How much should I OC my 955 BE?

[seanr111]

Hello, I just built a new rig and was about to begin the fine art of overclocking. I'm not looking to push my components to the limits, I really just want to get a nice performance boost out of them while maintaining the longevity of the parts. Specifically I was wondering by what amount I should OC my CPU?

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My setup is as follows:

CPU - AMD Phenom II X4 955 Black ed. (C3 version)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103808

Motherboard - MSI 890FXA-GD70 890FX
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813130274

Memory - G.SKill RipJaw 4GB (2x 2GB) DDR3
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231303

PSU - Antec TruePower TP-750 Blue 750W
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817371022

CPU Fan & Heatsink - Cooler Master Hyper 212+
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835103065&Tpk=cooler%20master%20hyper%20212

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Currently my CPU idles around 29 C and increases to about 49 C under load. The room I use the computer it gets very hot, it can be anywhere from 75 - 90 F in the summer, which is something to consider. At the moment I have left the CPU at stock settings however I have altered the memory timings to from the auto setting, which I think was 9-9-9-15, to the manufacturers 7-8-7-24 and set it from T2 to T1. I ran 4 passes of Memtest86+ and encountered zero errors so I am fairly certain what I did to the memory is stable. The memory is currently running at 1333 MHz which is under the manufacturers 1600 MHz.

So how high would you, my experienced forum friends, suggest OCing my CPU? I was considering attempting to go from the stock 3.2 GHz to maybe 3.6 or 3.7 GHz.
I could also get an additional fan to do a push - pull set up on my cooler master hyper 212+. I am currently using a CM690 II case with a 140mm front intake fan, a 140mm bottom intake fan, a 120mm side intake fan blowing on my GPU (ASUS eah5850), 2 140mm top exhaust fans and a rear 120mm exhaust fan. I have the Cooler Master Hyper 212+ with a single fan currently blowing toward the 2 140mm top exhaust fans.

Thank you very much for your thoughts and suggestions.

-Sean

 

[seanr111]

For some reason my version of CPU-Z only reports Core VID, which it is reading as 0.975V. I'll run the tests and alterations that you suggested as soon as I can, I'm fixing a hole in my drywall at the moment.

 

[seanr111]

Allright I ran the test with suggested alterations, the default Vcore in the BIOS was 1.35V. The intel burn test with the mentioned settings was a success, it completed the test in 39.52 seconds and maintained full stability. Core speed is now shown to be 3600 MHz. The temps went up to 51 C during the test. Though idle temps have increased by about 4 C.

 

[seanr111]

Best answer selected by seanr111.