Is my computer overclockable?

[Innis]

I have been thinking about overclocking my computer to at least the speeds of the E6700 if not higher and would like to know if this was possible with my setup and advisable. If so, what would be a safe and stable OC and would it damage the life of my computer?

My computer:
C2D E6600
P5W DH Deluxe
OCZ Gold 2x1GB XTC PC2-6400 Memory
CPU Cooling: Zalman CNPS8000
Case cooling: 1 - 12cm front intake, 1 - 9cm side intake and 1 - 12cm rear exhaust.

MY temps from PC Probe (I think this are important to OC) are:

CPU: 20-21C with light load.
Mobo: 43C
My Vcore is: 1.14V

Any suggestion or help would be appreciated. I am at stock 2.4GHz but would like to at least go to the E6700's 2.6GHz safely.

[specv]

just do a 10% burn in and it should be perfectly fine. You should be able to do 3-3.2 without a problem

[eddieate]

yes you could take that setup much further than 2.6ghz you could probally take it over 3ghz although nothing is guaranteed.
You wont noticibly decrease the life of your system either.
Ed.

[xlink]

aim for 3.0-3.3 you shoudl have no problem... are you using the intel reference HSF? if so, dont' do too much...

a lot of people her are pushing to 3.6-4.0... I am personally not that greedy. I'm hoping for 2.93 or 3.2 out of my e6400

[eddieate]

^^ He's using a Zalman CNPS8000...

[Innis]

just do a 10% burn in and it should be perfectly fine. You should be able to do 3-3.2 without a problem

I am new to this so how would one do this? And it WILL NOT decrease the life of my system?

[johneva]

It would be a waste to have that CPU, RAM and aftermarket CPU cooler and not overclock it.

They are all begging to be overclocked, OCZ RAM has warranty to cover you even when you overclock aslong as you dont exceed 2.2 volts and then the Core Duos are exellent at overclocking too with that cooler you should see anything between 3 and 3.6Ghz depending on other factors too.

Overclocking Intel rigs are dead easy just rasie the FSB till unstable running Prime95 (2 instances when dual core), then raise the voltage a notch and reapeat till temps are as far as you dare go.

But read up on it first make sure you know just what your doing before playing with such settings. ;)

[Silver Bullet]

Welcome Innis glad to see you made it over :)

[perkam]

Welcome Innis glad to see you made it over :)Yea but between us and the fence he just jumped over...its a LONG way to go :S

Yes your system is ocable...to 3ghz at the least. I'd recommend 7x430 1:1 cas 4 or 9x333 1:1 cas 3....though pls drop the fsb down to 800 (will stock out at 9x200) and oc from there.

Perkam

[Serra]

And it WILL NOT decrease the life of my system?

As a general statement, depending on the type of overclocking you do (ie. "Irresponsible" vs. "responsible") you can see a drastic shortening of your components useful life... but taking the time to learn about what are safe ranges for voltage, heat, etc. and not taking your stuff to the bleeding edge will help it retain its longevity.

IIRC (and someone correct me if I'm wrong), most processors are designed to have a life of about 10-20 years... and even decent overclocking isn't generally thought to take more than say 5 years off its life. When you sit down and ask yourself whether you're likely to still be using this same processor, motherboard, etc. in about 8 years anyway, you'll probably find that the answer is "no".