P4 OC Disappointment and Questions

[InsaneMoose]

First things first, here is the computer that I recently built with friends.
http://secure.newegg.com/app/WishHistoryReview.asp?position=HISTORY&submit=VIEW&ID=717448

Im not sure if many of you out there would agree with the setup, but its what I have now.
Anyways, back to the topic. I was somewhat disappointed in the OC on this because I could only get to around 3.3ghz safely, when I tried to get to near 3.35 it would crash. Im not a very experienced OCer but my friend put a program on my computer that lets me move a bar to where i want to OC to. So basically im wondering whats with the lack of OC, considering a friend of mine OC'd his 2.4c to 2.9ghz on stock cooling alone.

As for a question about temperature. Whats a decent CPU or case temperature? My case came with a thermomerter and it is currently sitting on my geforce 5600 ultra's memory, which I know can heat up quite a bit, and the temperature usually peaks at around 110 F, and I wasn't sure if this was high. As for CPU temperature, im not even sure how to get that, so if someone could tell me how to get it, and what a good/dangerous temperature was, I would appreciate it.

If anyone has any questions to ask me in order to better answer my questions I'd be happy to give more information.

Thanks

Just because im a hardware newb, doesn't mean I cant break things with a hammer.

 

[Vapor]

RAM might not be up-to-snuff. PC3500 at 223MHz might not work... Try loosening the timings and increasing the RAM voltage. Also, what is your CPU temp under load (use MBM5)? What is your vcore? I don't know much about the Aero 4 but isn't it only slightly better than stock (if at all)?

Also, don't base your OC against your friend's 2.4C....the 3.0C runs hotter at stock temperatures. Also, your case temp is awfully high...43ish degrees Celsius. Could (and should) be 20C less.

Maxtor disgraces the six letters that make Matrox.