Originally posted by: Idontcare
Are your IHS and HSF lapped?
You running 10x350 for FSB with your 8GB of ram clocked synchronously at 750MHz speeds?
Step one is to find your ram clockspeed limit. Set your CPU's Vcc to its default VID and then manually set the multiplier to 6x (the lowest it can go). Set your FSB to the default for your chip (which is 267MHz, i.e. 1066MHz quad-pump). Then start changing ram multipliers and find out where your ram starts dying from too much clockspeed, raise Vdimm if you have to but only within your comfort limits.
Use memtest as well as Large FFT in prime95 to determine whether the ram is stable.
Step two is to find your NB/FSB clockspeed limit. Set your CPU's Vcc to its default VID and then manually set the multiplier to 6x (the lowest it can go). Set the ram multiplier to synch (some BIOS's call this 1:1, some all it 1:2, and others call it simply "synch")...basically for any given FSB clockspeed you want your ram to be clocked the lowest speed it can be for that FSB to ensure any instability you encounter is NB related and not ram or CPU related.
Now start pushing your FSB to the limits, overvolt the MCH and FSB/NB as needed as you push above 350MHz FSB. Test stability with Large FFT in prime95.
Now that you know whereabouts your ram will limit your OC, and whereabouts your NB/FSB will limit your OC, the third step is to find your max CPU OC.
Again set your ram to its lowest multiplier (1:1 or sync), set your CPU multiplier to 10x (the highest allowed for Q6700) and start pushing up that FSB and raising Vcore as needed to maintain stability (as well as bumping up Vdimm and/or NB voltages as needed based on your prior testing in steps one and two) and test stability using Small FFT in prime 95.
Once you have this data, then you can surmise whether your 3.5GHz OC is limited by CPU (Vcc and Temp limited), by NB/FSB (more active cooling), or the ram itself can't go higher (need Vdimm or better ram).