I'm trying to overclock my Q6600 again.

Back when I had my Zalman cooler, I had it at 4.2 GHz, but of course, due to Murphy's Law, my nice $75 cooler broke. So I brought it down to 2.6 using my good old stock fan.

I'm still using the stock fan, but I'm trying to overclock it to maybe 3.5 GHz. It's at 3.2 now, and this is where my question comes.

What are the safe operating temperatures for a Q6600? Under heavy load I hit 63C, but I've heard that you can hit up to 72C without having to worry.

Prime95 torture test I hit 65C.

I think you're asking the wrong crowd CJ. What software do you use to overclock?

Software? Have you ever tried software overclocking? Shit's unstable.

I'm OCing from BIOS.

I tried software OCing this once, I got to 2.6 and bluescreened.

loll i've never tried before. I was just curious. I'd never do anything to put my only desktop out of submission.

I generally don't overclock as I usually purchase computers from manufacturers and upgrade them. Like you said, software overclocking sucks and manufactures don't offer overclocking via the bios.

UPDATE: I bluescreen under load at 3.4 GHz.

I backed it down to 3.3, and it's running stable. I hit 66 under heavy load.

I tried overclocking my pc, but i didnt really know how, so apparently Microsoft had posted a little guide on the site giving Instructions on how to make the PC run faster, but it will use more energy..

and still i cant do it..