Overclocking with i7 950, Noctua D14 and ASUS Rampage III Extreme

[Fire-Dragon-DoL]

I were thinking about overclocking my CPU but I have the following problems:
1) Is the noctua itself. It so big that is over my RAM. Due to this, I removed the RAM cooling system (only on 2 sticks, those small theets on top of my RAM. I have RAM DDR3 Corsair Dominator 1600MHz 12GB (6x2GB) CL8-8-8-24). So I'm afraid I can't overclock my RAM, in this case, maybe my cpu overclock could be "useless" due to memory being the bottleneck. Am I wrong?
2) I'm totally unexperienced in overclocking, but maybe this can be fixed
3) Actually to insert the last RAM stick, I did something that shouldn't be done, I forced a bit my noctua to insert the ram under it. That being said, now I have 42° idle in bios monitor, when on windows I "idle" at 48° and I don't think it's normal with a noctua, maybe I should mount it again? Notice that my computer is really dirty, yes I have to clean it. I don't think is a bad airflow problem because I have an HAF-X with fans mounted correctly.

My first idea is buying another cooling system, maybe a watercooling one that has better performance than noctua (are there anything that you could suggest?), but I never mounted a watercooling system so I can only think about closed watercooling system, or I need a great guide. In this case I can mount back my RAM cooling system and overclock everything without troubles.

The other situation is overclocking my CPU without overclocking RAM OR (risky) overclock ram only "a bit" and hope it will not fry.

Any suggestion on how to move in my situation? Here you can see my whole computer configuration:

RAM DDR3 Corsair Dominator TR3X6G1600C8D 1600MHz 6GB (6x2GB) CL8-8-8-24
CPU Intel Core i7-950 3.06GHz Socket 1366 125W Boxed BX80601950
Power Supplier PC Modulare Corsair Professional Series HX850 850W 80Plus SLI-Ready
Cooling System CPU Noctua NH-D14 socket 775/1156/1366/AM2/AM2+/AM3 140mm
Cooler Master HAF X Nero Windowed
SSD OCZ RevoDrive 80GB Read 540MB/s Write 450MB/s PCI-E x4 OCZSSDPX-1RVD0080
VGA Gainward GeForce GTX 560 Ti "GS" Core 900MHz Memory GDDR5 4200MHz 1GB 2xDVI-I VGA HDMI
Hard Disk Western Digital AV-GP 2TB 3.5" Intellipower 32MB SATA2 WD20EVDS
ASUS Rampage III Extreme - ATX - LGA-1366 - 24 GB DDR3 SDRAM - Serial ATA/600, Serial ATA/300 - 7.1 Channel ( 90-MIBC10-G0EAY00Z )

 

[C12Friedman]

You can OC with the current configuration (after re-seating the D14). The general concensus is that ram heatspreaders are more for show than function so the airflow from the D14 past the ram should be sufficient.
From experience I can tell you that installing a closed watercooling system (like the corsair H80, H100 etc...) is not that much easier than installing a "true water cooling" system - a few more things that you can do wrong is all (and if you pay attention while doing it, there is little risk). As far as a "great guide", there are quite a few of them here at Tom's who are more than willing to spend time to make sure you get up and running proper.
Back to your OC'ing, read the stickys here and a few other sites of your choice - there are different methods used, find what you are comfortable with and understand (ask as many questions as you need to for clarification). Your D14 should be up to the task once reseated.

 

[Fire-Dragon-DoL]

Thanks a lot, you've been very clear, and you are the second person telling me that those ram heatspreaders are more for show, so I'm quite sure that is the truth.

I'll begin reading the tom's hardware guides, thanks a lot for your answer.

 

[Fire-Dragon-DoL]

You can OC with the current configuration (after re-seating the D14). The general concensus is that ram heatspreaders are more for show than function so the airflow from the D14 past the ram should be sufficient.
From experience I can tell you that installing a closed watercooling system (like the corsair H80, H100 etc...) is not that much easier than installing a "true water cooling" system - a few more things that you can do wrong is all (and if you pay attention while doing it, there is little risk). As far as a "great guide", there are quite a few of them here at Tom's who are more than willing to spend time to make sure you get up and running proper.
Back to your OC'ing, read the stickys here and a few other sites of your choice - there are different methods used, find what you are comfortable with and understand (ask as many questions as you need to for clarification). Your D14 should be up to the task once reseated.

Hi, i know that the topic is old but, because I'm afraid of burning everything, I waited a third fan for my d14, and another fan for my case (haf-x). So actually I think I have the maximum cooling power I can reach with my computer.

I tested without overclocking and under stress (tested with 3dmark06), I reach 65° on my cpu.
Is it high?

 

[C12Friedman]

That is a tad bit high for no OC, what are your ambient temps there? When you remounted the D14, how much thermal compound did you use? It is very easy to use too much (I have been guilty of that) and your temps can reflect that. I can get back to the thermal compound if you think that may be an issue.

 

[Fire-Dragon-DoL]

well, I used less than a pee as I read on some guides. The temperature is around 30 degrees here. I really don't understand what's happening. How many degrees shoul I reach with my setup? I used the artic cooling mx4 as thermal paste

 

[C12Friedman]

That's seems to be the proper amount of thermal compound... I would honestly not expect above 50-55 and probably closer to 45 from all I have read about the D14 - you being at stock speeds (no turbo boost correct?) right now. I'm wondering if there might an issue with your mounting setup... guessing here, I have no personal experience with that cooler.

 

[Fire-Dragon-DoL]

Well, thanks a lot anyway, at least now I know which is my target temperature.

I followed tomshardware guide for airflow and I think is pretty well mounted, maybe there is something wrong when I mounted back the D14.
Otherwise, there could be a problem with the fact that my computer is under table and there isn't a lot of space to send out the air:
I have like 15-20cm on the upper part of the case, 15-20cm on the back part of the case, 30-40 cm on the side part of the case where is the big fan, only the front part is "free".

I don't know if this could be a trouble (maybe, but I don't know how much is influencing temperatures), but put the computer is quite difficult: it weights over 25 kgs, and my table won't handle such weight xD