Question about how much and when it starts to heat up - q6600

Any OC voids the warranty...regardless. Lapping is a method to smooth the surface of the heatsink as well as the IHS of the CPU. There is a sticky on the coolers forum that details this.

You can OC that chip almost immediately to 3.0 by switching the FSB from 266 to 333 without any voltage increase. After that, you will have to start making some changes like CPU volts, RAM timings and RAM volts, just for starters. There is a good sticky in (I believe) the Overclocking forum about how to OC Core2 and Core2 Quads. I have that same chip; expect nothing but miracles if you do it right. I typically run 3.6ghz on mine, but it gets a little unstable around 3.8...I really don't want to push too many volts to it. Each CPU OC is unique, even those with identical VIDs...mostly due to MB, RAM, PSU and user skill.

You are going to want a new CPU cooler if you move anywhere past 3.0ghz. I would also say that you want to go to DDR2-1066 to allow your RAM the ability to jump up. Also, more RAM sticks often means less OC ability due to stick compatibility.

Use CoreTemp or Real Temp.

Thank you for the quick reply.
Ok, can I make the jump to 3.0 with the stock fan? Also, the fan I listed is the ZEROTHERM CF800 fan, should I return it and get something better (it was $40.00 cdn)? Are the above temps that I have listed normal for this setup?

I was also reading about putting a small fan on the northbridge - will this also help overall?

You probably could with the stock fan, but you would probably see better temps if you got the replacement.

Your temps are fairly common for that CPU...it gets fairly warm under load.

Adding a fan to the northbridge might help if you really push your overclocks, but even if you don't, it won't hurt anything. There are a lot of companies that make CPU coolers that also make NB coolers as well.

So is the cooler I mentioned any good? Should I think about a more expensive one?

"ASUS says my CPU is 17 ..."
Obviously wrong. An air cooler will not cool below ambient temperature.

I estimate that the cooler you list would be good for about 3.3 GHz. For higher, you will need a better cooler.

The Xigmatek HDT S-1283V is a really popular cooler:
http://www.frostytech.com/top5heatsinks.cfm

The guide that rubix mentioned:
HOWTO: Overclock C2Q (Quads) and C2D (Duals) - Guide v1.6.1
http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/240001-29-howto-overc...

And one on temperatures:
Core 2 Quad and Duo Temperature Guide
http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/221745-29-core-quad-t...

Hi stranger,
I've just completed my first build as well with the q6600, with p5q mobo. I'm also extremely new to ocing but I've pushed the q6600 to 3.2GHz just by changing the multiplier to 8 and the fsb to 400. I might try to push it a bit higher just to see if I can.
In terms of termperature I found it difficult to oc with the stock heat sink. The room my computer is in is gernerally around 15C and even at this ambiant temp when overclocked and running prime95 my temps would go around 70. So I bought this bad boy
http://ncix.com/products/index.php?sku=35297&vpn=DM-100...
and it now runs at 22C at idle and around 45 at load and this is at 3.2GHz with a vcore of 1.34ish.
I found this guide on tomshardware and it helped alot with ocing
http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/240001-29-howto-overc...
which I beleive is the sticky mentioned before. There is a tonne of information on overclocking the q6600 on the interweb, tomshardware is a great place to start!

Dropping the multiplier is what I did as well, I moved it to 8x...it seems to work just as well. You shouldn't need to up any voltages by switching from 266 to 333, just leave it at AUTO if you don't know what you are doing. Even so, if you really don't know, don't mess with it until you do some research on it. Just remember to only adjust one thing at a time so you know what causes problems if you make changes. You shouldn't have to worry much about blowing anything up, most boards have enough safety features built in that they will just boot to the BIOS if an OC fails.

ASUS Probe is worthless, don't use it. Use CoreTemp or Real Temp.

I can't find the Multiplier on my BIOS?! I am used to the AMD motherboards where there is a simple X 9 etc. With this one, I am a little lost on how to increase the multiplier.
The mobo is pQ5-E

There should be a multiplier setting in the same screen as your CPU/FSB settings. Being an ASUS board, you likely will have to enable the advanced features to see all the settings. Start changing the settings from AUTO to MANUAL and look for multiplier and the number '9'...that is the stock setting for he Q6600. I dropped mine to 8x which allows you to play a little more with the FSB. All in all, its 6 of one, 1/2 dozen of the other. It just depends where the happy place is for your chip to run. There are a couple of good OC stickies in the forums on how-to OC the Q6600 (or any other Intel chip). Have you checked those out?

Remember, most chips speedstep, so it might be set to x8 or x9, but they will step down at idle or low use if you check out CoreTemp or RealTemp...they will show you the FSB x <multiplier>.