GHz to 3.0GHz (http://www.huddysworld.co.uk/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=67:overclocking-2&catid=46:the-admirals-log&Itemid=53)

Overclock from 3.0GHz to 3.2GHz (http://www.huddysworld.co.uk/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=68:overclocking-3&catid=46:the-admirals-log&Itemid=53)
Overclock 3.2GHZ to 3.4GHz (http://www.huddysworld.co.uk/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=71:overclocking-4&catid=46:the-admirals-log&Itemid=53)

I have found the motherbaord quite restrictive.. I think it might have something to do with the DDR2/DDR3 memory controller. I can't get Orthos Blend stable on any of these but it passes the Gromac test. However, in real apps and gaming it's made no difference so I've stuck with them.

I can't get to 3.6 without Gromacs failing so 3.5 is as high as I've got.

OK, I'm about to order a Freezer Pro but am not sure which would best suit my set up, the Choices are
1) Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro Socket 775 CPU Cooler
2) Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 LP Low Profile Quiet Intel CPU Cooler

Has any one tried the Freezer Pro coolers with a Antec 900 case?

[Soup Dragon]

i have same board, but with q9300 and i have artic cooler pro and it fits fine in my antec900

[Sybex]

Many thanks for you prompt reply, time to order...

[!TIMMY!]

The Arctic Cooler should get you up to 3.0ghz no probs, and I believe comes with some good thermal paste pre-applied.

[Sybex]

Many thanks for all the advice, I have now place an order for the Arctic Cooling Freezer pro 7.
Do I need to remove the Mobo to fit this HSF or can it be done in situe, cheers guys

[Soup Dragon]

it can be done in situ but it is a bit fiddly

[GeorgeStorm]

You will probably need to remove the motherboard, I couldnt get one in for a customer until I did......
Its a good choice, although, this is meant to be just as good/if not better:
http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/specpage.html?AKA-965
Save you a couple of quid aswell, :D

[Sybex]

I have now fitted my nice new Arctic Freezer 7 Pro, I ended up taking the Motherboard out of the case (not a very nice job when dealing with an Antec 900 case). I'm very please with the results, I have run all 4 cores @ 100% load, temperature maxed out at 55 C and peaked at 56 C, this was taken over a 1 hour period, I then done another test running at 100% using OCCT, this time only running of 15 minutes with the same results, please see the attached graph for the hottest core....

I wonder how high I can overclock this Q6600 without stressing it to much, any advice would be well and truly appreciated. Many thanks guy, and thanks to Novatech who always give such a good speedy service, keep it up guys.............

[GeorgeStorm]

Well, most can clock to 3.6 as long as everything else is up to it
I would say 3.2 should be easily acheivable, and still keep the temps nice and low, :D

[wuyanxu]

3.6Ghz if you are lucky.

usually, the jump from 3.4Ghz to 3.6Ghz is quite large.

[GeorgeStorm]

Yeah, and the AC7 might struggle to cool a quad at 3.6 to a satisfactory level