Overclocking Advice (EVGA 680i Q6600) Please!

[Guest]

Hey, I was wondering if someone could offer some good advice for overclocking my rig. I am experienced with system building and computers in general, but I am new to overclocking. I have done a lot of research, but I was wondering if I could get some system specific advice. Basically, I am wondering where to start, what kind of clocks I should reach, normal core and system temps. Any advice you could offer would be great. Also, the board gives the option to run the memory unlinked from the FSB, is this advantageous? Or should I run the memory slower than the 1066 that it is rated for?

My system specs.

Case : Thermaltake ArmorPlus(Armor+)
Processor: Intel Quad Core Kentsfield 2.4Ghz Q6600
Motherboard: EVGA nForce 680i SLI Socket 775
Cooling: Thermaltake Bigwater 780E Esa (Processor Only in Loop)
Memory: Corsair XMS2 4096MB PC8500 DDR2 1066MHz (2x2048) w/fan
Video: 2x SLI XFX GeForce 8800 Ultra 768MB PCIe w/Dual Link DVI
PSU: Ultra X3 1000w PSU
HDD: 2x WD Caviar 640GB Serial ATA HD 7200/16MB/SATA-3G (RAID 0)
2x WD Caviar 320GB Serial ATA HD 7200/16MB/SATA-3G (RAID 0)

I have added a couple of 140mm fans to the case as well, one to the bottom pulling cool air in, and blowing air over the video cards. Idle temps are in the low 30 and I am looking to strech its legs, all advice would be welcome! Thanks!

 

[Mondoman]

There are some excellent overclocking guides among the forum stickies.

 

[Guest]

Yeah, i have been looking, but I have found a lot of contradictory information. I was hoping someone could help based on my systems specs. For example, a lot of the sites say to keep your cpu to ram ratio at 1:1, others say to keep the cpu and fsb unlinked. Some people say to leave the voltages on auto, some people say to pump it up initially. Any advice would be great, especially if people out there have similar setups. I realize no two chips are the same, but a starting point would be great.

 

[megamanx00]

Well, that quad has an FSB of 266 (quad pumped to 1066 yeah yeah). Setting your RAM on an 1:1 with the FSB would mean starting off at DDR2 533 (266 but 533 effective). If you did that you would ensure that you wouldn't be limited by your RAM since if you managed to reach an FSB of 533, that would mean quad pumped bus of 2133, your CPU speed would be an insane 4.8 GHz (and would probably blow up ). Anyway you mighnt want to set it at 1:1 to start off and push the CPU speed, and then raise the speed of the RAM latter.