Overclocking for beginners

[lego batman]

You can use IntelBurnTest to get loads of heat in a very short space of time. A 10-pass run won't take long at all (less than 20 mins) and often is a good indicator of stability. Be warned though: I got load temps about 15 degree hotter than prime95 could get.

[Ben Rogers]

You can use upto 1.55v on a 65nm chip safely but 1.55v will get very hot on any air cooling.

I would say 1.425 or so max for best temps for a good overclock.

If your quad isnt one of the cooler running ones (SLACR) or something, then it will be a B3 core and will run hotter and probably will not overclock as well as the SLACRs.

I have a E6850 that is based around the same technology and its default speed is 3GHz but it can do 3.7GHz stable or did, until I put 1.8v through it one night and it got less stable as days went on. I did have the vcore set to 1.5v for 1.5 years as well which may not have helped much.

3GHz shouldn't require more voltage on a good CPU but if its a B3 then it may, but only a slight amount more to remain stable, say 1.375v or so.

Jeez, that Intel burn test is intense to say the least - this CPU is at stock but vcore is 1.44v according to speedfan and it was upto 60C before the second test then upto 67c just after the start of the second test so I stopped it. My cooling is a thermalright true ultra 120 heatsink with a scythe 120mm fan on it and my case has 2 120mm fans and the air flow is good, or at least I thought it was lol..

I may reduce vcore