I've been messing with overclocking for a few months now, but i'm still pretty new to it. My questions are how to squeeze the maximum performance out of my computer without a huge overclock. I'd like to waste as little bandwidth as possible. For example a person with a very fast cpu and slow memory has a bottleneck and cpu bandwidth is being wasted. My setup is:

Core 2 Duo E6600 currently @ 3.2gHz (1424mhz fsb) vcore: 1.35v
4x1gb Corsair XMS2 DDR2 800 @ 4-4-4-12-2T vmem:2.1v
Asus Striker Extreme nvidia 680i SLI
Geforce 8800 Ultra @ core: 650mhz mem:2220mhz
Thermaltake 850w PSU
Vista Ultimate x64

I have the CPU on a Zalman 9700 currently and i'm moving to a koolance water system later next month. I'd like some advice on what would be a good clock speed for the memory and cpu to attain max performance from the two. Thanks guys!

Water system. Really?
Just start by upping the FSB up to 333 from 266. That should give you 3 GHz. If it isn't stable using Prime95, then up Vcore, maybe NB and FSB. You can keep moving the FSB up, keep an eye on temps. Max should be 65C, 60C is better though.

Your FSB is 266. Your memory runs at 400. I would start upping the FSB to 333 while keeping the memory at 1:1.
Then you can try increasing by 20, until you get to your limit.
Stock speed is 2,394, you should be able to get 3,000 easily.

My bios has a setting for 1:1 ratio , but when i do that it puts the memory at the exact speed of the fsb when its multiplied by 4. so it would be 266X4 and that is what my memory would be set at. Would i just do the math and manually enter the memory speed?

its mainly for the 8800 which runs really hot around 75c idle and 90c+ load.

Try to keep your tRD low to keep the memory latency down.

This is a good article which emphasizes balance over maximum FSB:
http://www.anandtech.com/showdoc.aspx?i=3239&p=7 (link is to the part where they explain why keeping tRD low is one of the most important factors in a good overclock).

your graphic card is getting hot when OC orocessor !!!!!!
That is impossible
Do not play with PCI voltage in bios
keep it tp 100
Memory and FSB can work at different ratios
In ratio 1:1 If you set your bios to 333 your memory will be working at 333X2=666 and If you set to 400 your memory will be working at 400X2=800
But different ratios also possible as you can see here (depends on your mobo and bios)

hmm, very interesting article. So would it be better for me to lower my multiplier to 8 (instead of 9) and hit a 400mhz fsb and go from there?

my gpu is factory overclocked and has always been that high of temps, and i've always been worried about it. I'll have to check one more time, but i'm pretty sure that my pci voltage is 100 and that the frequency is 100. It should be because i haven't messed with that at all.

Yes it is possible and this what you'll get
If you set your FSB frequency to 400 and ratio 1:1 @mltiplier 8
FSB speed will be 400X4=1600
RAM will be 400X2=800
Processor speed will be 8X400=3200(i.e 3.2GHz)

alright, i'll try that tonight and let you know how it went

Did things work ??

Note that on watercooling you should be able to get 3.6GHz
FSB 400 and Multi set to 9
9X400=3600
Do not forget to use Real Temp 2.6 to monitor your temps
Use also HWMonitor to check GPU temps only

I was able to lower the multiplier to 8 and attain a 400mhz fsb. It ran prime95 and orthos for an hour with no errors. I tried to push the ram to 3-4-3-9 timings, but at 2.35v it would not always boot and with the stock voltage of the ram at 2.1v i wasn't really wanting to push it anymore. I'm not really sure on how well ram tolerates voltage differences. Can it take more? I'd like to get it down to a CAS of 3 if possible. I agree that i should be able to hit 3.6ghz on water and i'll try that later next month. I have been using coretemp and hwmonitor to monitor temps along with cpu-z to look at speed and memory timings, etc.
I have the cpu at a vcore of 1.45v currently and i am going to try and lower that as i was averaging bout 60c and spiked to 65c during the hour test.
What do you think about the ram? Can it take more voltage to push that CAS to 3?