Hello all-I am interested in overclocking my Q6600 from 2.6Ghz to 3.0Ghz - more if it's possible. Can anybody tell me the correct requirements and procedure for doing this? I have been told that I will need better RAM, as mine only runs at 533Mhz right now. My plan is to upgrade to 4GB of DDR2 RAM at the best speed possible, which I believe would be 122Mhz.Specifically, I was looking at buying this set of RAM.The only other concern I was aware of was proper cooling for the processor. I just have the cooler that came in the box, and I was told that this would be sufficient cooling if I only went to 3.0Ghz.So, is there something I'm missing? Or would this be a good setup to overclock. The rest of my settings are in my signature.Thanks,Ferrari

Just do a Google search for overclocking 6600 and you should find all the instructions somewhere, easily explainedMine is at a comfy 3.2G good tempsAllen

Better to get a Freezer Pro 7 heatsink to OC that Q6600That is great ram for that(whats your mobo?)The Q6600 is easy to OC....Its hard to say in a post HOW...But like above ..Google it..

I have Nvidia 680i mobo, and I'll take a look at that heat sink. I tried Google, nothing useful yet, but I'll keep searching.

Results 1 - 10 of about 10,900,000 for overclocking q6600. (0.32 seconds)"ferrari308guy" above are the results of my google search for 'overclocking q6600'. While I do understand that you said you didn't find anything "useful" perhaps you are looking for the wrong thing.There is no substitute for climbing the learning curve especially on your first (an assumption) overclock. If you keep looking and do some more reading at places like the EVGA forums, overclockers dot com, etc. you will find many, many examples of the voltages, other settings used in the bios, and specific hardware configurations which others have used and successfully overclocked along with what they did to get there.You won't find anyone worth their salt saying, "1- do this, 2- do this, 3-do this, and you will have the perfect overclock for your motherboard, cpu, aftermarket cooling hardware (air or water), RAM, amount of RAM, etc. etc.I can confirm though that if you are certain you want to overclock, the minimal aftermarket cooling hardware you will need is a decent, non-stock, cpu heatsink.There are programs such as RealTemp and Prime95 that you can use to monitor your cpu and gpu temps while testing your system for stability with any given overclock.It is impossible for anyone to give you the best clock speeds, multiplier, RAM timings, fsb voltage, core voltage, etc. to use because of the variations that result from the manufacturing process in even identical hardware.I'm not being disrespectful by any means, but I am telling you the truth, you will find the best way to overclock via educating yourself, and then making conservative steps, always erring on the side of caution, until you reach the overclock you are trying to accomplish.After a recent upgade of my rig I decided to try and see if I could get more performance out it with a conservative, absolutely stable, overclock. After 2 months of reading, testing, and the taking of small and cautious steps along the way, I now have my q9650 running at an absolutely rock solid stable (passed 24hours - over two complete loops of prime blend stress/stability testing @ 3.6 GHz and am very happy with it's performance.The end results are that I am using much LOWER than stock voltages, with much LOWER temps at 100% load across all four cores (small FFT testing with Prime95), and much LOWER maximum temps during long duration prime blend testing than I was getting with my stock cpu cooler at the default voltages and settings of my cpu and RAM with only the addition of a lot of patience, research, and the hardware addition of a Thermaltake Black Widow V1 cpu cooler.There are many air cooling options that will get the job done for you.But there is no substitute for you educating yourself, and then working up an overclock for your specific mobo, cpu, and RAM via small careful steps and thorough testing. Again, someone with the exact same hardware as you will probably have different settings than you may need to use depending on your hardware and it's performance envelope.CPU's can be in spec and test good at stock settings, but yet be "duds" as far as overclocking goes. The only way you will know if this is the case is if you know what you are doing in the first place.Take care and best of luck with your overclock, if you have any specific questions along the way there are many here who will be more than happy to try and help you, I'm certain of that. But while you may want to increase your rigs performance primarily for use with MSFS, you will most likely get better and more specific advice at forums more highly dedicated to overclocking endeavors.Best Regards

No offense taken, I totally get what you're saying. I'll check around and see what I can find, thanks for the tips.Ferrari

Here I think is a decent place to start:http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview.as...p;enterthread=ythen look for any forums on your specific MB make and model for additional helps.scott s..

