4.2 so far but what do you think of these temps

I would consider those core temps a little too hot. Most people would like to keep it under 65C.

Thx for that opinion. I started with a vcore of 1.5. I will start to back that off a bit. I dont know how some of these guys can get such speeds (more than 4.2). I have water cooling AND I have my basement window open and it -20C outside. I ordered the newer CoolIt Elite today and get it tomorrow and presently have the CoolIT Freezone. Very nice if you are an idiot like me and dont want to assemble stuff. The Elite is supposed to offer a 250W dissipation while the Freezone is 175W and the Elite has twice the airflow to help cool so we will see what I get. But correct me if I am wrong, is it the CPU CASE temp that Intel is referring to when they say 64.5C? Cores are obviously hotter than case temp.

I would think so too. However, it's still a general rule of thumb to not pass 65C.

Also, I believe that 1.5V is a bit high for those speeds? I have no experience with the QX9650, but I get the feeling it's too high.

Yes, the number that Intel gives as max operating temperature is the Tcase sensor. You are very close to being OK. Although, it sounds like you have to freeze yourself  

In my opinion, your cores can handle a peak around 65-68c. That's what I'd shoot for. That's still a little warm, but acceptable for 4.2 on a quad.

You might try backing the voltage down in small ticks until instability rears its head. It will take time, but you want to be sure. The more voltage you can drop, the faster you'll get cooler temps.

Thanks guys. I appreciate your help. Starting to drop the voltage as we speak. I bought the PCMark05 and compared my system to the same systems or very similar sytems. I SUCK. These guys are getting a result of 18-20000 and here I am with 11000. There seems to be a lot I have to do to tweak this bad boy.

Remember, those scores are largely based on your gpu.

here is one guy who seems to be doing well with his QX9650. Obtained a 4.5 ghz. But his 4.2 ghz has his cores at 65 or so and he is using water cooling and 1.5v.

Damn, I'm amazed by all these high OCs. I'd be happy if my Q6600 does 3.6GHz!

Gotcha on the GPU. I have an 8800 Ultra so I SHOULD be able to do something with that but I am more focused on the processor and ram. Damn my feet are getting cold! -23C air coming down on them!

Your pc aka heater should warm you up.

If you need help with OC, there's a good guide here.

EDIT: Here it is: http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/245841-29-guide-overc...

Thanks for that link. Just curious. Is OC'ing the video card going to make THAT much difference? CPU obviously is when you can OC it 40%! At least in flight sim 2004 it sure adds a good 10-15 fps more when using all the addons available. But then again that sim is driven HIGHLY by cpu.

Yes, it should make quite the difference. My Q6600 at 2.4GHz with a stock 8800GTS 320MB gave me a score in 3dmark06 of around 10,000. After Ocing the cpu to 3.15GHz and 672/1050 for the 8800GTS, I got 13,500.

This translate into a 5-10% boost in frames in most games.

With your Ultra, I take it that the stock speeds are 612/1080? I bet you can do 700/1200, which should give you 5-10% more fps.

The Ultra is 612/1510 for the core/shader clock and memory clock is 2160

Right. 2160/2 = 1080. It can be expressed in 2 ways.