I'm leaning heavily toward grabbing this board for my upcoming build. In reading the various reviews on New Egg, there seems to be a definitive split: Half the people say "you must OC in BIOS, EasyTune sucks!" and the other half say "There are limited controls in the BIOS, you must use EasyTune or another software OC!" So, which is it?

Any tips for the first time OCer? I've over clocked a GPU before, but that was so simple a child could do it (I just had to slide a bar in a software program incrementally until I got artifacts, then back down).

i overclocked my q6600 to 3Ghz using the Bios. never used easy tune. n didnt even try it. so i wouldnt know what that software has to offer. BUT my system is stable with max temp reaching 60 C (on all the cores), n im using the zalman 9700NT cpu cooler. if u want to c overclocking thing, plz go to http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/ [...] uals-guide and for more information go to http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/foru [...] l-problems

"Use the BIOS, Luke. Use the BIOS."

With apologies to George Lucas

Use the Bios. Whenever you overclock, test the overclock for errors with a program, i.e. Prime95, Orthos, Super PI.

Yeah OC with BIOS, it has tons of more options than EasyTune or any OverClocking utility

In the Bios.

1) Don't Use "AutoVoltage" - It puts the Voltage too high.
2) At least initially, keep the Memory Ratio 1:1.
3) Start with a "Safe" OC, test and then move up from there.

I would assume a FSB of 333 or 3.0Ghz on your CPU is a good place to start. Whichever you hit first is a good place to stop and start testing.
For any of the current C2D chips and motherboards, this would be a light OC.

EasyTune is for dummies.
It overvolts everything. Space heater style.
Optimization thru BIOS reduced my CPU & RAM voltages by over 0.2V.
The temperatures at 3.0GHz went down 15°C for maximum values.

The BIOS still blinks red for voltage optimization in M.I.T.
but the system is Prime95 stable for over 10hours.

BIOS is the only way to go.

Agreed.

yeah, that what happened with me. tho it was red. it worked fine. n yeah, i put the voltage lower than what it should be, n it was stable.

What do you mean by "BIOS blinks red?" Is there any way to override this?

Also, anyone know what the multiplier is on a Q6600?

Q6600

266 x 9 = 2,394

Don't worry about the Bios flashing red. That just means you overclocked the computer.