Just built my new computer
 

long story short, I was maxing out my old computer's (a p4 3ghz/2gb mem) resources. Was going to pick up a quad core computer, but due to delays with the mobo I wanted, I decided to go with a lower end cpu. My goal was to overclock the lower end cpu to the max and use it for a year or so and then when there are lots of quad cores available (and the prices are reasonable) I will pop out the dual core and pop in the quad.

So far I have both of my Intel Core 2 Duo E6700 cores overclocked to 3.5ghz and it is very stable (running some system stress programs at the moment).
I may go for 3.6ghz and stay there.

Will update as I progress.

Good move Doc, they are superb processors.

Out of interest, why did you go with the E6700 over the E6600?

Honestly, if I had to do it again, I probably would have gone with the E6600.
It wasn't until after i picked it up, that I read a bunch of reviews that e6600 users were getting oc's that were pretty close to the 6700.

I could have saved some more money !! :(
But all in all, I am really pleased.

Doing one more stress test (I just tweaked my mem settings) and will probably load up my audio apps this evening. Man I can't wait to load up one of my recent projects that had my 3.0ghz p4 pegged at 98%

Damn, Doc.

You must be using a motherload of VSTs/Samples/FX to tax your old system to the max!

Good for you, now tear your new system apart and see what it can do.

God I love computers...

Have fun!

-Alex

yeah, most of my stuff now is all virtual (hence the reason to slim down even more and sell of the Korg 49).

I must say, I have a new found respect for those people out there who are able to achieve extreme and stable overclocks. It really is a science !!

I OCed my E6600 to 3 GHz and it is perfectly stable, but I have heard of people getting it up to 4.8GHz!!!

Thats per core as well - so can deliver nearly 9.6Ghz in total (or thereabouts).


Wowsers

4.8?? insane!!!

A stable 3ghz for an e6600 is a very nice overclock Drammy. Good job.

ok, to wrap this thread up, here is what I ended up with - -

this is with keeping core cpu temps under 70C degrees while running Intels Thermal Analysis Tool for over an hour and around 65C while running stress tests like Sandra and Orthos.

I have a rock solid stable overclock of 3.2ghz per core on my E6700.
Ram has been overclocked and latencies lowered.

I could have gone higher - probably to 3.4ghz, but would have had to lower my mem speed and up my vcore voltage = higher core temps under stress.

100% stability was an absolute requirement (don't want weird bit level issues while make new songs :)

Pretty happy with it. Will start loading the os tonight.

man, I just spent the whole day reloaded all my audio apps and vsts.
Patches, updates, pointers . . . bah!!

and I thought the computer build was time consuming!!

This computer better last me 5 years!!!

Just a quick update.
I have been playing with my new setup for about a week and all I can say is wow. I no longer have to worry about system resources. My heaviest project (which took up most of my cpu and ram on my older machine) barely even scratches the surface on my new computer. I think the highest my cpu cores hit was 18% (as opposed to 90%+ on my other machine).

Don't think I will be needing to freeze tracks any time soon! :)