[Primal]

Well, I'm building a new PC with a Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 Kentsfield 2.4GHz CPU, a GIGABYTE GA-EP45-DS3L LGA 775 Intel P45 motherboard, G.Skill DDR2 800 2GB (Dual 1GB sticks) of ram, and a VisionTek 900244 Radeon HD 4870 graphics card. My question is, with this setup, how easy would it be to overclock the Q6600 from its default to 3.0GHz?

[Carbon]

Easy enough, but it gets substantially more difficult past there. I'd rather have a E8400 if I was going to do a lot of OCing.

[Primal]

Is overclocking the Q6600 to 3.0Ghz all that is necessary to make it run faster? Would I need to add voltage? Would there also be a chance of the CPU wearing down at that speed? Forgot to mention I have a 660 Watt PSU, if that makes any difference.

[Carbon]

It depends on the task, it's worth it since it'll take maybe a half hour to get right.

You should be able to get it up to 3ghz without adding voltage, I've got even a E6400 to 3.00 wtithout adding voltage. If you do make sure you check the spec sheet for the Q6600 to get the range of supported voltages.

The CPU will outlive you, heh. Generally speaking, any CPU will die much, much later than it is relevant for - we're talking decades. Changing the FSB and not the voltage should have very little temperature impact anyway.

[computeruler]

i have the same mobo/cpu what is your cpu cooler? if you want to any high over clocking you better get a good one you could probaby go around o mabye 3.4 on air

[tomthedrummer1992]

Make sure you know what you are doing before overclocking. There are plenty of guides around, some here too, as although it is quite difficult to damage a CPU/mobo with today's hardware, it isn't impossible!

[computeruler]

also after everytime you oc run a stress test to make shure its stable and look at your temps if they are too high then bring it back down a bit

[thingie2]

What I did when I OCed was I took the CPU up a reasonable amount first time, ran Orthos for about 2 hours, decided it was good enough to go on, then increased by small amounts from then, testing for about 30 mins at each setting, and when i think I have it done as good as I can, I left it running over night, just to check the stability for a long time.

[tomthedrummer1992]

Also - what PSU do you have? Just incase you need the extra oomph.

[thingie2]

That's a point, I hadn't thought about asking what PSU you have... You need to make sure you have enough "oomph" as tomthedrummer puts it, and that the voltages that the PSU gives out are stable, otherwise could could have some serious instability problems.