E6600 and eVGA 680i - how high can I go with the vcore?

[CurseTheSky]

I'm at 1.4250 now, and can't get it past the initial desktop / background services loading. A little more voltage will probably do the trick, but I'm not sure how far I can go with Core 2 Duos.

What's the SAFE limit? By SAFE I mean absolutely no risk of burning it out; I'd rather sacrifice a few MHz than risk buying another processor down the line.

Thanks.

 

[Rubycon]

Generally 1.5 is considered the usual limit. Depends on cooling too.

Don't try for your "holy grail" speed right off the bat! Back that FSB down a little and get it stable enough to run Windows, install Intel Thermal Analysis Tool (TAT) and check your IDLE temps.

NEVER try to reach that speed on the stock cooler especially with a goose of VCORE like that. You will get BSOD whipped.

 

[LouPoir]

On good air cooling, I would say 1.5 max.


Lou

 

[CurseTheSky]

I backed it down to 1400 FSB for the moment, as it wasn't 100% stable much higher. These are my first few attempts at overclocking this system, so I don't really have a feel for the BIOS yet. I'm already impressed with it though.

My idle temps at 1400 FSB (3.1GHz) are 35-37C idle, 45-51C load (Orthos). It's still at 1.4250 vcore, since I haven't bothered adjusting it down yet. The processor is water cooled.

When I get a little braver, I'll try pushing it further. For now, I'm going to leave it at 3.0+ and tweak the voltage down until I'm happy with the stability and temps. I'll probably run that for a week, then get a little more adventurous.

Thanks for the help.

 

[Rubycon]

Those temps are very good - even for WC. Many spreaders are not true and the gap will raise temperatures much higher.

Try 1.5V and if you don't get into Windows at that point you have a core or L2 cache that just cannot cut it.

 

[Gannon]

You can push the core2 as far as it can go in small voltage increments, that's what they are there for... so you can up it little by little until you hit the CPU's limit. Just increase the voltate by 0.25, fact is if you have watercooling over-volting the processor is really a non-issue, heat is the major concern, you can safely overvolt a conroe up to 1.6volts, just do it gradually until you do not boot to see if the chip can take it.

Problem is if you're not getting stable 3.5Ghz overclocks watercooled, then you're not going to get much out of more voltage. I can reach 3.7Ghz on air (unstable), and 3.5Ghz on air with the stock Intel cooler and be stable.

I'm using an ASUS P5W DH deluxe with an E6600, I'm rock solid @3.5Ghz on air @1.45 volts, if I back it down to 3.4Ghz I can go with stock voltage. The thing is with conroe's around this time, is that you're running into the limits of the manufacturing once you start going past 3.5Ghz.

What watercooling are you using by the way?

 

[CurseTheSky]

It's some kind of custom Thermaltake job. It's a lot like their Bigwater packages, but it came with the case, so it's a bit different.

Basically, it has the same pump and waterblock that Thermaltake puts in their Bigwater liquid cooling packages, but it has a 3-120mm fan radiator. I'm not sure if I like it or hate it yet.

 

[jim1976]

Well I'm using my E6600@3.6GHz with 1.5V right now for 24/7 but it is W/Ced like you.
Idle temps are not good (51-52) but ordinary load temps don't reach more than 57-60. Only in Orthos Prime after 10 hrs it reaches 70C.
I don't like my idle temps though they are pretty high for W/C . I might backup to 3.45-3.5 or so myself. I will be able to do this with 1.425-1.45 probably and check again my idle temps..