Want to overclock my old Q6600, need help (beginner)

if the current load temp is 70C you can stop right there. Get a better cooler before you overclock, that is too hot. I have my q6600 oc'd to 3ghz and it doesnt get up to 70C under load. And as said above, what motherboard do you have. My old p5n-e couldnt run the q6600 past 2.6ghz without becoming unstable. My newer p5n-d works a treat.

Thanks for the responding guys!

My motherboard is Gigabyte Technology Co., Ltd. EP43-UD3L,

What i used to test my cpu with is basicly battlefield as the cpu is at around 95% usages at all time.

I wouldnt stay it runs to 70 all the time but it was the warmest one of the core reached, i use CPUID hardware monitor, averege whenever i tab most of the cares are around 65-68.

The airflow in the comp isnt state of the art, dont really know what model the chassi is but atleast information wise i can say. It have 1fan with a dust filtor in the front wich blows in air and 1in the back to blow out. An opening on the side with some plastic thing that is basicly suppose to point air at the CPU. My old gfx card would just threw all the heat straight into the comp so when i did a slight uppgrade now for BF3 i made sure to get one that releasses all the heat outside.

The airflow isnt really a big problem i think, it's pretty averege compared to a monster with 6-7fans but it's good enough too provide the computer with the air it needs.

But i dont really see 70C as the strange and warm, a friend wich basicly have exactly the same computer setup as me got his CPU running at around 80+ in battlefield.

Anyway i'm planning on buying a new cooler for the CPU wich i can basicly take with me whenever ivy bridge hits the market so that wont be a problem.

I guess anything will cool better than the intel standard one but i will spend around 50-60euro on a new one, so i guess that will give me a nice one of the money. But everything depends on what you guys tell me, Can my motherboard be overclocked?

Second thing about aircooling. I live in sweden, my room is around 15C during mornings and never reaches above 22C. even if i want to sometimes the temp stays below 20 because this room doesnt have any extra heat. I basicly have to trust my computer to keep me warm during winter! If i dont leave it on when it's about minus 15-20 outside i pretty much freeze to death when i sleep ^^.

Na i dont want to destroy the computer, i basicly want it to live another half a year. This is why i have orderd will order a new CPU cooler (IF i know that the computer can even be clocked

was a typo, i was suppose to be "i will order a new cooler" instead of "i have.

anyway have looked around and found this Kylare Noctua NH-U9B SE2

http://s.cdon.com/media-dynamic/im [...] -xtrab.jpg

And i cant get any more fans to the computer, no slots. I only have 1 in the front and one in the back and one on the side but there wont be enough space to have one on the side if i buy that cooler.

I will use that cooler for ivy bridge aswell, i know that general will run a lot cooler compared to this one but i still want a big one to be able to maybe do some overclocking on ivy bridge aswell. I'm presuming that the original cooler will suck

"Ivy Bridge Haswell" or "Ivy Bridge as well". Because my guess is the 1150 interface of Haswell will fit the same coolers as 1155 and 1156.

First off--you'll need to get your temps down before you OC. Get yourself some decent thermal paste ( http://benchmarkreviews.com/index. [...] itstart=13 ) then, reseat your current heatsink. When you do that, make sure to record everything printed on the top of your CPU so you can figure out your batch number and CPU stepping, which will impact your max CPU temp. After reseating the CPU, figure out what temp it hits during load.

Test/load the CPU with LinX. Stop the test if it gets hot.

There are a ton of ways to approach OC'ing--so long as you're comfortable resetting your bios if you pick a setting that's WAY too high. Typically, you go in kinda small increments so that you never have to reset your bios.

The first step is to set the RAM to the slowest speed so that when you increase the fsb, it doesn't push the RAM too fast.

Then you jump the CPU up to a speed you are 95% sure it'll hit. With your decent mobo, 2.7GHz should be a breeze. You accomplish this by upping your fsb to 337 or so. Upping speed or voltage increases temps. Always watch your temps!

Then you boot to Windows and run 10x loops of LinX (or whatever number you're comfortable with. You can reduce it when you're more familiar with what you're doing). If there are no freezes or errors, then restart and up the CPU speed by 50MHz or so and repeat. Once you get to 3.0GHz or so, you'll probably want to start increasing by smaller increments. There will be a point where 10MHz makes the difference and you probably want to be 50MHz below that.

You may well hit 3.0GHz stably with no voltage increase. If it freezes or gives you errors in LinX, up your voltage a little (like 0.0125V) and try again. Do not apply more than Intel specified max voltage! At least not until you know what you're doing.

When you can't increase speed because the CPU will make too much heat or you're as high as it will go stably, stop and run 50x+ loops of LinX and watch your temps. If it doesn't error out, then your OC is at least 95% stable--maybe completely stable.

Then you OC the Mem. Increase the memory speed and run 1 or 2 loops of Memtest86+ from a flashstick on bootup (you shouldn't need to go into Windows). Once your memory is at a speed you're happy with, try tightening your latencies and retest with Memtest86+. Once your memory can go through 4+ runs of Memtest86+ without errors, you can call it stable.

Then obsessively monitor your temps and tinker with your OC until you break your computer...at least that's what I do.