Should I quit while I'm ahead?

[InorganicMatter]

Rig in sig.

CPU: 236MHz * 14 = 3300 = 3.3GHz, 1.4825 V
RAM: 236MHz, 3-4-4-8, 2.8V

Prime95 stable 9 hours thus far. Should I bump the vcore, add a 5:4 ratio, and go for more? Or should I just stop at a solid 500MHz overclock (first time overclocking)? I would like to break the magical 250FSB/3.5GHz barrier, but am pretty happy at 3.3GHz.

On a side note, the capacitors around my CPU get pretty hot (almost - but not quite - burns to the touch), is this normal?

 

[EnJoY120]

Put a fan over the vregulators if you can. A 2.8ghz prescott should be able to do atleast 3.6ghz easy on no more than 1.55v, probably less. Have you tried pushing it higher at the voltages you have it at now?

Btw, Ballistix can do 3-2-2-6 or possibly 3-3-2-6 with 2.8-2.9volts at those speeds and higher easily, so you should definately try and tighten those timings.

 

[InorganicMatter]

Put a fan over the vregulators if you can. A 2.8ghz prescott should be able to do atleast 3.6ghz easy on no more than 1.55v, probably less. Have you tried pushing it higher at the voltages you have it at now?

Yeah, it fails any higher than my current FSB speed. I could go higher on the vcore, should I?

Btw, Ballistix can do 3-2-2-6 or possibly 3-3-2-6 with 2.8-2.9volts at those speeds and higher easily, so you should definately try and tighten those timings.

Yeah, I haven't tightened the timings yet. I mean to do that after finding a good overclock. Also, 2.8V is the max voltage my motherboard allows.

 

[EnJoY120]

You should find the max on the mem at the tightest timings before findining max on the cpu. otherwise you won't know when you need to drop to a divider and such.

 

[HighwayAssassins]

Thought he was talkin AMD...deleted.