Has anyone reached 3.6 or 4 GHz with E6600 and air cooling?

I've gotten my E6600 up to 3.6 stable but just a little hotter than I want to run.

I'm using a P5B, 2gb of Corsair XMS2 PC-6400, and cooling with a Zalman 9500.

Ill give you a word of advice... i would not recommend trying to get a system especially a air cooled system stable at 3.6... the risk/benefit ratio from OC'ing past 3.4 isnt worth it. I have however oc'd a 6600 to 3.7 but hardly stable at times all air cooled. The set up is as follows

evga nvidia 680i mobo

coolermaster stacker case with 4 side fans, a zalman 9700 cpu cooler and 3 other case fans in the front back and top.

Corsair dominator c5d ram at 1066

my vcore was at 1.45 to 1.5

however, to be realistic you should just shoot for 3.4 its stable, safe, and performs great!!

Why dont you let the op know what your system is then ?
And is that on AIR ?

Take a look at these forums, http://www.xtremesystems.org/forum [...] y.php?f=56

tons of people have overclocked their E6600 on air with stock cooling and after marker HSF.

Where do all of you people get these engineering samples anyway ?
Were they handing them out at the mall when I wasnt looking ?

bah, if you want 4ghz, your better with a 6400, a good mobo and some ram that can handle 1000mhz. Throw in a tuniq tower to be safe

With water cooling, you can go over 3.6Ghz

Well, I'm sure it's possible allright.....you read these stories about different E6600 revisions....like the system I've installed for my dad.....he has a E6600 B2 revision. I don't really get it what is so important about this.....also I don't get it why one E6600 overclocks better then the other...like intel is still developing the core while producing it? They still put money into it? Oh well...you have to believe this or not it's up to you. But on with the show.....I choose to buy a E6600 cooled with a Thermalright Ultra 120 cooling block and a Nexus Fan 120MM that runs max at 1100 rpm and only produces 22.8 db running at max what is not nessacary at all because of the good ultra 120 performance (both got many awards >fan for silent running and >Ultra-120 performance)/G.E.I.L. DDR2 800 with cl4-4-4-12 timings on a Asus DH Deluxe. The whole setup was build in an Antec P150 case which is a very good case when it comes to silent and cool performance (it even outperformce its bigger brother the P180 casing when it comes to cpu cooling temperatures. It got one 120mm Fan installed in the back of the case and it can be switched to 3 different speeds. Low Medium and High. I choose to set this fan on low cause of the great performance of the cpu cooling block. To get a little bit more cooling I bought two 92 mm silent antec fans that produce 14 db of noise in low settings......I've switched the upper one to medium performance to get a bit more airflow in the casing. After all this I've turned on the bios AI quiet mode and the system is running perfectly quiet at 3.4GHZ with only a slight low breeze sound....it runs idle at 33degrees celcius. I mean.....will you noticed the difference between 3.4 or 3.6Ghz? I bet you won't. It's only reducing the lifetime of your cpu and this for only 200Mhz difference. If you want to do it to impress...well that also not worth it cause who are you going to impress while so many people did it allready cause they felt the same like you (Mind IF please )? Unhealthy overclocking it just not the way to go with aircooling and 3.4Ghz is a perfect worth for money overclock with the E6600 if you ask me>>>>SILENT Performance=Comfort computing<<<<. THat's my opinion.

why you need 2 know what my system is ? its a x850xt with a 3500+ right now i already bought my TT armor and my silverstone zeus tho im waiting on my 2 R600's so yea..

if u read a little around u find out that 3.6 isnt that high but its fine for normal use if u have the temps for it on air 8)

its the DX10 gpu from ATI it should come out around february

I think Coolaler was the first one to achieve 4Ghz on E6600 with air cooling. Using the Tuniq Tower 120 of course. If you want extreme overclocking then the E6400 would be it. As for the settings on the E6600, it would be enough to last the cpu a couple of years just in time to get an upgrade anyways.

Please stop throwing around unrealistic overclocks for this chip on air If anyone is truly able to get a stable 4ghz P95 overclock on air with acceptable temps on an E6400 then they are most likely in the 1%range of people who just got damn lucky.

You just make it sound like a guaranteed thing when its not. 3.5ghz to 3.7ghz is much much more realistic.


I just hate to see people running out and taking your advice thinking they are gonna get a stable 4ghz overclock with safe temps on an E6400 with an air cooler.

Please stop being ridiculous. You cannot guarantee anyone that they will be able to hit 4ghz with an E6400 just because they combine it with a 680I board and a Tuniq Tower 120. Each and every chip overclocks differently and while some will may hit 4ghz on air most will not.