Here I think is a decent place to start:http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview.as...p;enterthread=ythen look for any forums on your specific MB make and model for additional helps.scott s..

Thanks Scott!

Ferrari,It was my bad to not go the whole nine and give you a direct link like Scott did but hey, we can get anything done here at AVSIM with a little community teamwork! Well done Scott.That is exactly the kind of thread that you should be reading right now, and when you are ready to give it a go, you can look for threads related to your specific mobo and processor just as Scott pointed out.I was very glad that you understood I was trying to help Ferrari and not just give you an offhanded "google it" reply. The knowledge you gain on this overclock will be the foundation from which you will be able to safely and successfuly maximize your hardware's performance in the future as well as with your current rig.It is not impossible to safely overclock a cpu, RAM, and gpu given the right hardware, knowledge, and conservative judgement along the way. You will have a great sense of accomplishment when you run your stress tests and pass with acceptable temps while accomplishing your goals. Some people get completely hooked on it and it becomes a hobby in it's own right.Good luck again and best regards! :(

That link was very very helpful, thanks.It seems since I want to get the Q6600 to 3.0, the ideal RAM would be 667Mhz and then set the FSB at 333. Is it an issue if I go over the 667Mhz RAM? I was planning on getting 1200Mhz RAM, should I want to overclock more later (if it would go higher), and also just to have overall more memory space. I would think that having more than enough Mhz wouldn't be an issue, but I want to be sure.As an aside, I'm thinking of also upgrading the cooler. I don't really want to spend $50 on a cooler since this is a fairly moderate overclock, and it looks like this one is the winner.

"It seems since I want to get the Q6600 to 3.0, the ideal RAM would be 667Mhz and then set the FSB at 333. Is it an issue if I go over the 667Mhz RAM? I was planning on getting 1200Mhz RAM, should I want to overclock more later (if it would go higher), and also just to have overall more memory space. I would think that having more than enough Mhz wouldn't be an issue, but I want to be sure."That is the way to do it Ferrari and it will work just fine. I am using Corsair 8500C5D 1066MHz DDR2 with the FSB @ 400MHz, linked and synced with the RAM which is running at at 800MHz. This allows me to get away with using 1.8v for the RAM instead of the required 2.1V @ 1066MHz, and lower the timings to 4-4-4-13. This gives me the best performance overall, and allows me to use the lower voltage setting. If your goals stay conservative, your thinking is spot on imho. "As an aside, I'm thinking of also upgrading the cooler. I don't really want to spend $50 on a cooler since this is a fairly moderate overclock, and it looks like this one is the winner."I think there are many, many aftermarket air based cpu heatsinks that will get the job done for almost all conservative overclocks provided that your case fans setup is reasonably efficient.On that count I have the Antec 900 with the extra fan on the side of the case, it really moves the air, and that is the point exactly, having good air flow from intake to exhaust. Be sure that you mount your cooler so that it is pushing the hot air towards one of your exhaust fans (which are usually mounted on the back or top of a case). Be sure to download RealTemp and Prime95 after you are all set up, and then run the small fft test with Prime95 to see how your cooling is doing when the cpu is really being pushed. You can run RealTemp side by side with Prime95 and monitor your temps while the test is being run.Then check your long term stability with a 12 hour run of the Prime95 blend test to make sure you are really rock solid.Be careful with your voltage settings though, a lot of people run those real high in order to compensate for other less than optimal settings, but you are much better off to do things correctly along the way and test as you go, finding the lowest combination of system voltages that will work. Increased voltages mean increased temps.You are on your way!Best regards

Thanks Aviator.I actually think I'm going to get Corsair Dominater 1066Mhz RAM instead of the stuff I posted above, but it's still more than needed. The first section of your post confused me a little bit. Do I need to do anything to the RAM if it is more than the required 667Mhz? Or can I just run it at the default speed? I know the overclocking link talked about this a little as far as RAM-CPU ratios or something, but I was also a little confused. Could you advise me on this?Thanks for all of your help.

