How much can i oveclock my setup with out risking burning out my board or cpu? im running on the stock intel cooler now but will take suggestion for an upgrade. What do i need to do in bios? Increase voltage to the cpu and nothing else? In running an e6600 @ stock 2.4. Thanks.

Hi Reghost.

Start by setting the FSB to 333 MHz in your BIOS and upping the core voltage one or two steps from default, and it will run 3 GHz easily with stock cooling.

If it runs stable, remember to set fsb=333 in Com.apple.boot.plist

// Per.

don't automatically up the voltage, it may not be necessary. My p35 board and e6420 are able to run at fsb=375 (3.0 GHz) @ vcore=1.35. after that, the vcore needs to be raised quite a bit (fsb=400 needs 1.425 vcore. I decided 200 more MHz wasn't worth the extra strain and heat on my equipment. If OS X gives you a kernel panic on startup or during a stress test (download CPU Test for OS X), then you may need to increase your vcore or reduce your overclock. Remember vcore=heat.

I don't increase the voltage until I get to a speed I can't reach on the stock voltage. I've found that overclocking seems to be more limited by RAM or some other component than the CPU. For example I can't get my P4 over 3.6GHz because I have to set the FSB to 240MHz, which means the PCI bus is running at 40MHz, which is the limit of my SATA controller. I have been able to get it to 3.825GHz, but then I can't use any SATA drives. lol. My boyfriend's computer with E6320 can't get over 3.0GHz because his RAM won't run any faster than 866MHz

You guys are awsome. thanks. im going to print this out and give it a try. thanks again

Hey Badge, is that the name of the program? CPU TEST??

UPDATE: found it!

im running all test at stock fsb=266 @2.4GHZ

im going to up it to 333 in bios and then test it again.

Side Note: XBench rates my box at 125.43

ill post my results after the upping it up.

NO GO, had a kernal panic

Hey zap can you let me know setting you are using? thanks.

i put 333 fsb and all goes ok, movie, sound speed all ok... my e6600 fly @2,997 mhz
i don't understand why set fsb=333 in com.apple.boot.plist..?

ok guys. i stepped the fsb to 300 and left the vcore voltage alone and it seems to be running stable... Thanks to zapro and all of you for your help. i think im going to end up getting some faster (1066) ram and a nicer 775 cooler.

I use 471 FSB with 7x multi, with 1.38 vcore on my e6420 and it runs great. Idles at 30 C, Load at 43 C.

No need to set fsb, the kernel should pick it up if it has autofsb.

asap,

how are you getting your fsb that high? what other settings are you adjusting? even when i drop my ratio down to 7, i can't get much higher than 430fsb. And it isn't my RAM, I've had it up to nearly 1100 mhz without issue. (D9s).

I would not reccomend overclocking on stock cooling, it may say stable, but under heavy load it won't be.

yeah, i wouldnt plan on using stock cooling for anything other than a minor OC. I have a CoolerMaster Hyper V3 keeping my cpu chilly chill.

I had my P4 overclocked 20% on stock cooling for over a year with no problems. I only recently replaced the cooler because I wanted it to be quieter.

Quick question

I have a p4 3.0 with stock cooling, and at default speed it idles at 60C and climbs to 75 under load. I underclocked to around 2.4 and it runs a bit cooler, but still low 50s idle, high 60s under load. I just installed two 12cm fans that push/pull air by the cpu cooler to try to help out. I also took apart the cooler and made sure there was no dust and whatnot. Still gets to low 70s under load at 3ghz.

Is this running too hot? Seems to me like it gets insanely hot under load. I checked the intel datasheet for the prescott and the max temp looks to be ~70C. Could I run at stock clock speed and mod the voltage to be lower? Something tells me I just need to buy a better cooler.

Is there a way to check if the temp is being reported incorrectly?