jesolo wrote:

I came across the 771 to 775 mod when I was researching benchmark tests on the Q6600 & E8400. But, since I got the Q6600 for fre […]
Show full quote

I came across the 771 to 775 mod when I was researching benchmark tests on the Q6600 & E8400.
But, since I got the Q6600 for free, and I don't want to spend more money, I'll stick with the Q6600.

I swopped out the E8400 with the Q6600 and test results with 3D Mark Vantage were as follows (I'm only listing the CPU score since graphics performance was basically the same):
E8400 (9 x 333 MHz = 3.0 GHz): 5845
Q6600 (9 x 266 MHz = 2.4 GHz): 8607
Q6600 (9 x 333 MHz = 3.0 GHz): 10489

With Frybench, there already was faster performance with the Q6600 (in standard mode), compared to the E8400 but, there definitely was a significant difference when I overclocked the Q6600 to 3.0 GHz.

If the Q6600 is stable at 3, I would just leave it there. Equalizing the clocks and FSB will bring the single core performance very close. The 45nM parts might be a bit faster
but the 2 extra cores will more than make up for it.

So far, the Q6600 is stable at 3 GHz.
I've kept the voltage at stock levels (actually on auto, 1.28V)
Idle CPU core temperature is around 46 degrees Celsius (as per the motherboard's hardware monitor).
Memory is DDR2-800 RAM at stock speed.

I'm happy with the results and will keep it this way.

Thank you to everyone for the input provided.
Turned out to be a very interesting discussion.

jesolo wrote:

Idle CPU core temperature is around 46 degrees Celsius (as per the motherboard's hardware monitor).

That seems kind of warm for idle. What are the load temps like?

smeezekitty wrote:

jesolo wrote:

Idle CPU core temperature is around 46 degrees Celsius (as per the motherboard's hardware monitor).

That seems kind of warm for idle. What are the load temps like?

In my opinion it's completely normal IF the cooling has remained the same, and more or less close to the 8400 temperature when idle in an humble case with no fancy fans etc. But yeah, load temps after the OC is another thing.

As long as the CPU dosnt throttle the temperature is fine when stability testing but I would not recommend more than 75C when for example encoding H264 and not more than 70C if doing much encoding or for example using the machine for running Folding@home 24/7. Too high temperature when using Intels stock cooler kills the caps around the CPU socket sooner rather than later.

When gaming or browsing the Internet the temperature wont be a problem. Its also worth noting that even if the core temperature is ~75C the temperature of the air blowing over the caps will be much lower.

konc wrote:

smeezekitty wrote:

jesolo wrote:

Idle CPU core temperature is around 46 degrees Celsius (as per the motherboard's hardware monitor).

That seems kind of warm for idle. What are the load temps like?

In my opinion it's completely normal IF the cooling has remained the same, and more or less close to the 8400 temperature when idle in an humble case with no fancy fans etc. But yeah, load temps after the OC is another thing.

Apologies, some finger trouble. Idle CPU core temperature is actually 41 degrees Celsius (as per the motherboard's hardware monitor). Around 48 to 49 degrees (let's say 50 degrees to round it of) just after I ran a full 3DMark Vantage benchmark and rebooted.
If I run it at stock speed (266 MHz x 9 = 2.4 GHz), then the idle temperature is around 37 degrees Celsius.
I'm using the same heatsink and fan (Intel) and it's a standard ATX midi tower case with an extractor fan at the rear.
I wish to point out that the above idle temperatures are with the motherboard's "power saving" features enabled (which reduces the multiplier to 6 instead of 9 which, in turn, reduces the vCore voltage as well).
According to Intel's own specifications, the G0 stepping is rated to go up to 71 degrees Celsius. So, I think I'm safe there.

Forgot to add the Frybench results earlier (total running time):
Stock speed: 16m04s
Overclocked to 3.0 GHz: 13m32s