they are fairly robust
mine has hit 80.C running Intel burn test before (now low 70s)
but in day to day running, try to keep it lower than 70ish
but no game will test the cpu as hard as intel burn test.
highest i have seen it while gaming was 54.C
a lot will depend on your motherboard and cooler but.
this is a very basic explanation of overclocking
its basic maths. your Q6600 is rated at 1066mhz. you always divide this number by 4 so 1066/4= 266, this is your fsb.
then your processor (cpu) has a multiplier of 9 (it may say cpu clock)
so 266 x 9 = 2394mhz or 2.4GHz
unlink your ram, so it stays at stock speeds, you can overclock the ram later
can you raise the fsb?
try rising it to 280
boot into windows
download realtemp and coretemp (google them)
install and run them
then download Intel Burn Test (ibt) and run it.
have a look in task manager and notice how much free ram is listed.
in ibt set threads to 4 (for 4 cores) and then click on custom ram and enter an amount just below the free amount.
eg. i have 2520mb free ram. so i enter 2500 into the custom ram.
run the test for 5 passes. for now, and then at final speed you want, run for 50 passes,
(this is debateable, but a stable overclock is usually classed as 50 runs of IBT, but its personal preference, i let mine run for 1hour)
keep an eye on temps (do not let it go over 80.c) or in realtemp, notice the distance to tjmax, never let it go less than 20
if test runs fine, go back into bios, and change frequency (fsb) to 300 and repeat the tests.
keep doing this in 20mhz steps until windows will not boot. then just go back a step (remove 20 from the fsb) to the last stable frequency,
OR
just raise the cpu voltage a couple of levels. it should now boot.
its a balancing act, higher voltages will get you higher fsb, but it will also give you higher temps.
i have my B3 Q6600 at 1.39vcore in bios and its at 3.3GHz, but i had to use a x8 multiplier (413x8=3.3ghz)
Q6600 @ 3.0ghz is 333 x 9
3.6GHz is 400 x 9 (1600mhz) or 450 x 8 (1800 mhz)