I could also show you my E6400 running at 4ghz as I know it will post that high but I would say its far from safe because of the temps it reaches due to the increase in the ammount of Vcore needed to get it stable at 4ghz. Yes even with my crazy case air flow and Tuniq Tower 120.

A chips stability usually translates differently from person to person, just because you can game with it or run windows does not count for most people as being stable. Unless they are dual P95stable for 8+hrs and are getting acceptable temps most people will care less about running at 4ghz until they can get those two most important factors under control (temp and stability) and as the owner of an E6400 along with a Tuniq Tower and a case with better than average airflow I am here to tell you that hitting 4ghz on this chip while being 100% P95stable with ACCEPTABLE TEMPS is not very likely at all.




You telling people they will hit 4ghz if they purchase a 680I board along with an E6400 and a Tuniq Tower is just misleading and wrong.

I will agree with you that it will not be pleasant running the 6400 at ghz, but I won't agree that I am entirely mis-leading, as you could run it at 4ghz for benchmarks and then lower it to a comfortable 3.5-3.6 for normal use. For 3.6 I'd say 6400 is safe

I'd say the op's best bet right now is to wait until the intel price drop happens. Then the 6600 will be at the 6400's price, and I will have no trouble recommending it against the 6400, which will only go down to the 6300's rice. Then I'd say watercooling might be worth it as the op suggested earlier

you could have been nicer about it

Ok, so I could have mentioned it wouldn't be the smartest ideato run it constantly at 4ghz like you could with a more expensive cpu. For the price, I think the 6400 makes more sense currently, and besides, there's no need to quote everything I say and make it seem like I should die for saying it

whatever, but if your old enough to have a three month pregnant wife, then you should be trying to help others learn, instead of shoot them down

whatever

Spoken like a true champ

Bottom line your post was very misleading rather you think so or not and that is the reason I came down on you. You didn't decide to change your tune until I chimed in either and if you would have just said the things you said after I got a hold of your post to begin with then none of this would have happened so please just get over it already.

I've gotten to 3.7 Ghz on air with my Zalman CNPS9500, haven't bothered going higher. Temps were about 50C at idle, I'm sure they'd be lower with a Tuniq Tower. I leave mine at 3 Ghz though, it's fast enough for me and temps are good with 30C idle.

50c idle is just stupid and not worth it but im sure you already knew that. This strengthens my case even more.


I also use to have my E6400 at 3.7ghz but I felt the amount of vcore needed to get it stable and idle temps in the low 40's were just not worth it when I can run 3.5ghz stable at just 33c.

Dont even get me started on how hot it idles at 4ghz with the ammount of vcore needed to get it to even post at that speed! 8O thats why I cannot and will not tell anyone that they can expect to run at 4ghz on air with an E6400 because it is just plain WRONG and very Unrealistic.

3.5 to 3.7 on air is a pretty safe but not guaranteed assumption.

I'll still say its achieveable, not applicable for common uses, but achievable[/quote]

I think pretty much anyone here would agree that the Tuniq is better than the zalman, but like I told you earlier 4ghz on air with an E6400 is not an idealistic or realistic oc due to the amount of vcore needed for stability and especially the high idle and load temps.

And like I have told you already if you had said it that way to begin with then we would not even be having this conversation.

Well say what you want about the zalman, my 9700 and recently oc'd 6600 to 3.62mhz with a 1.39vcore, 42C idle 53C load, on a striker extreme with team extreem 6400 4-4-4-8 1t.
My zalman works just fine in my TT armor case, must have been something wrong with yours.

This post is from SyPhyR on the previous page:

There are no CPU's 100% identical. Every silicon semiconductor device is unique, and as such, has different basic properties of electronics such as resistance, capacitance, inductance, impedance, and transconductance. Although two consecutive serial number CPU's from the same fabrication, with the same stepping codes, may appear identical, they're yielded from different location on the silicon wafer from which they're manufactured, and like diamonds, each has it's own unique flaws.

Even though their dynamic operational characteristics may be very similar, no two CPU's will overclock to exactly the same stable maximum speed, at the same voltage, at the same temperature. Additionally, in a dual core processor, one core will always run at higher temps and become unstable before the other. Therefore, since there are no overclocking gaurantees due to the variables, all we can project is what's reasonably typical per cooling solution.

Although this helps to partially clarify some answers, no one has yet mentioned any details regarding temperature measurements, such as differences in BIOS readings and various software utilities, just so we're careful to compare apples to apples. :?

Yes I do agree. Zalmans are highly overrated for what they are and there are far better choices out there such as the tuniq tower.