How safe can I go with an OC on a Q6600 STOCK?

O

oymd

Weaksauce
Joined
Jan 19, 2003
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How safe can I go with a Q6600 if I want to OC, using the STOCK heat sink and fan?

Mine is a G0 stepping...on a EP35-DS3L...with 2 x2GB A-Data PC2-6400 (400 MHz)..a GT8800 and an Odin GT 800W PSU...

I'm at 9x266...@2400GHz...

What's the safest I can do with the stock cooler?

BTW...This is the first time EVER that I even think about overclocking...:D

But I noticed a LOT of Q6600 owners hitting 3GHz easy...so i thought...why not....seems fun...;)

Thanks..
 
up to you and how comfortable you are with the temps. designate a threshold you don't want to surpass when you max load the cpu at its overclocked state. i think max suggest operating temp for the q6600 from intel is about 70'c.
 
One thing about OC'ing is that you have to watch your temps. If you want to be sure about things buy a Aftermarket cpu cooler. The first time i OC'ed i had a stock cooler and everything went fine, you just have to be cautious and safe about what you are doing. Read up on exactly how to do it and what steppings to work up to.
 
The stock Q6600 cooler works great. A fancy aftermarket cooler will lower temps a little, but this will only affect the overclock threshold by a very small percentage.

Simply increasing the speed of your chip is NOT going to break it. It is NOT going to make it die sooner (unless you are concerned about running it for 50+ years)

The danger comes in when you go crazy with core voltage.

The 'prime' sweet spot seems to be 3.6GHz - an even 9x400. You would also be running syncro with your ram. (a good thing) I would aim for that on the lowest vcore you can stay at.
 
hardware_failure said:
The stock Q6600 cooler works great. A fancy aftermarket cooler will lower temps a little, but this will only affect the overclock threshold by a very small percentage.

Simply increasing the speed of your chip is NOT going to break it. It is NOT going to make it die sooner (unless you are concerned about running it for 50+ years)

The danger comes in when you go crazy with core voltage.

The 'prime' sweet spot seems to be 3.6GHz - an even 9x400. You would also be running syncro with your ram. (a good thing) I would aim for that on the lowest vcore you can stay at.
Click to expand...


nice...will try that...

Now...can you please guide me to a tutorial on OCing my system...a tutorial made for dummies please...:D

This will be my first trial at OC ever....
 
Check out the massive stickied thread in the Overclocking and Cooling forum.

It looks to be like quite a long read but it is referred to often.

A quickie tip - most new Q6600's can goto 3.0 on stock voltage. (9x333, a stock fsb setting) I would start by going straight to 3.0 on stock core then 'play' from there.
 
hardware_failure said:
The stock Q6600 cooler works great. A fancy aftermarket cooler will lower temps a little, but this will only affect the overclock threshold by a very small percentage.

Simply increasing the speed of your chip is NOT going to break it. It is NOT going to make it die sooner (unless you are concerned about running it for 50+ years)

The danger comes in when you go crazy with core voltage.

The 'prime' sweet spot seems to be 3.6GHz - an even 9x400. You would also be running syncro with your ram. (a good thing) I would aim for that on the lowest vcore you can stay at.
Click to expand...

Your username fits you pretty well, I would never recommend anyone attempt 3.6 on a stock cooler.. .:)
 
The highest I went on my stock cooler was 3.2GHz (400x8), but it was a little warmer than I wanted so I dropped it back down to 2.8GHz (400x7) until I got my Xigmatek.
 
hardware_failure said:
The stock Q6600 cooler works great. A fancy aftermarket cooler will lower temps a little, but this will only affect the overclock threshold by a very small percentage.

Simply increasing the speed of your chip is NOT going to break it. It is NOT going to make it die sooner (unless you are concerned about running it for 50+ years)

The danger comes in when you go crazy with core voltage.

The 'prime' sweet spot seems to be 3.6GHz - an even 9x400. You would also be running syncro with your ram. (a good thing) I would aim for that on the lowest vcore you can stay at.
Click to expand...

