Comments On Myself

Well, what can I say? I was so close to my desired goal of 4.0 GHz. All I needed was just 50 MHz more! This is so cruel! I might as well be a GHz off the mark.

With that said, overclocking the 3 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo E6850 by 950 MHz (31.7 %) is nothing to scoff at. The water cooling kit I set up was up to the task. I was pleased with both the CPU temperature as well as the temperature of my NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GTS graphics card. The ASUS P5K Premium motherboard performed real great, and the Silverstone OP650 PSU never stuttered on its voltage rails throughout the whole process. I was very satisfied in those regards.

Voltage scaling was pretty nuts after 3.9 GHz. To keep to my goal of 24/7 stability, I could not resort to crazy-high voltages, not if I wanted the processor to last a while. I try to pamper my computers and electronics as I do push them hard. I needed a voltage boost of 0.05 V to go from 3.9 GHz to 3.95 GHz. I can't really say how much more I would need to hit 4 GHz right now as my OCZ PC2-8000 Reaper memory modules are being RMAed at the moment.

Comments On The Others

Max_87 is one crazy dude when it comes to overclocking. In some ways, he is my polar opposite (in more ways than one). His overclocking method is definitely a lot faster then mine. But he is pretty extreme in his own abilities too. He was so dissatisfied with his overclock that he revised his PC's cooling.

He would turn up the air-conditioning in his room just to improve his temperatures. He even channeled the air from the air-conditioner downwards at his setup. The cold ambient temperatures reminded me of my old room where I would have the air-conditioning set to maximum. Ahhh... That was the life. The latest I heard from him, he was also going down the path of the righteous - using the Dtek FuZion!

Chai is no newcomer to watercooling. He has a lot of watercooling experience. We tend to have 'discussions' on a lot of issues, especially about computer hardware. My opinionated stance sometimes puts me at odds against his (sometimes!) hard-headedness. But at the end, it's all good. The three of us are really good friends and whatever we discuss ends at the end of the discussion.

Chai is a tad conservative in his overclocking. After discussing at length, I persuaded him to add a backplate (his cooling setup is similar to mine) as his motherboard was bowing under the pressure of mounting the Dtek FuZion. It could also potentially help improve his cooling ability by increasing the mounting pressure.

Be sure to check out both Chai's and Max_87's overclocking reports when they are posted! You will definitely learn a trick or two.