Hopefully next week ill have a new PC, with a GA-p45-ds3 and a q6600.

Now i have a few questions.
1) what is the so called STOCK voltage for a q6600 (go)
2) will the chip reach 3ghz on this voltage or will i have to tweak it as this will be a first time over clock.
3) do i need too set the pci-e frequency too 100mhz so it doesn't break my card ? and if so is this the same for pcie 2.0
4)any other things i should know before i attempt this so i dont break a brand new pc? such as north bridge etc.

Thanks in advanced
Plow

1) I believe the stock voltage is 1.35 volts.

2) Some people say they can get to 3.0 GHz on stock voltage, but from my experience I have had to up the voltage to 1.425 to get it stable at 3.0 GHz, and I have the GO stepping version. All processors are different.

3) Leave the PCI-E frequency at 100 MHz, the performance gains are virtually non existent and you will be risking data corruption. (regardless of PCI-E version).

4) Only change one setting at a time when overclocking, and make small steps. Test your memory, use an aftermarket cooler, remember case screws, check all connections, be patient, have fun.

EDIT: Grammar

i just OC my q6600 to 3ghz without touching the voltage... i have an IP35 pro MOBO that defaults the cpu at 1.3v. just brought the FSB to 333
im not sure about PCI frequency but i would also like to know

I've heard that if you leave the pci-e as it is its on auto then it will overclock itself with the cpu and fry the gfx card or something along those lines.

There is a pretty good thread about PCIE frequency here:
http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/ [...] -overclock

That will tell you pretty much the same thing I said.

Hey the VID is actually different depending on what chip you get. So stock voltage will vary. Lupiron knows better than me, but I believe the range is from 1.2 volts all the way up to 1.32 or something like that. So somewhere in that range is the stock voltage for your processor.

Open Realtemp and you will see your VID, which is the voltage your mother board will set it's self to, when using the auto setting. That value can be considered stock voltage, and is what Intel believes your chip needs to run stable at factory rated stock speeds. But we all know that can be stretched a bit.

Ah ok, I have a VID of 1.35 Volts. Probably explains why my q6600 doesn't overclock as well.

With some tweaking you should be able to achieve a respectable over clock even with that VID, provided you have a good mobo and cooling.

Ok so VID is what your pc thinks the stock voltage should be correct? and if yours is lower its better and if its higher not so good?

Yes the board with read the VID value and automatically set the voltage to that value when running on auto. And yes a lower VID is better for overclocking technically. It just means you may have a harder time pushing a real high overclock because of voltage and heat restrictions.

Reason is you need less voltage to achieve frequency value X, relative to your counterpart with a higher VID.

Ok thanks for all the help sportsfanboy. so basically it will be safe for everything too be on the stock/auto and wack the fsb too 333 and if needs be take up the cpu voltage a tad.

Ya exactly, no worries... Quite a few people are getting 3.0 out of the q6600 on their stock voltage. You will need to set a couple/few things manually.

Voltage to Stock (VID) as a starting point, then slowly raise the voltage as needed for stability.

PCIe needs to be set to 100 or you will be raising the entire system bus, which isn't good for your video card and anything else plugged in, including your hard drives.

And obviously your memory voltage and divider, if your going to use one.

That's really all you should need for a modest overclock. When going higher, often times more tweaking is needed and recommended. But for 3.0 on a q6600 you should be good to go, no pun intended.

Dear all,

i have nooo idea where you brought those voltages for the q6600, me and my friend own this cpu, our stock voltage is 1.225 v, our motherboards are p35-ds 4 and 965p-ds3 respectively. i can get up to 3ghz on stock voltage and the pc is stable, i run few benchmarks and no worries. then i moved to 3.6 ghz and i had to move up the V to 1.4.

Your motherboard when overclocking Lock the pci express frequency , pretty much all recent motherboards do that automaticaly, you don't have to worry, the pci express will be lock at 33mhz for your gpu. and that 100 mhz won't be touch unless you specify that in the bios of course.

get Cpu-z or Easytune for gygabite owners to have an accurate idea of your voltages

I must be lucky i got a 6600 G0 VID 1.2250 and im running it at 3.0ghz on 1.18v

prime 24/7 Stable probably push it more but no reason to be honest for what i run..3.0ghz is the sweet spot

Ya, that seems to be the low end of the spectrum, good job.

Mine is 1.2625, somewhere in the middle

Hi, my q6600 has a VID of 1.325 and I have gotten to 3.0 on