Bit of a wimp when it comes to overclocking, what should i aim for?

Streeteh · 18 May 2009 at 22:53

At present i've got my brand spanking new setup running:

Q6700 @ 3.0Ghz
4gig PC8500 @ 960mhz

Temps hover around the 60C mark when running a stress test on all cores. Now they would normally be a little lower than that as the case fan right next to my cpu cooler broke while trying to fit the new motherboard (stupid cheap piece of rubbish came with the case, the cable just fell out of the plug). I plan to replace that soon so i'll prob knock another couple of C off of the CPU temperature.

Is it safe to keep going higher? What sort of temperatures should i consider the cut off point?

Streeteh · 18 May 2009 at 23:11

Right well i've gone and done a silly thing and ordered a Noctua NF-P12 to strap onto my Thermalright Ultra-120 Extreme (nearly £70 on cooling, wtf is wrong with me!?). I only have a rubbish Akasa fan on it at present (the cheapest one ocuk sell) which i will now use to replace my broken case fan. Hopefully that should lower temps a bit.

I'll post back in this thread with an update of the new temperatures when i fit the fan. Sorry for starting this thread prematurely, should have waited till i sorted the cooling.

[EDIT] Oh sorry, forgot to say: thanks for the advice!

Streeteh · 20 May 2009 at 12:24

Reet, back with a noctua fan and an extra case fan and it's knocked 10C off of the temps. Also running the ram a bit faster at around 1000mhz.

I'm not really up for modifying voltages, as i say i'm a wimp, but is it worth playing with multipliers, if so how does one go about it?

Streeteh · 20 May 2009 at 13:17

Great, cheers for the feedback. As you acknowledge these things ain't cheap, but i will certainly take your advice into consideration.

I've got my cpu running at 320x10 (3.2ghz) and temps now top out at 60C when running small FFTs on all cores. How does manipulating the multiplier affect things? Obviously if you lower it you have to run the board at a higher FSB to achieve the same results but does it have a positive affect on the CPU if using a lower multiplier? I've seen lots of people getting 3.4ghz by using 8x425 but with no explanation as to why they've changed the multiplier.

Sorry for all the noob questions but i have read the overclocking guide stickied and it only briefly mentions what multipliers do, but again doesn't specify what the advantages of it are.