Getting BSOD's Problem or Upgrade

[TIMUH!]

So, I've been getting some BSOD's lately on what has been an otherwise very stable but overclocked machine, specs in my Sig.

My rig is 2.5 years old at present but has run everything fine so far. Lately, last six months or so I have been playing Dragon Age and more recently Starcraft II. Both new games and graphically demanding it seems. Most of the BSOD's occur when I'm playing one of these games, not all the time of course but I'd say 9/10 times is when they are being played.

Is it possible that the games are a bit too demanding for my rig or current overclock? I have run Prime95 with no errors for over 24hrs as a check on the sytem.

Not sure what else would be causing this. I can afford a cheapish upgrade to both memory and Gfx but as ever its always best to get the sage advice from here before spending money!

Memory is currently 4x1gb Corsair 6400 I was thinking of changing to
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MY-192-CS&groupid=701&catid=8&subcat=817

Also swapping the 8800gt for http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-219-SP&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=708

Hopefully these would breath a little more life into my system. Any other alternatives are also welcome but I would like to spend no more than £200-£225 if I need to spend at all.

Many thanks!

 

[TIMUH!]

hmmm, plot thickens.

Sat down with this last night to figure it out. Ran 5 successfull memtest86+ runs with no errors. Although I did realise I'd used an old version of Prime 95. Ran the new version and one of the core's in my Q6600 repeatedly failed in under five minutes. This happened on several occasions. The heatsink is seated correctly so it hasn't got bumped at all.

So, I'm guessing that the core is borked and hence the CPU is causing BSOD's when things get busy? Seems like it to me. Meaning I guess I need a new CPU in my rig although it runs ok now I'm guessing the problem will only get worse.

I assume the Q8300 or Q8400 would be the best options for replacement?

Appreciate any light shedding of advice before I go ahead.

@dfour, thanks for the tips, I reckon I might treat myself to that 5770 anyway to compensate my misery at my cpu giving up the ghost!

 

[TIMUH!]

Yeah, think I'll but the clock back to standard at 266 x 9 and prime for at least 4 hours, if thats ok I'll start by backing the overclock back to 360 x 9 and go from there I think.

It will submit to my overclocking needs or be fried! Also I'm pretty sure my current volts have some playroom if needed. Onwards!

 

[TIMUH!]

Ok, progress of a sort now I've had some time to look at this.

I left the volts as they were for the overclock;
Vcore 1.4350
Mem 2.1
cpu vtt 1.27
mch 1.31

Dialed back the clock to stock settings 266 x 9 = 2,394ghz

New version of prime ran with no errors overnight for 10 hours. Still the same issue with the 378 x 9 clock in that one core fails very quickly.

Dialed the clock back a little to 360 x 9 for 3,240ghz and ran the new version of Prime again overnight for over 10 hours with no errors.

I then put the clock back to 378 x 9 and increased the vcore to 1.4450 and then 1.4550 with the same error as before with one of the cores.

How much could I get away with in terms of the volts? Not sure how much to increase where from here to be honest. I'd like to get the clock back up but can live with 3.2 if necessary. In terms of temps none of the cores exceed 60c under load.

I'm tempted to push it as punishment for BSOD'ing on me, I can get another chip if it dies on me!