I'll keep this brief. For years i have been using computers with hand me down parts, Old (but decent) graphics cards etc but always AMD processors. As such i overclocked them to hell and gave no consideration to the wellbeing of the computer.
Now i just bought my own pc and i still think it can do better. Now this time i bought an intel processor but was less informed about which one to buy.
Specs:
Xfx Nforce 680i Sli Motherboard
Xfx 8800GT 256mb XXX Alpha Dog Edition
Core 2 Duo E4600 2.4Ghz Stock
2gb Corsair XMS2 PC2-6400
Corsair 620watt Real power Psu (modular)
Pioneer DVD rewriter
400gb Sata Western Digital hard drive
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Stock cooling on the CPU.
Optional fan fitted to the heatsink on the mobo
Good air flow with 2 80mm intake fans and one 120mm out. All the cables are neat or non existant (modular psus)
Now, As i said i didn't do much reading up on the Core 2 duo. I WAS going to get the e4300 on someones recommendation but they seem to have stopped selling it. Also, i'd normally never trust a western digital with my stuff BUT having had about 3 major hard drive fails in the past year (all old drives and the last being a laptop drive) i haven't got much left to lose.
Now i know theres a sticky about core2 overclocking (which i'm taking under advisement) but what i'm asking for is advice on overclocking the CPU, Ram and hopefully the GPU. I have a Fan controller which reports back to me about temperatures. My ram is always about 30-35 and ambient case is about 25-30. I want to get the best for this pc without breaking it.
Here is a bit more about the spec of my pc.
What i'm really asking, is there much more this computer can give me? I'd like to be able to run UT3 a little better, and hopefully a few Dx10 games a little better. Thanks for any help anyone cam provide.