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Overclocking a Q6600 with stock cooling (safely...)

Dimus

Dimus

SOH-CM-2025
I have been prowling the web the last few days and have seen several threads of people that have succesfully OC'd their Q6600 up to 3.2Ghz without changing anything other than the CPU fsb values in the BIOS. This sounded very encouraging to me as I would like very much to increase my rig's capability at no cost (i.e. keep the stock cooler and PSU) and with out messing with voltage settings.

Has anyone here tried something like this on a Q6600? I'd appreciate any comments as I've never tried it before. I intend to run tests to the rig at its current state (stock 2.4Ghz) and report back.
 
I had a Q6600 GO version OCed to 3.42 all from the FSB...Yes it can be done...I had it done at a shop as I do not now know how to do it and am skert ...LOL


However I would not use a stock cooler...Get at least a Freezer Pro 7 from Newegg..They are not hard to change......

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835186134


You will need to get some Artic Silver paste also ... It comes with a pad on it , but its not the perfered way to do it....Won't last as long as it can get hard and loose its bond for disapeating heat..
 
Thanks Harleyman,

My question was actually meant to ask how far I can go without having to open up the box. I happen to share the computer with my wife who does actual work on it while I only do simming. I can not be seen messing with it or::blind:.

Playing with the BIOS can go unnoticed.:d

If you guys think I can not do it safely with the stock cooler then I just won't. However, even a slight increase would be welcome.
 
The Q6600 G0 is a fantastic overclocker. Download and run CPUz to see what stepping your q6600 is. A 800mhz overclock will most likely need a voltage increase in order to remain fully stable. Ideally you'd need fast memory to match too (~1200mhz would be perfect)
I'd echo what Harley has said and would recommend an aftermarket cooler.
 
I have the exact same processor, and have been wondering the exact same thing. I've gone so far as to shop around for a cooling system from a local computer shop and found a good one, but the likelyhood I'll have the time to go all the way downtown anytime soon is remote for the next while.

The thought of doing it with stock cooling is very appealing, but it's a bit scary too. Please do let us know what your tests yield, I'd be very interested.
 
I overclocked mine to 333Mhz cpu speed and 833 Mhz Dram speed, giving me 3.0 Ghz, without any other changes. Running Fsx the core temps were in the low 60's. Increasing the fan speed brought the temps down to the low 50's.
Bruce
 
As Bruce said, 3 GHz is a good stock overclock for the Q6600. If you were to buy a good CPU cooler (The Xigmatek S1283 is far better than the one Harleyman listed, also OCZ Freeze is better than Arctic Silver) you could hit the mid 3's with a decent motherboard. I'm running my Q9550 at 3.4 GHz, about 600 MHz higher than normal.
 
Most BIOS setups are easy get back to default settings.. So unless you try something nutty, you should be OK..

The big question I'd ask... is if it's an OEM (Dell, Gateway, HP, etc.) computer ? If so, you might not even have O/C options in the setup. And even if you do; you've likely got cheap, slow RAM, that won't take kindly to you messing around.. (and the instability will like rear its ugly head when your wife is doing her work.. lol).

The safe advice is.. if it's a computer that someone else relies on.. stay out of the BIOS setup :wiggle:
 
Kiwi,

I currently have the cooler and paste that Harley recommended and it works great!!! The price was right, also!

I'm running a mild overclock on my e8400 @ 3.6 Ghz and my temps @ idle are 28C. They bump up to 38-42C when I fly OFF and FSX.

Just my experience.

Kevin
 
Not to steal this away from the original poster (who I still hope to hear more from) but I'm running the following;

Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 2.40GHz 8MB
OCZ Reaper 2GB (2X1GB) PC9200 DDR2-1150MHz
ASUS P5N32-E SLI Deluxe LGA775 Motherboard
Dual BFG 8800GT OC 512MB PCIe Video Card in SLI
etc
etc

So according to some of the real world info above, I could possibly push this to 3ghz on stock cooling to no ill effect? I've never so much as peeked into the BIOS on this system, is it hard to do and again... I'm not going to fry the thing? How does one go about monitoring CPU temps?
 
Wiens said:
Kiwi,

I currently have the cooler and paste that Harley recommended and it works great!!! The price was right, also!

