Overclocking a Q6600 - possible? New cooling needed!

[KamiKatze]

Hey guys, i want to gift my brother a CPU cooler and some case fans, so we can overclock his 2nd PC with a Q6600, for christmas. I aim to get some of that stuff on black friday sales. There are some BF sales allthough i live in germany.

 

The current specs are:

 

CPU: Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 @stock speeds (2.4 GHz)

Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-EP31-DS3L

RAM: 2x2 GB DDR2 800 MHz

GPU: GTX 260

Storage: Some 32 GB crucial SSD and a 500 GB HDD

PSU: Some - i guess not chinese brand - 600W (see pictures below) 

 

He will definitley move his GTX 660 from his main rig in there once he upgrades, so no worries on the GPU side.

 

Now on the CPU side, I'd say, that the q6600 as aquired an age where overclocking is a compelling thing to do.

With the motherboard named above I'd like to get the CPU to at least 2.8 GHz, 3.0 GHz is the goal.

 

First question is, is it even possible to reach an overclock like this? OCing for 100-300 MHz isn't worth it and getting a new CPU cooler would be pointless, so I'd only consider that present if the OC is promising.

 

If the OC would work, the other problem is, that the only cooling that the CPU gets is by the stock Intel cooler. Plus there are actually no case fans installed! (see pictures)

 

So i am looking for a CPU cooler in the $20 or less range. It should have a good performance to keep an oc'ed q6600 in a comfortable temperature range. It must of course support the socket, i think it's 775? And it shouldn't interfere with the top mounted PSU (see pictures) it's about 7 cm from the very middle of the intel stock cooler to the grill of the PSU fan. btw. the maximum height is about 15-16 cm.

 

So far i have found:

 

Cooler master Hyper TX3 Evo

Thermaltake Contac 21

Alpenföhn Sella (german brand, i think)

 

The budget and the top mounted PSU limits me to 92 mm fans imo. Any recommendations?

 

Then for some airflow I'd get a 120 in the front pulling air into the case. The back can hold a 92 mm max and I'd configure that one pushing air out of the case.

 

For the 92 mm in the back i have found so far:

 

Scythe Kama

Arctic F9

 

I want the fans to have high ariflow at a reasonable noise level for 4-7 bucks.

 

For the front 120 there are a whole lotta choices but so far the Arctic F12 look pretty solid as well.

 

Your opinions?

 

I would like to stay around 30 dollars/euros or less with all the parts.

 

If you made it so far, thank you for reading.

 

 

[terrytek]

It depends on the chipset. It has to be something like an Xxx or Pxx series chipset. 

 

Also, overclock a little at a time. If you hugely overclock, it will kill the cooler and the CPU will overheat, killing it after.
 

-terrytek

[2Supra4U]

so long as the mobo allows it and your cpu is a decent one, you should have no prob

 

my q6600 could do 3.6  but I ran it at 3.5 with a 212+