hi guys
im giving the ocing thing another bash. specs are:
q6600+zalman 9500at
4850
xilence 500w psu
xp pro
2x2gb of 1066mhz ram

anyway, i did a stress test (prime 95) with cpu fan at 100% (which i never have it at), q6600 at stock and the cores went to 55C! on stock!
bumped the fsb to 280, approx 2.5ghz with cpu voltage at 1.3v and the cores went to 58C. i cant understand why it is running so hot. i know it wont fry at those temps, but it leaves hardly any headroom when i want to get it up to at least 3.00ghz. the cpu temp is running about 10C cooler the entire time. i checked all temps with ai suite, speedfan and real temp, they were all the same. i dont know how to check temps with bios when it under load.

i remounted the zalman the other day so it cant be that and made sure it was very firmly down. however i am using dirt cheap thermal paste from novatech made by them, so im thinking of getting artic silver 5 off ebay to see if it will help. 1.3v is a relatively low voltage, so that cant be the source of all that heat.

in case im doing something wrong or missing something this is ALL i did to overclock the cpu:
did first stress test at stock speeds
restarted, went to bios, put overclocking on manual, put in 1.3v for cpu voltage, 280mhz for fsb, put ram frequency at 980mhz, saved and exited, rebooted, stress tested

i left everything else at auto. cpu pll voltage (whatever that is) and everything left at auto.

i will try some AS5 paste, but is there anything else it could be?

a lot of people get the q6600 up to 3.4ghz happily on air, without exceeding 60C

cheers all

Hello Jpph, welcome back to PCHF!

Overclocking is one thing I know nothing about, but I am sure one of our great techs or knowledgeable members will be able to answer your questions shortly!

Thank you for your patience

Smokeycheech

jpph,

I'll put out the word to our Overclocking techs that you are still waiting. Thanks for your patience.

I don't believe you are doing anything wrong.

The Q6600 does run warm under full load and naturally ambient room temperature plays a big part.

A few weeks back mine which was set to 3.0Ghz was running at about 58-60C under full load but currently as I'm dealing with a warm spell and do not have air conditioning the temps rose to 68C so I've temporarily backed the settings off to stock.

It is important to ensure that the heatsink is clean at all times.

From my own experience I've also noticed that the PC in which I use a Zalman heatpipe cooled PSU runs a bit cooler than the Q6600 which has a regular fan cooled PSU so I'm going to switch the PSU on that one over too.

From all the info I've read I don't mind the temps hitting the low 60's but approaching the 70's makes me uncomfortable so it will be stock settings until the heatwave passes.

thanks for reply
il keep overclocking it until it goes over 60 on load.
in the meantime, is there anything else i can do to keep in cool? extra fans and whatnot? im not sure whether to try as5 paste, ive seen huge differences in temperature between cheap and expensive paste.

EDIT:
just did another stress test, same settings, it went up to 59C, fan at 100%, cpu at 2.5ghz and the room is cool. something has to be up.

At 100% load that's still within normal parameters.

A person can play around with things like faster fans, different case, different thermal compound, lapping heatsink, and even different PSU but the Q6600 will still be a warm beast under full load.

I just decided to give mine a good cleaning and see how temps fare to give you a better reference.

I'm using a Xigmatek HDT-S1283 cooler with a 120mm fan as well as two 120mm fans in the case and the PSU has a 120mm fan in it.

The back case fan draws hot air out and the one on the side panel draws cool air in.

With the ambient room temp at 28C and under full CPU load I'm generating 60C CPU temperature and that's at stock 2.4Ghz settings.

I ran it all winter OC'd to 3.0Ghz and the temps peaked at about where they are now so in my case I just have to back off for the summer or get air conditioning.

You are overclocked a bit so under full load your temp seems perfectly fine to me.

It becomes a matter of what you are comfortable with running at and if you are concerned then you have to back off on the overclock or consider a fancier cooling solution.

I don't like seeing my temps hit the high 60's so I have no choice but to back off or decrease CPU load which I don't want to do so as long as I can stay at 65C or cooler I'm happy and I can say with confidence that I've had no stability issues whatsoever.

I just wanted to add for what it's worth that I'm always looking for a better cooling solution and have had my eye on this liquid cooler for a bit as I liked the reviews I read.

NCIX.com - Buy Coolit Systems Domino CPU Water Cooling System AUTO-REGULATED & Maintenance Free LGA1366/LGA775/AM2 - DM-1000 In Canada.

I just ordered one and will be installing it on my Q6600 in an effort to see if I can change it back to the OC'd settings during the summer.

I'll report back and let you know how it turns out.