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

Streeteh

Streeteh

Streeteh

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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?
 
70c is considered the very max u would want but most peeps stay under 60c to be safe,
if you got better cooling a good target for one of those chips is 3.6 but at your temps 3.2 would be a respectable target
 
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!
 
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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?
 
With the quality HS and fans you've just bought you've eliminated any real risk involved with knocking up you vCore, or memroy, slightly to get higher clocks.

However, if you're still concerned (and it's understandable as these things aren't cheap) i would just start gradually increasing the FSB in increments of approx <10MHz at a time and wiat for the sytem to destabilize. Then, you may consider either relaxing the memory timings or the ram divider (or both) and then try and squeeze some more out of it at default voltages.

But again - a slight increase in the vCore or the memory combiined with the quality cooling components you now have installed - there really wouldn't be an issue for your pc's health :)

Sorry about the edits - typing as i eat...
 
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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.
 
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A higher FSB but a lower multi will put more stress on the motherboard itself but will result in a faster clock overall. 8x450 is quicker than 9x400 as the rated FSB will be higher
 
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