Hi all,Was wondering if anyone could tell me what are normal temps for an E6600, I have mine slightly overclocked to about 2.8 with an average temperature of 93 deg F. Normally, at standard speed it's around 85 deg F. At what temperature should I start to get worried? And what temperatures are acceptable when overclocking. Also, I only have standard cooling.Thanks,Jeff

Warning: overclocking can damage your hardware and operating your CPU outside your manufacturer's recommended range will likely void your warranty - proceed at your own risk.There are great overclocking guides on the net. Google "overclocking guides" for a few good hits.Most CPUs should tolerate and remain stable at temps up to 60C (140F) but I would not exceed 55C (131F). Some extreme overclockers will run the CPU higher, but I'm personally not willing to take the risk. I have my BIOS set to shut the system down if I reach 60C. Another thing is just because it's stable doesn't mean it's safe in the long run. Running at higher speeds can decrease the life of the components.The best tool I found to test stability and temperatures is Prime95 (google it). This free hardware torture test needs to run for about 30 minutes to 1 hour with no errors. It is guaranteed to raise temperatures and test your memory/cooling/voltage and tests all CPUs/cores.Stock cooling will probably not be sufficient to get much overclocking. You can get a new fan cooler for cheap these days and get much better results while minimizing the risk. You can visit Newegg.com to see a good sampling on what the aftermarket has to offer along with good reviews.Hope this helps. Etienne

I'll run my C2D up to 70C for a short while and 60C for extended periods (weeks). Along similar lines to what Etienne recommends, sub-55C is really what I aim for, but I don't know why because I've never killed a CPU yet over the last 12 years, even when I've been downright negligent sometimes with cooling once a CPU becomes obsolete. They are pretty hardy little buggers!Gary

Good info, thanks, I appreciate it. Guess I was worried when I saw that my CPU temp was around 119 F when running FS, guess that's not too bad.Jeff

Would like to get some feedback on this thought, dont most chips that are in the same number series (6300, 6600, etc) well arent they the same chip but just labelled different based on how they did coming off the production belt and before a multipler is burned into it?If so then shouldn't most chips (at least the new C2D ones with their low power consumtion) beable to at least be overclocked to match the CPU speed of the top of the line one in that series just using stcok cooling?

Yes and yes.Gary

>The best tool I found to test stability and temperatures is>Prime95 (google it). This free hardware torture test needs to>run for about 30 minutes to 1 hour with no errors. It is>guaranteed to raise temperatures and test your>memory/cooling/voltage and tests all CPUs/cores.>>EtiennePrime95 is the best, but you will want to work both cores at the same time. For this, you want a tweaked Prime95 called Orthos. It will burn in both cores at the same time.http://sp2004.fre3.com/download.htm

>Would like to get some feedback on this thought, dont most>chips that are in the same number series (6300, 6600, etc)>well arent they the same chip but just labelled different>based on how they did coming off the production belt and>before a multipler is burned into it?>>If so then shouldn't most chips (at least the new C2D ones>with their low power consumtion) beable to at least be>overclocked to match the CPU speed of the top of the line one>in that series just using stcok cooling?Gary is correct, but be aware, if you buy the lower clocked version, there is no guarantee it will overclock. It usually will overclock, but if you want a guarantee, buy the faster chip.Some CPU lines overclock better than others. If the manufacturing process is mature and they've (Intel or AMD) had a chance to work out the bugs, the lower clocked CPUs have a great chance of clocking right up with the higher clocked ones. Reading in forums can give you an idea of how well the CPU will overclock. From my reading, I found the Santa Ana Opteron core overclocked great. I bought a 2 ghz and overclocked it to 2.8.From the reading I've done, it looks like the Core 2 Duos overclock quite well, so you should probably take a chance on a lower clocked C2D and overclock it. I've seen well over 3 ghz overclocks of C2Ds. FSX would like that very much.

No and no.The e6300,e6400 has 2 MByte 8 way associated L2 cache. Where as e6600, e6700, e6800 all have 4 MByte 16 way associative L2 cache. The best bang for the buck is the e6300 or the e6600. Please see my sign. FSX running for 5 hour, my cpu remains at below 55 degree C with air cool. When building a PC, one thing people generally overlook is case air flow.

