i was wondering if any of the other members of this forum are big into overclocking? i have the q6600 on an evga 680i sli, both of which are known to be fairly good overclockers, running at 3.0 ghz on stock cooling (stock speed is 2.4). i'm going to order some aftermarket cooling fans for the cpu, mcp, and spp, and try to get to at least 3.25 ghz (and quiet my case down a bit ) i'm really starting to dig this whole overclocking/ computer modding thing, its a lot of fun and adds some individualism to your computer. anyone else a big overclocker?

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I wouldn't mind trying to mod my PC but if it blows up I'll have to replace too many parts and the risk of having to spend more money isn't worth it for me. Plus to get it customized you have to spend more money on more parts I just don't have the money or time to be messing around with it. I would just prefer to have a working and reliable system if you know what I mean. I'm sure if your experienced enough you will have no trouble over clocking safely but to me the risk of something going wrong to gain some more clock speed isn't worth it.

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Just make sure not to verdo it. The computer could have a meltdown and there goes $200 down the drain.

I think the limit for your computer would be about 3.2 Ghz. Any higher and the cooling system will be larger than the hard disk.

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yea, sonesay, i know what you mean. i was afraid forever that i would kill my computer, but once i finally did it... it was no big deal and it was like... free power. and if your computer is not custom built, everything will be all locked up.

im going to be happy if i get mine to 3.25 but theres some people out there with some sick overclocks on the q600... 3.6 ghz+... ill be more than happy with 3.25.
of course, many people who have the best overclocks are the smartest overclockers, and therefore the safest with their equipment....

but some of the stuff out there is crazy.... phase change cooling, or lapping your cpu (basically when you take sandpaper to the metal cover on your cpu to flatten it out... i would be terrified) at a certain point it definatly becomes more of a hobby than a money saver.
but i will gladly brag about my $300 q6600 running faster oc'ed than a $800 intel proc at stock speed

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I have serious doubts about whether puny air cooling will handle that, I'd highly recommend getting water cooling for that kind of speed. Also, you should get an Asus motherboard, they're one of the best in terms of stability and overclocking, a motherboard limiting your speed is the last thing you want. Finally, top it off with some OCZ or Corsair ram, the best overclocking chips I've come across. Stable as rocks and can take punishment.

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yea i have 4 gigs of ocz ddr2 800... pretty good ram
i thought about getting an asus mobo back when i built my rig but i went with evga instead, they're a pretty rock solid company too.

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From my experience with their video cards, evga is one of the worst, which probably means the quality of their motherboards is the same. Well, that's just my warning, if it works fine for you, that's awesome.

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thats surprising, evga seems like a pretty popular brand these days.
im running one of their 680i SLI boards and an 8800 GTS 640 MB (built before the G92's came out...) and they've given me no trouble.

anyways ill have to post an update once i get a chance over spring break to install all of my new cooling.

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