Need some advice on q6600

[KaiserDJG]

Hi All

I want to overclock my q6600 to 3.2ghz, its at stock atm and this is whats ive got.

MPC73VT-PM motherboard
Intel Quad Core Q6600 @ 2.60GHZ
coolermaster Heatsink CM12v
standard 250w PSU
3GB DDR2 RAM 667
Seagate Barracuda 500GB SATA HDD
NVIDIA ENGT220 1GB Graphics with (VGA DVI + HDMI output)


can anyone post a list of basic settings to get me up to 3.2ghz, i'm pretty new to overclocking and i'd like it to be as simple as possible... a list with the name of what im changing and what im changing it to would be great.

 

[j.col]

edited for the OP's protection.

personally, with your pc, I WOULD NOT OVERCLOCK, but its upto u

 

[PCZ]

Is that a Packard Bell or E machines PC by any chance ?
The MB is made BY ECS but has a very limited bios.

If you search around you can get a standard ECS bios for it that may let you overclock.
You would have to force flash though as the ID's won't match.

Basically don't bother, if you did manage to overclock the q6600, the VRM's would most likely blow.

 

[j.col]

Is that a Packard Bell or E machines PC by any chance ?
The MB is made BY ECS but has a very limited bios.

If you search around you can get a standard ECS bios for it that may let you overclock.
You would have to force flash though as the ID's won't match.

Basically don't bother, if you did manage to overclock the q6600, the VRM's would most likely blow.

I was thinking this might be the case.
to KaiserDJG, as above, dont overclock, u could end up frying the whole pc

 

[KaiserDJG]

yea its the packard bell, you sure even a small overclock wouldent be ok , i could stick a bigger psu on it to make it a little safer, say a 600w that i could transfer to my next build

thanks for the advice by the way, if theres a few parts i could buy to make it a safer overclock then id be happy to shell out say 100-120 on it but the parts ned to be transferable into a higher end machine such as a i5 build.

 

[KaiserDJG]

I've stuck a 500w instead of a 250w, do you think this has made it a little safer or is there other issues? such as burning out the Ram.

 

[j.col]

you are determined lol
the main dangers in overclocking are heat and over voltage.
Max voltage for a Q6600 is 1.5v and max temp is 80.C

if your bios allows
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. (or cpu frequency)
then your processor (cpu) has a multiplier of 9 (it may say cpu clock or ratio)
so 266 x 9 = 2394mhz or 2.4GHz

boot into bios.
link your ram, so it stays at stock speeds, that is 333mhz (set ram divider to 1:1)

can you raise the fsb?
try rising it to 280
boot into windows
download realtemp or coretemp (google them)
install and run them
then download Intel Burn Test (ibt) and run it.
have a look in task manager under the performance tab 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)
this will tell you if your pc is stable. that means it wont cut out while you are using it

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.
the Q6600 is fine upto 1.5v

you dont say if this is a G0 or B3 revision Q6600.
download cpu-z, open it up and have a look under stepping, it will tell you what revision it is.
also read this http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=17612922

 

[KaiserDJG]

Thank you very much for your help j.col, i'm going to try and squeeze just a little out of it... if i can hit 2.8 / 3 then i'll be very happy, at the moment my fps is just awful.

I am building a new pc so it's just something to keep me going for now.