Core 2 Duo Overclocking FAQ

Core 2 Duo Overclocking FAQ

Q. What is an acceptable temperature form my Core 2 Duo?

A. This depends greatly on two things:
1. The ambient temperature inside your case - This is basically room temperature, your pc will never be able to cool your CPU below what the actual air temperature is. If you would like to know this data a nifty trick it to go to a local pet store and buy one of the adhesive thermometer used in aquariums. Try to “stick it” near an intake fan inside the case.

2. Second is the type of cooling you have chosen for your processor. If your using the stock heatsink and fan expect your idle temps to be about 5-10c higher than ambient. With an after market heatsink and fan expect your idle temps to be around 5c higher than ambient. The type of thermal paste you choose to use will also affect the performance of your heatsink.

Q. OMG OMG My idle temps are 50c, what’s wrong!!!??

A. 90% of the time the culprit of high temps is an improperly installed CPU heatsink and fan. Double check to make sure you have installed it correctly, making sure all clips are “clicked in”. If your using a tower type heatsink you want the fan blowing through it to be facing an exhaust fan in your computer. This will remove the hot air being blown through your heatsink as fast as possible. If you remove the heatsink at any time you MUST remove the old thermal paste using Isopropyl Alcohol (at least 70%), or other cleaning solution made specifically for CPU thermal paste removal, such as the Arctic Silver cleaning kit.

Q. I want to overclock but have no idea how, can you teach me?

A. This question has been asked many times, and the answer like many in life is right under your nose. There are many “Stickys” on these forums explaining in detail what Overclocking is and how to do it for various processors. Here are some links:
Overclocking for beginners
Wusy’s Core 2 Duo OC Guide

Q. I need an aftermarket cooler for my new rig, what should I get?

A. This depends on a couple things. First what kind of overclock are you going for? Extreme or Above Average. And second, how much are you looking to spend? If your looking for an extreme OC and have a lot of money to burn ($200-$300) I would suggest a water cooling setup. You can buy whole kits or the parts separately. If you decide to go this route www.dangerden.com and www.frozencpu.com are very good sites to look at. If your looking for a good OC at a good price I recommend:
-Scythe Infinity
-Scythe Ninja Plus
-Scythe Mine
-Tuniq Tower 120
-Thermalright Ultra-120 or SI-128 or SI-120
-Noctua NH-U12
-Thermaltake Big Typhoon
-Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro
-Zalman CNPS CNPS9500AT
-Zalman CNPS 7700AlCu or 7700Cu
-Vigor Gaming Monsoon II TEC

This is it for now, I'll add more as i think of them.