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How to Overclock Intel Core 2 Duo 6600 and Gigabyte GA-965P-DQ6?

Hi,

I have never done oveclocking in my life. Easy Tune utility crashes my system all the time. Is there anybody to tell me the optimum bios settings (with all stock hardware) for the following system. I have heard that 4 GHz is possible but I dont need to get too high. I want a stable system with stock cooling...Here's the configuration:

OS: Windows Xp Professional
File system: NTFS
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-965P-DQ6 (Bios Version F7)
SATA: RAID10 (with 2 Westen Digital 320 GB + 2 Seagate 320 GB) (2 mirrored SATA's are stripped)
RAM: Twinmos DDR2 667Mhz 2x 1GB
Video Card: Asus EN 7950 GT

Thanks,
Tolga.
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Gary Case
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... by the way, Callandor and I have differing views on overclocking => and I'm sure he'll post the details on exactly what you should try to ramp up the CPU here  (he's an overclocker;  I'm not).
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Callandor,

I forgot to mention I had a E6600 but you already figured it out form my other post:) How do I check if my SATA Controller is ok for which ports? This is my main issue. I have tried to overclock my MB and it always messed up my SATA configuration with built in Intel Storage Manager. See my problems in this page https://www.experts-exchange.com/questions/22088766/NTLDR-Missing-error-on-RAID10-Recovery-Console-Doesn't-recognize-SATA's-Computer-doesn't-boot-Help-pls-Very-important.html 

I want to overclock :) But on the other hand I want to make sure if my Motherboard is not faulty and capable.

By the way thank you garycase for the tips.
I noted that you had an E6600 in my post :-)    ... as for your SATA controller, etc., that's what I meant when I noted that "... if your other components (memory, etc.) can't handle the changes you make, the system will not be stable ..."

The only way to really confirm what does/doesn't work is to try it.   And you should do so in small steps (the smaller the better), with a fairly extensive test at each step to confirm that all is stable.   As for whether or not your motherboard has any issues, if it's stable at stock speeds, it's difficult to know whether failure at overclocked settings is due to a motherboard issue or failure of some other parts (e.g. memory).   Just takes some experimentation.   Callandor may have other insights here ...
Oh I had written CPU info in the title ok ok:)
I was only able to determine my SATA ports were not locked because there was a warning in numerous articles outlining the problem.  In your case, I couldn't find any news about the SATA ports being affected by overclocking.  You should try the incremental approach and check when it no longer works properly.
Yes, Callandor, I couldnt find any articles or posts about SATA controller being affected by the overclock about GA-965P-DQ6. So garycase might be right here. Some other parts of the computer might be affecting the whole thing. Example: I have a front panel USB Hub (made by Frisby) which is also a card reader.

I got some settings from the internet and overclocked the CPU to 3.30 Ghz. Now I will l start unplugging and disabling USB stuff to test the stability of SATA Controller. Will let you know asap.

If you're running stable at 3.3GHz that's not bad => 37.5% overclock :-)   Considering how fast an E6600 is at stock, that's got to be a SCREAMING machine !!
I checked the the USB Hub doesnt affect the system.

After googling alittle, I came across some posts, some users have experienced SATA Port locking problems after overclocking. I am not sure if this is what I have but gonna find out.

Again, I set up a RAID 10 with 4x 320GB disks. Because I already have a boot order issue, this time I didnt connect additional disks which I had 2 more 200GB. System was already at 3.30 Ghz before this. And after Windows Xp is up and running I tried another increment of FSB (now @375, CPU temp is 54C maybe that is  not really good) but no problems so far. Has been 1 hours yet no instability issue.

If the system remains stable like this for 2-3 days I am gonna call this incident a SATA Port locking issue (as Callandor implied). Because the only change I made is not using the extra ports on the RAID Controller.

Thanks
Tolga
I took out this board from the computer:( Sent it to distributer for a check up. Lets see what happens.

In the meantime I bought another MB. Asus P5W DH Deluxe. Fantastic from the start. Fully loaded. And great overclocker. Running 3.6 Ghz now very stable. Only thing about it is its using ICHR7 RAID controller. Its kind of old compared to ICHR8 which has better features, but the other features of the board beats anything I have seen.

I will update about the Gigabyte board soon. Thx.
Tolga.
3.6GHz !!  One screaming system ... and there's nothing wrong with the ICH7 controller.   Sounds like you're definitely getting your money's worth out of that E6600 ... ALMOST makes me want to try a bit of overclocking :-)  :-)
>ALMOST makes me want to try a bit of overclocking

I ALMOST fell on the floor when I read that!  Years down the road, I will replace my non-overclocking motherboard with one that will so that I can stretch the performance of my processor.
Haha... garycase, I am sure you are aware but just a reminder! Many Motherboards nowadays, are overclocking itself without the user knowing it. They are located under various names in the Bios. (like Hyperthread) and they are enabled by default. So there is nothing wrong with overclocking. Of course there are measures to overclocking. Although many people would overclock to the limit even if they know the CPU is gonna last only a day:) I guess its just a weird kind kind of curiousity.  Maybe Collander is one of them:) Cheers.