Ferrari,Nope, you don't have to "do" anything to your RAM but you will have to select the approprate settings in your bios to set both the RAM/memory voltage and RAM/memory speed.The bios menus and settings vary from one model and brand of motherboard to another. I have an EVGA 780i sli. This is why Scott's statement to look for more specific information about your motherboard, once you started to get a handle on the terminology and a basic understanding of things, was spot on.In my bios settings, in the system voltages settings, the voltage for my RAM can be set manually or left on auto. On many motherboards, the default voltage for your RAM may very well be set to a value that is wrong for your specific RAM. I can tell you for certain that the RAM you are talking about has a voltage requirement of 2.1 at 1066MHz and 1.8 @ 800MHz or less.What I did, was link and synchronize my RAM, CPU, and FSB so that when I set the FSB speed and multiplier, my CPU and RAM speeds are set and run at a 1:1 ratio.FSB speed = 400MHzMultiplier = x9This gives me a cpu clock speed of 3.6GHzFSB speed = 400MHztimes two to get dual channel memory speed,gives me a RAM speed of 800MHzNormally, @ 1066MHz, my RAM requires 2.1v and has timings of 5-5-5-15.However, when you run it @ 800MHz, the voltage can be dropped to 1.8 and the timings can be "tightened up" for better performance to 4-4-4-13.At any rate, you will need to manually set all your system voltages and will need to turn off some of the chipset features that are automatically enabled such as speed stepping, automatic halting, etc. in order to be using the best voltages for your hardware and overclock.This is where a lot of people go wrong, they try to manually set some of the voltages while leaving others on auto, and then their system bios selects way too high voltages which creates high temps and/or instability.All this is why you need to first learn about what it is you are trying to do, and then find information/threads that show how others accomplished their overclock with the same cpu and motherboard that you are using, and start from there. Keeping in mind that not even the exact same cpu, motherboard, and RAM combination will overclock the same way, even if they came from the same batch when manufactured, there is always some performance variation. That is what overclocking is, finding the extra room from stock performance to better than stock performance, that your specific hardware can handle without excessive voltage settings, excessive temps, and with long term stability.I can speak in general terms about things, like the fact that you can use a divider (which changes the ratio of your fsb to RAM speed) so that you can run your RAM @ 1066MHz or more closely to it (depending on your fsb speed), but in my experience, and especially with your first overclock, I say stay linked and synced until you really know what you are doing.But in any case, you will need to set your sytem voltages manually, and not use the auto settings, regardless what bus speeds, linked or not, synced or not, multiplier, and divider or not, that you use.That certainly includes selecting the proper voltage for your RAM.Hope this helps, right now, I say keep on reading. While there is no such thing as a stupid question in my book. It does still appear that you don't understand the basics just yet. The light bulbs will start coming on my man, no worries, it takes some time for all these new terms, their meanings, and how they interact to all sink in and start making sense. Don't get discouraged, keep on reading, the threads are out there. I can remember reading through the same threads many times until something started to make sense to me. You will find though, that once you start picking things up, it becomes easier and easier to learn more. Hang in there.Best Regards

Thanks for the help Aviator. I'll keep reading and see how it goes!Ferrari

Thanks for the help guys. I have my processor running at 3.0Ghz, but one question.I am trying to minimize the vCore, as my processor is putting out just about 2-3 degrees more than I want while running FSX. My problem is that I can't input the voltage by typing in a custom number, they are increments. Right now, the processor is at 1.28 volts, and the next step down, 1.2625 volts, generates errors while doing a stress test. So, what can I do to take down the temperature a little? Is there any other way to take off about 2-3 degrees of heat from the processor?Thanks.