Q6700 + ZeroTherm Nirvana

[mercury529]

Hello,

I recently purchased a Q6700 OEM and a ZeroTherm Nirvana cooler. I will be getting them later next week, and I wanted to ask a few questions beforehand.

First here is my rig:
Mobo: Asus P5Q Pro (P45)
CPU: Q6700 OEM
Aftermarket Cooler: ZeroTherm Nirvana
Memory: Corsair 2x2 XMS2 DDR2 PC6400 RAM
Case: Antec P180

1.) First, is there any general advice people would give for setting up this overclock that would make it different from a standard overclock?

2.) I have Arctic Silver 5 thermal paste. Would it be wise to use it with the ZeroTherm Nirvana and Q6700? If not, what would you recommend?

3.) Does anyone have experience with a similar rig? I believe the multiplier is 10x on the Q6700. So the max overclock without changing voltage is 4 ghz correct? What speeds would reasonable to expect with this overclock?

Thanks for any help you can provide.

 

[Zero82z]

1) Take a look at the overclocking guide thread at the top of this forum. That will have any information you'd need to know about overclocking your PC.

2) Yes, AS5 would work well. I don't think Zerotherm includes high performance thermal compound with their heatsinks, so if it just comes with the white stuff then go with the AS5. If it does come with good compound, it might be better to use that instead of the AS5.

3) 65nm quads typically top out at around 3.6GHz, although some Q6700s can hit better speeds. I'd say 3.6GHz would be the most you could realistically expect, but if you happen to be lucky and get a good chip, you may me able to hit as much as 3.8GHz stable (don't bet on it though).

 

[mercury529]

Thanks a lot for the input. I just received my processor and heatsink, so I'll let you know how it goes.