I'm running a mild overclock on my e8400 @ 3.6 Ghz and my temps @ idle are 28C. They bump up to 38-42C when I fly OFF and FSX.

Just my experience.

Kevin
Click to expand...

I never said they were bad, but the Xigmatek S1283 and OCZ Freeze paste show cooler temps in EVERY benchmark I have ever seen (The Xigmatek is among/if not the best rated heatsink/fans out there). They are similar price too so why not get the better performers?
 
I almost forgot, also... I realize that any sort of overclocking has it's risks, likely especially in a stock cooling scenario. Does anyone have a guess as to how much benefit someone could reasonably expect going from stock 2.4ghz to 3.0hz? This is like tweaking FSX in that some things might look better but come at a performance penalty so even though I can do some things, I don't because I don't accept a given performance hit when compared to the benefit a certain setting provides.

So, risk of a stock cooling overclock on my system vs possible benefits is important. If it's a stunning real world speed increase within FSX I'll be more likely to try it but if we're talking about 1fps improvement or a wee bit of smoothness then I'd be less inclined to take the chance.
 
@ Datter.... Ideally, you'd be better off running an aftermarket cooler. The stock cooler is built for reliability and low noise.If the overclock to 3GHZ isn't stable you may need to increase the cpu voltage....which will lead to more heat. Having a good airflow through the PC case is important,too. The P5N32-E SLi board is a decent enough overclocking board. By default, if the processor overheats the pc will shut down to prevent any damage to the chip.
Also, i'd recommend that you increase your memory to 2x2GB of memory in order to maximise the potential of your rig. :)



Edit: you should see a rise in fps @ 3GHZ, but it won't be in the double figures. To achieve maximum performance in fsx you'll need to be running ~3.5GHZ.
 
datter said:
So, risk of a stock cooling overclock on my system vs possible benefits is important. If it's a stunning real world speed increase within FSX I'll be more likely to try it but if we're talking about 1fps improvement or a wee bit of smoothness then I'd be less inclined to take the chance.
Click to expand...

My 600 MHz jump provided quite a bit of difference (don't really have a number for you because I didn't pay attention when I was at stock). You would see even a bigger difference because your stock is 2.4. FSX likes 3 GHz a lot more than 2.4.
 
OK, I took the plunge last evening and pushed it from 9x266 to 9x333 through the BIOS. It booted OK and then I run the prime95 torture test on it for about 15 minutes and no errors were detected. I read somewhere that this program is a very good way to test the stability of an overclocked CPU. Feeling very happy I fired up FSX and went straight to my usual flight, take off in Carenado C152 from my real life home base, Tatoi, north of Athens. I took off and did a circle around Athens, an area with lots of autogen buildings, road, sea and air traffic. Previously I was getting about 18 to 25 FPS over there and I kind of avoided it. FRAPS showed 25 to 40 this time. I was happy as a clown!

The dissapointment came when I windowed FSX and run the HWMonitor program to check the core temps. I was scared to see 75C. I switched off FSX and let it cool down. Idle core temp was about 40C. When I was in the BIOS at startup, the BIOS showed 35C.

My next move (which should have been first) was to switch back to stock CPU speed and run the tests again. I was amazed to find out that both idle and load tems were the same. This showed me that my rig probably has an inherent cpu cooling issue that is not affected by OCing. After all I did not change the voltage values.

My next steps will be to check temps at stock speeds with other programs as well and then open up the box to see if there is any issue with the cpu cooler or the general airflow. The rig is not an OEM but was a ready made combo from a respectable local store at a very good price. There are however, as it seems, concessions to quality due to that.

My next questions to you good people:

How much would an increase of fan speed or change of cooler affect my power consumption? As you might have guessed by now, my PSU is also limited (450W) as it came together with the box.
 
Dimus check your PM. My wife has inherited my Q6600 on a Gigabyte X48 DQ-6 board and I run at over 4.0 ghz and it runs very cool, but that won't happen with a 450 watt power supply even with great amperage. I will try to help you bump it a little. I did change her video card to the HIS HD4850 Turbo that wh61 in the forum gave me. Sweeeeeeet!
Ted
 
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