bought all the parts, few questions..

[JJPeerless]

Hey,

I finally just did it, bought everything. I wasnt able to get a E6600, newegg sold out of them and I guess I saved around 120$ anyways. Oh well, I went with the E6400, i figure I will be able to OC to near E6600 levels anyways.

CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo E6400

MOBO: Gigabyte GA-965P-DS3 (I have no need for SLI/Crossfire and I heard this board was great for overclocking as well)

RAM: CORSAIR XMS2 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (i heard my motherboard was Very picky with ram and this was the best I could do with that board apparently. I wanted to get CAS 4 timings but I guess 5 will do).

HSF: Thermaltake Big Typhoon CL-P0114 120mm

Power Supply: Antec NeoHE 500 ATX12V 500W

Thermal Grease: Arctic Silver 5

Case: Thermaltake SOPRANO VB1000BWS



Now, will I be able to overclock this baby to 3.0ghz? I was wondering how far people can push this on air cooling. I got the Big Typhoon and some artic silver to help out. Case seems to have good ventilation as well. If I can break 3ghz stable then I will be very pleased with the 6400. I was only planning on pushing my 6600 a little over 3ghz anyways. So If I can get this chip to 3ghz I doubt I would have noticed much of a difference.

Let me know what you guys think..thanks.

 

[aj6065]

You should be able to get 3ghz on air. Anandtech got the E6400 up to 2.88ghz on the stock fan. http://anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/showdoc.aspx?i=2802&p=2 Set your ram divider to 1:1 (DDR2 533) and once you get your FSB up to 375, you will be running at 3ghz (375*8=3000). Your RAM will be running at 750mhz. I'm not sure what you will have to bump your votages to, though.

 

[nikolokolus]

head on over to the forums at xtremesystems and there is a ton of info about overclocking the DS3; BIOS plays a big role, as does the amount of headroom in your RAM, whether or not you mobo has stable dividers, etc . . . there is too much to go into right here.

I would think a 3ghz OC on air, with the E6400 on the DS3 is entirely attainable, (though all of my knowledge of this particular setup is anecdotal and not first hand). However with OC'ing, mileage will vary even between CPU's cut from the same wafer.