Q6600 overclocking - first time

[imnotmartin]

well ive decided to attempt at overclocking my Q6600 g0 and i was wondering if there was a nice thorough overall guide that someone can point me towards or tell me how i should approach overclocking my cpu/ram
my current build is:

antec p182 mid-tower
corsair tx 750w psu [non modular.. big mistake]
q6600 g0 with arctic cooler freezer pro 7 (slightly dent at one end.. friend who helped me build it's rough handling)
xfx 8800 gt alpha dog [clock: 602 / shader: 1512 / memclock 900]
2x 2gb ddr2-800 OCZ Reaper HPC [5-5-5-15]
EVGA E175 750i motherboard

Also one worry i have is my temps.. my copu temperatures are awfully high when i see people with similiar builds around 35
[everest]
mobo: 35 C
cpu 46 C
-1:46 C
-2:46 C
-3:42 C
-4:45 C
gpu 59
i dont know how to check my ambient

my cable management on my power supply isnt the best either because its non modular.. i had nowhere to fit all the extra cables so i packed it in ont he lower left chamber of my case.. and ive had this computer for about 4 months now and dusted it only once.. is there anything i can do about the temperatures like dusting it out again [not lapping... im accident prone xD]
thanks alot for your help!

 

[olddman]

This is the place to start

Go here for understanding and setting up to read temps correctly.

 

[ivanlee4]

When I did my first build, it was with the following specs :
Q6600 with original intel heatsink/fan
P5ql pro Asus motherboard
550 watt PSU
XFX 9600 GSO
2x2G Corsair PC 6400

And I used Asus Probe and Speed Fan to monitor my temperature. I found out that when the computer was idle, my cpu temp was 46 C. When under load (playing computer games and converting movie to DVD), the temp on CPU went as high as 87 C to 99 C ( I'm not joking).

I figured, that something didn't feel right, so I disassembled the CPU, and found out that I applied too much of thermal grease and the heatsink did not lock properly. After spending hours researching the internet about q6600, I decided to buy OCZ gladiator max, and 120 mm case fan.

I got a hard time mounting the cooler, but I did it right this time and I made sure I applied modest amount of thermal grease. The result was a huge drop of temperature. When idle, it was 21 - 22 C,
after playing games for 2 hours, the temp was 29 C. I hope my experience will shed a light to you of what went wrong with your CPU temp.

 

[imnotmartin]

wow! thats a big difference.. i didnt know you can apply too much thermal paste haha ill lookinto it and see if thats the case. thanks for your replies! it helped alot :]

 

[phuangk]

When i first build my Q6600, I have following specs

Intel Q6600
Asus P5Q Pro
OCZ Reaper HPC 2X2GB PC2 6400
Stock CPU Fan with stock thermal compound came with cpu heatsink
Thermaltake 550w PSU
BFG GeForce 9800GTX+ OC

Overclocked it @ 3.0GHz.. idle temps for all core are in between 40c to 50c.... Load temps ... 80c+.. can't remember..

So I decided to buy myself a Zalman 9700LED for Overclocking..
With Zalman 9700LED, I can push my cpu @ 3.6GHz with following temps. (I use the thermal compound came with Zalman 9700LED)

Idle:
===
36c
35c
32c
32c

Load: (Prime95 12hrs stress test)
========================
67c
67c
63c
63c

Later on, I decide to waste more $$ in my pocket, therefore, I went to buy an Artic Silver 5 to re-apply my thermal compound.

The first time i re-apply the Artic Silver 5, I think i applied too much... so the Temp didnt' change much.
So the 2nd time I reapply it, i use credit card to evenly apply the thermal compound onto my cpu and fan, also my northbridge chipset, southbridge chipset, voltage regulators, GPU, and video card RAM.

This is the result after the 2nd re-apply

Idle
===
28c
26c
23c
23c

Load (Prime95 9hrs stress test)
=======================
62c
61c
57c
57c

The following are few settings i set to run stable @3.6GHz. (every cpu are different, so you might wanna find the best setting for your Q6600, and this is just for your reference)

CPU Multiplier: 9x
FSB 400MHz
PCIE Frequency: 100Mhz
FSB Strap to NorthBridge: 400MHz
DRAM Frequency: 400MHz
Memory Timing: 4-4-4-12 @ 1.8v
CPU Voltage: 1.34375v
Northbridge voltage: 1.20v
Southbridge voltage: 1.10v

 

[imnotmartin]

well since my cpu still runs a little hot... can anyone give me the settings for mabye a 3.0 and a 3.3?

 

[mdma35]

1.34v q6600 3.6 FSB 1600 STABLE?? lol THATS THE GOLDEN CHIP OF THE CENTURY BRO! can you do prime small FFT FOR 12+ hours without gettings erros or maybe 1 hour of OCCT?
for my Q6600 3.6 i needed 1.44 to be 100% stable i mean not just games and surfing the net i did a prime for 13 hours and OCCT for 1 hour to get to 3.8 line i needed 1.5 Vcore

 

[phuangk]

1.34v q6600 3.6 FSB 1600 STABLE?? lol THATS THE GOLDEN CHIP OF THE CENTURY BRO! can you do prime small FFT FOR 12+ hours without gettings erros or maybe 1 hour of OCCT?
for my Q6600 3.6 i needed 1.44 to be 100% stable i mean not just games and surfing the net i did a prime for 13 hours and OCCT for 1 hour to get to 3.8 line i needed 1.5 Vcore

I don't think mine is golden chip.. i'm just a bit lucky that I got the VID: 1.225 Q6600
There are some ppl report that they have VID 1.11x Q6600 which suppose to OC even better.

Prime95 12hrs passed

Redo my cpu thermal compound, northbridge, southbridge, and MOSFETS thermal compound last week and I was able to adjust two VCore values down and ran Prim95 for almost 9 hours without any problem.

 

[mdma35]

sorry for questioning you thats realy great 1.34 3.6 would be my dream :>