Hi Everyone,
I got all the parts for my computer yesterday and got it up and running at 1 AM last night - it appears to be in decent shape. it's the quitest computer I've ever been around.

I'm debating OC'ing my PC and saw something unusual when looking at CPU-Z. It reports that my core speed is 1600 MHz instead of 2400. I figured this was something I didn't understand, and went looking on line for other snapshots with a Q6600 G0 stepping. What's strange is that mine says the multiplier is x 6.0 instead of 9.0, which is the value I see here:
http://img512.imageshack.us/img512/2527/cpuzhz0.png

The way I figure it is 266 * 9 = 2.4 Ghz, where my computer is 266 * 6 = 1.6 GHz.
The specs for the PC are,
Antec p180
q6600
stock intel fan
gigabyte X38-DQ6
Corsair 2GB PC8500 1066Mhz 240-Pin DDR2 RAM
gForce 8800GTS
Corsair HX620W ps
WD 150Gb raptor

Three fans are running and the temp is never above 42 celc.


I'm also looking at CPU-Z's memory tab and it's saying that the memory's max bandwidth is 400MHz, which seems low. Shoud the memory be this low?

Forgive the newbie questions, but I'm not sure how much I want to go into OC'ing this system it but if there's something wrong then it's important to know it. Thanks for any help ..
David

Its speed stepping, it'll jump to 2.4Ghz (9 multi) when you need more power. There is a sticky answering this question, as this question is being asked very regularly.

You'll probably be able to adjust your memory settings in Bios.

If you cannot figure out how to adjust this yourself, perhaps you should not be overclocking, learn the basics first and then start to overclock, true the C2D's and C2Q's are easy to overclock, but if you understand more about your settings first you are more likely to get a stable OC and less likely to break something.

How are you measuring temps, read some of the stickies, your temps may be good or bad depending on precisely what you are measuring and how, 42 idle for core temp is hot in a P180, 42 load for core temp is cold (and probably means it is not being read right)...

I'm not trying to be harsh, but most of the answers are out there, reading them will help you to understand more, and will help you to fix things when it goes wrong and you can't get on the forum to ask questions.

Read some stickies

http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/ [...] multiplier

Very Sorry ...
To bother you guys, I guess if I had thought to look in the 'CPU' forum for my 'CPU' problem, and not the new builds forum, I wouldn't have to ask the question. Much thanks for the advice, regardless. Believe it or not both answers led me down avenues to explore, so I'm going to let it go until I'm better versed. This things wicked fast as it is ...

Glad we are able to help.

If you hang around here for a while you'll start to see exactly the same question being asked at least once per week. Sometimes the people are upset with intel that their machine isn't as 'fast' as it should be and think they are being ripped off. Sometimes, they won't listen to the answers (in that respect you have been a model questioner). If you stay here even longer you will also get fed up of answering the same question over and over again, when 15s of searching would give the newb an answer (OK maybe 30s the THG search system isn't the best).

People really really don't mind answering questions, and helping to solve problems. Unfortunately overclocking used to be difficult, now it is a lot easier to get a great result, but the fundementals need to be there so that you know you are not pushing the evenlope to far, and so that you now that not all CPUs are created equal with respect to overclocking.

I do not recommend going above 3.0 GHz with a stock Intel HSF.