Sorry, I find that a little hard to believe. 3.6 on stock cooler (safely, of course)? And a fancy aftermarket cooler will be SIGNIFICANTLY better than stock. Just google for cooler reviews.
 
Shroomie said:
The highest I went on my stock cooler was 3.2GHz (400x8), but it was a little warmer than I wanted so I dropped it back down to 2.8GHz (400x7) until I got my Xigmatek.
Click to expand...
This is a perfect example. "warmer than I wanted"

Nobody "wants" to run a CPU at 65-70c, but that doesnt mean that it wont work safely.

Heat is highly overrated as the limiting factor for an OC.

I mentioned 3.6 as a "prime" goal, def not as a sure thing.
 
hardware_failure said:
This is a perfect example. "warmer than I wanted"

Nobody "wants" to run a CPU at 65-70c, but that doesnt mean that it wont work safely.

Heat is highly overrated as the limiting factor for an OC.

I mentioned 3.6 as a "prime" goal, def not as a sure thing.
Click to expand...
Mine was actually well into the 70's at that point if I remember correctly.

You do have a point though. It worked fine, I just didn't want to risk it.
 
Using Lavalys Everest...I see the 4 core temperatures hovering around 45-49C idle

That's during internet browsing....

Is that temp within normal...or should I first aerate my case better?

I have an antec clone tower (chieftec), with 2 12mm fans blowing air out on the back, and a 12mm fan in the side panel sucking air in...

But I disconnected all of them, since they make too much noise...

Untitled-1-3.jpg
 
hardware_failure said:
This is a perfect example. "warmer than I wanted"

Nobody "wants" to run a CPU at 65-70c, but that doesnt mean that it wont work safely.

Heat is highly overrated as the limiting factor for an OC.
Click to expand...

Totally agree here. When my cooler was not mounted properly (oops), my Q6600 was screaming along and went over 80C, however when I later fixed that my overclocking limitations were the same even though I had the chip was running more than 20C cooler. I have a Core 2 Duo Macbook Pro that goes over 90C pretty much anytime I actually do work on it, and its never had a failure caused by heat. Simple fact is that Core 2 chips can run really hot and its rarely an issue, people usually make it an issue with something subjective like "Well that was too hot so I slowed it down".
 
While it is highly YMMV on how far you can push the OC with the q6600, I've seen people report safe speeds of 3.0~3.2 on stock with 333-350 x 9. However, as others have said, you're going to be seeing some pretty high temps, and as long as you're comfortable running your IDLE temps at 60~ or even higher, then you should be ok.

Personally, I wouldn't ever want it to be that high at idle, as load would bring it to even dangerously high temps. In any case, I'd say 333 x 9 for 3.0 Ghz is a "safe" spot for stock cooling on the q6600... but ymmv, check your temps.

Any higher, get either a xigmatek, tuniq 120 or true 120 if you really want to be [H]ard and push it.
 
Another thing to keep in mind when you're measuring your temps - do it at the time when your ambient is at its worst. Even with a good cooler, ambient temp can affect my idle and load temp by 8-10c; with stock cooling ambient may have an even greater affect.
 
oymd said:
Using Lavalys Everest...I see the 4 core temperatures hovering around 45-49C idle

That's during internet browsing....

Is that temp within normal...or should I first aerate my case better?

I have an antec clone tower (chieftec), with 2 12mm fans blowing air out on the back, and a 12mm fan in the side panel sucking air in...

But I disconnected all of them, since they make too much noise...

Untitled-1-3.jpg
Click to expand...

Well, if you are going to clock, the first thing you need to do is turn your fans back on. Either live with the noise or pick up some quieter ones. Preferably some with temp sensors built in to adjust the speed as needed. Check your motherboard. You may have fan headers that can be controlled by the onboard temp sensors to automagically adjust the fan speed.

My current system has 5 low speed 12 CM fans. Some are controlled by the MOBO and set to adjust per the system temp. My case inside temp stays within a degree of ambient, and it is very quiet also.

Don
 
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