So, i finally sold my Pentium D 820 setup and got in all of my parts to build my Core 2 Duo setup. Here's what i'm running along with some pictures of my hardware and some screen captures. I'll explain my problems later. Thanks to RangerXLT8 from xtremesystems.org for helping me learn a little about oc-ing. my previous overclocking rig was a 550 at 4.046ghz, so this is a huge jump for me. I've given up on netburst architecture for anything more than a decent workstation or pc for my mom.

Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo E6300
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-965P-DS3
Memory: G.Skill 2x1gb F2-6400CL4D-2GBPK
Video Card: XFX 7600GT 256mb
Hard Drive 1: WD 74gb Raptor SATA
Hard Drive 2: Seagate Barracuda 160gb
Optical Drive 1: NEC-3520a DVD+/-RW
Optical Drive 2: Samsung CD-RW
Case: Thermaltake Mambo
Power Supply: Ultra X-Connect 500w
CPU HSF: Scythe Ninja Plus 120mm
North Bridge HSF: Thermalright HR-05
Case Fans: 2x Scythe DF 120mm
Floppy Drive: Mitsumi 3.5” 1.44mb

G.Skill 2GBPK


XFX 7600GT 256mb


Thermalright HR-05 NB HSF


Gigabyte GA-965P-DS3 w/Retail E6300 week 26


Scythe Ninja Plus


HSF's mounted on board

74gb Raptor


Everything mounted and ready to go in


All mounted into a Thermaltake Mambo, ready to fire up (cable management sucks, my friend is gonna help me with it.)




Orthos@2.66ghz, 380x7, 1.4125 vCore, 5-5-5-15 1:1


CS:Source Stress Test

LOL... opening lost coast, then the stress test




OC-ed to 2.8, 400x7, 4-4-4-12 1:1. UNSTABLE. would not pass 2 minutes of Orthos.



FEAR at max performance settings AF 8x AA 8x




the FINAL overclock, Orthos (dual prime95) stable for 7 hours
+.1vDIMM, 4-4-4-14, 400x7, 1:1


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WOW!!! That's a nice system.

thanks man i take a lot of pride in this thing. it's fun doing everything faster than an FX-62 with a sub-200 dollar processor.

GOT THAT RIGHT! E6300's have a good price and well i wouldn't be surprised seeing my grandma overclocking it. Just too easy

lol... somebody really likes taking pictures

this rig is sick, the pictures don't do it any justice, cheapass canon 2.0mp

screw the camera, thats one sweet rig you've got regardless....

i like it, it's the best bang for the buck that's out right now if you're not too scared to overclock it. on xbitlabs.com after several rounds of thorough tests they concluded that an AMD 64 X2 would have to be clocked 20% higher than a Core architecture processor to acheive the same performance, the aged netburst architecture had to be clocked 90% faster to be as fast.

Well that settles it, im getting that motherboard , my one im putting togethers virtually identical, my ram is only kingston 667, though my processor e6400. You have convinced me to overclock too, oh and get better ram lol.

Nice


EDIT: I want that heatsink too

make sure you get a good cooling solution and good luck trying to get 667 to 800, i'm stepping up to a 6600 soon so i can do 400x9. i was thinking about a 6400 but it wouldn't be that much of a gain for me. if you really want DDR 667 at least pick up XMS or G.Skill.

lol i dont really want 667 its just what i have at the moment. Ive only the motherboard left to get. Yeah i think 6400 would be a waste of time in your case.

Any suggestions for reading up about overclocking this setup mate.

you'll need the latest bios, i've got it... you can PM me here on how you can get it from me. also, try oc-forum.com and xtremesystems.org. without xtremesystems, i'd still be twiddling with my old socket A's overclocking them til they melted the socket for little or no gain.

Very nice system, mate! Although I despise Windows, I wouldn't mind having a bad-*** system like that!
Congrats on the fine work!