> I've seen well over 3>ghz overclocks of C2Ds. FSX would like that very much.Extra 2 to 3 mhz doesn't make fsx give you half a frame. However, if you can affer super fast ram, drop the multiplier by 1 notch, and increase the fsb. It will definite increase fsx performance.

According to the "horse's mouth" ftp://download.intel.com/design/processor...ts/31327803.pdfyou need to know the power draw of your E6600, but the design power is 65W @2.4GHz. Assuming your processor is nominal in power draw, the maximum case temperature is 60.1 deg C. However, I think you would need to mount a thermocouple at the appropriate location to directly measure case temp. The data sheet also says the chip will do an auto overtemp shutdown if either core temp exceeds Tc + 20 (80.1C).scott s..

Hi Jeff,Just want to add my two cents on keeping a Cool CPU Temp. Like most users I have been struggling with FSX Performance, with the Suggestions in the Tips and Tricks Forum and config hacks, could never get anything above 15-20 FPS, with all the goodies turned off. I purchased a Mediocore P5NSLI Board, put 2-gig of 667Mhz Memory, tried Running Windows XP Pro 32-bit with a couple of Geforce 7600's in SLI Configuration, Placed a Core 2 Duo E6400 Processor on there using the Fan that Intel sends in the box. Do not know why, but it seemed that my Comp temps where really high, I even watched it go over 90%, made the room that My wife and I share seem like a Sauna. The Computer even would shut down every so often. Thought maybe it was the OS, So i Dished XP 32-bit and SLI Config using 7600's, put Windows Vista 64-bit Ultimate on there and an 8800 GTS, opened up Pandora's box, all kinds of problem, after about a week of patches, a new 650 watt power supply and a decent driver from Nvidia with the 158.18, leveled out the performance a little with FSX, Cpu still ran very hot, So I went to Radio Shack and purchased a Big Typhoon Cooling fan, $69.00 bucks. Had to take out the Mobo and secure it with screws ontop of the CPU, good and tight, but not to tight. Anyways to make along story short, my Base Score in Vista went from a 4.0 on the CPU score to a 5.1 with a 10% overclocking and overall jumped to a 4.9. My CPU heat never climbs above 45 degrees and I'm totally enjoying FSX with all the goodies turned on, averaging 25-36 FPS. I would wonder how well the Water Cooling system do with FSX ??Cheers Ed O..........

>>The best tool I found to test stability and temperatures is>>Prime95 (google it). This free hardware torture test needs>to>>run for about 30 minutes to 1 hour with no errors. It is>>guaranteed to raise temperatures and test your>>memory/cooling/voltage and tests all CPUs/cores.>>>>Etienne>>Prime95 is the best, but you will want to work both cores at>the same time. For this, you want a tweaked Prime95 called>Orthos. It will burn in both cores at the same time.>>http://sp2004.fre3.com/download.htm>Prime 95 can run both cores, just need to change the affinity setting within the program and launch 2 instancs of it.

My CPU idles at 39C and while gaming runs high 40's low 50's at 3.2ghz on air. As long as you keep ambient temps around 70F then you'll be fine. I also have a very large case with excellent airflow. The whole overclocking ruining your CPU is kinda silly imo because who really will use a CPU for more than 3 years max anyway? Instead of getting 20 years out of it you get 8 years...who cares. I bought this CPU as a temporary solution to use until the quads become more affordable. I will be updating to a quad by end of the year anyway.________________________________________________________________________________________________Intel D975XBX2 'Bad Axe 2' | Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 @ 3.20Ghz | 2 GB Super Talent DDR2 800 | Big Typhoon VX | eVGA 8800GTS @ 565/900 | Seagate 2x320GB SATA RAID-0 | OCZ GameXStream 700W | Creative X-Fi | Silverstone TJ-09BW | Matrox Triplehead Setup

. . . and mine sits at 54deg C, overclocked at 3.0 since last Sept/October. No issues.