first time overclocking

Hey guys, Just signed up on overclock forums and I'm happy to be here .

I just built a P.C and I have to say, all the money I spent on dell and Hp, I wish I could have it all back..

For my system, I have a Asus rampage extreme x48 mobo, Intel core 2 quad q9550 E0 Stepping with a Asus Lion square Cpu cooler, Patriot Extreme memory 4gb ddr3 1600 mhz, 640 gb Western digital hard drive, Asus radeon 4870 DK 1gb Gddr5, and a cooler master rc 690 case.

It's still socket 775 stuff but hopefully I can get some power out of it.

So basically, I have read some other webpages about first time overclocking and my aim is just to get the cpu at 3.4 ghz and thats all I want. I know that you have to set the FSB to 400 but from there I have no clue what to do. So I was just wondering if anyone out there has any background on what settings I should use as in how much voltage I should keep it at and etc. Also must I update the bios before overclocking or is that optional? just asking that cause I dont think my motherboard bios is giving me any trouble, so I just want to make sure.

P.S if this is in the wrong thread, I'm sorry!

If you haven't already, read through this thread: HOWTO: Overclock C2Q (Quads) and C2D (Duals) - A Guide v1.7

You'll need to increase vCore if you fail a stress test like Prime95, ORTHOS, or IntelBurnTest.

You'll want to manually set RAM voltage and timings. Also, disable EIST and C1E.

Hey Matt, thank you for welcoming me here

Im sure this forum is loaded with the type of questions I have.. But I have no where else to turn so thank you for recommending me the guide. I'll try my best to follow it and if I get stuck somewhere, is it okay if I can ask you for some help?

Sonic1988 said:

Hey Matt, thank you for welcoming me here

Im sure this forum is loaded with the type of questions I have.. But I have no where else to turn so thank you for recommending me the guide. I'll try my best to follow it and if I get stuck somewhere, is it okay if I can ask you for some help?

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Of course it's okay to ask for more help. That's why this forum and it's great community is here.

Hey Matt, just to be sure, Is it recommended/necessary for a bios update before overclocking? someone told me that the only time you should update your bios is when you're having problems with it and I have no problems with it so far. So I just wanted to make sure before I get on goin with the overclock.

Nope it's not required. The only time it's required is when your CPU isn't supported and you need to update BIOS for CPU support.

thank you so much for that Matt, That was one of things that was making me holding me back from overclocking. I didn't want to update bios and then have something go wrong with it