E6600/P5W DH Deluxe

Hi folks, having played around with a bit of overclocking in the past, albeit mildly, I felt that it is an avenue I wish to explore more with my current setup.

My rig (I know.....) :

Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 CPU @ 2.4GHz stock.
Asus P5W DH Deluxe motherboard.
Corsair CM2x2048-8500C5C memory.
Ati Radeon 4890HD.

Now I have looked through the various posts on here, including the excellent sticky by Jokester - Beginners guide to overclocking, but that thread aside, let me say that I followed a very useful guide I came across for my board and chip by someone called Wuzy, I won't post the link cos I don't know if it's allowed or not (google is your friend) and this is how I arrived at my current settings.

Now below are a few pics (hopefully if the links work) of my BIOS setup and a couple of CPU-Z and Core Temp screens. One of my concerns is the fact that, IIRC, the Wuzy guide suggested that I do the following "Set ‘DRAM Frequency’ to DDR2-533 @266Mhz FSB (1FSB:1RAM operation)" although I have played around with this since due to the fact that the memory is only running at 5300, way below the stock 8500. How do I achieve this 8500 speed, do I keep playing with the CPU frequency until I see 8500 in the DRAM frequency box, or do I just plan to get as close to the DRAM frequency as my CPU frequency allows before crashes start occuring? The area of memory overclocking I know nothing about TBH, however reading Jokester's sticky it states "On Intels once you've established a stable CPU overclock you can increase the RAM divider to start overclocking the RAM and then manipulate the FSB so that the CPU remains below the stable maximum." So is this basically saying that I should leave alone the RAM (for now) and once I have my CPU at it's most stable overclock, play with the RAM Frequency by seeing what MHz is available and go for one slightly above my 8500 speed??

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At present my system is running at 3.06ghz on std Intel fan, with PC2-5300 showing on the RAM side of things at boot, would like to get nearer 3.2 as a max if possible. It is running stable at present, as far as everyday use and the odd game of CoD4/CoD5 goes but having tried to use Prime when I first did it, the core temps went upto about 79C so I shut Prime off and ordered me an Arctic cooler which should have been here yesterday (bloody postal strikes) and shall try Prime again when I get it fitted for peace of mind.

Another area I am not sure about is under the RAM clock settings, the guide I followed fell short of what to set the "DRAM Write recovery Time" clock too, any suggestions on this? Also how is the FSB of 1361MHz in my screenshots arrived at?
If anyone can point me at something that is blatantly obvious (to the knowledgable anyway) please advise me what it should be, or even if you can see something that would help me achieve a little "healthier" OC.

Thanks for your time.

OK so cooler arrived, easy fit and temps dropped a good 10 degrees below previous at idle. Thing is I have been trying to get it to about 3.2 with no luck. All I have tried changing is the bus speed and the Vcore, a little bit of each/either at a time. I am currently running at the settings detailed in my opening post above.

I have got the ram showing in BIOS boot as being PC2-8500, great...but why is CPU-Z still showing the max bandwidth of it as being PC2-6400 (400MHz) when it is 8500 ? LINK
Also my memory timings are now showing in CPU-Z as being:

"DRAM Freq - 510.7 and a FSB : DRAM 2 : 3 (previously 340.5 and a FSB : DRAM of 1 : 1)
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OK update, it has taken me 3 attempts to write this as it keeps locking up at what was previously OK, only thing I have changed on this profile is getting the RAM to PC2-8500...is this what is causing it? If so, how do I correct it, while maintaining the speed?
Any input folks?

Leave the ram dividers on 1:1 for the time being (as Jokester said)
and have your timing on auto or 6-6-6-18-6 so that your ram has slack timings.
I would guess it's the Write Recovery Time (4) that causing the crashes change this to 6.

But to answer some of your questions.
all DDR2 is rated at 1.8v - the 1066 (533FSB x2) is acheived with more voltage (2.1v in this case)
This is why cpu-z has it listed as EPP (top of third coloumn)
At 1.8v your ram is PC2-6400 - so that's why it says it is.
BUT you'll also notice it has the correct ref number and EPP timings - this is all correct.

Either you or AUTO has changed the divider from
340FSB@1:1 (340:340) FSB x1 = FSB x multi x 2(for DDR2) = 680
340FSB@2:3 (340:510) FSB x1.5 = FSB x multi x 2(for DDR2) = 1021

2:3 is fine for a fsb of 340 but most E6600 should hit 376x9 or 400x8 and at these fsb speed your ram will not run.
After OC'ing the chip you can either use 3:4 or 4:5 dividers at 5-5-5-18
or stick with 1:1 a maybe get 4-4-4-16

Hope that's makes sence.

Ok with the Ram at 1:1 and your [email protected] and some better cooling just start upping the fsb. (I like multiples of 8 myself)
Also the three sets of voltages FSB/MCH/ICH might be wrong - not had a P35 mobo in a while so can't remember.

Thanks for that info and advice. Shall have a bit of a play with some of your suggestions some time tomorrow.