Watercooling my q6600...

Hey all, my system is as follows..

Antec 900 gamer case
Corsair 750W PSU
Corsair 4GB RAM
INTEL Q6600, overclocked to 3.00ghz (could not get stable past this on games)
ASUS P5N-T Deluxe mobo
1TB storage..

I currently have 2 small fans at the front of the case, a fan on the back and side, and the big exhaust fan on the top. It is loud, quite cool but cant seem to get CPU much past 3.00GHZ because i get either blue screens or crashes.

SO I would like to look into water cooling my PC. Dont want to spend too much, around £200 max.

Would it greatly reduce the temp of my CPU if i do it efficiently?

I would love my Q6600 at 3.6GHZ. I did load windows at this speed but it crashed on CPU burn program.

Thanks for any help, Dan

Agreed. You can get a basic good CPU only loop for umm $200-250. But ya really don't need it. You got a great air cooled case, you just need a new HS for the CPU for wayy under $100.

Also forgot to mention I have a radeon 4870 512MB graphics card..

The RAM i have is TWIN2X4096-6400C5 G corsair.

Im not using the stock air cooler atm, its the AKASA AK-965 CPU Cooler from pcworld..

My load temps are about 65 - 68 degrees celcius with prime 95 on maximum heat setting.

My multiplier is 333.34 x 9 making it 3.00ghz, and my VID is 1.275V.

Any ideas how I can make it faster? I think my RAM settings are just left on auto, as I wasnt sure what to do with them to help overclock.

Thanks, Dan

^Try upping Vcore or NB voltage.

NB or your CPU? If you are changing your NB, I would be willing to bet your CPU might need a slight bump. What is the VID on that chip?

For that price the best option will be to find the Corsair Hydro Series H50. It's only for the CPU (the thing you need however) but having complete liquid cooling for that price it's futile since they cool worser than a good air cooler. It should cost about 65$ and it's very good for what it does, it's on par with some of the best air coolers out there without having the problem of weight. You can find a review of the H50 on guru3d for a better idea of it.

However also a good air cooler will suffice for a good OC. A sub 200$ liquid cooling is not enough to reach very high (above 4 GHZ on your CPU) Overclocks anyway.

A Q6600 with good cooling can reach 3.8-4 GHZ so your problem is probably too much heat and/or not good configurations. If you use the stock cooler there's no way you can go above what you already have.

If you want to go above 4 GHZ however you need an high-end liquid solution that will cost much more than what you want to spend, also if IMHO reaching above 4 GHZ is futile in a Q6600, so I will personally stick with the H50 or an high-end air cooler.

Yes, the H50 will fit on the back fan spot.

I have seen lots n lots of Q6600s that find a happy medium about 3.6, maybe a bit more. Some 6600 just won't go higher, depends on the chip, mobo, and knowledge of overclocking.