This is my first time on this forum, but I've noticed there's a lot of knowledgeable contributors, so I have a few questions.

I did the overclocking thing about 4-5 years ago with the Athlon XP series with some success, but I've been out of the loop and things have obviously changed. For my new computer I'm looking at getting the Q6600 and OC-ing to 3ghz @ 1333 fsb (hopefully on stock voltage). I'll probably use the ASUS Striker II nForce 780i motherboard and 4GB Geil Evo One DDR2 1066 memory.

What cooler would you recommend for this OC? I don't need anything that looks good, but silent is KEY. It's going in an Antec P182, to give you an idea of space available.

Do I need to do anything to the memory to get the most out of my system with the higher FSB?

What software should I use to check temps and monitor the process?

If you need more info to help, just let me know. All your help is appreciated! Thanks!

Tony

I have a Zalman 9500 with Artic Silver 5 and it works like a charm. So anything equal or better is totally fine.

Programs I use for monitoring the cpu are:

Cpu-Z: http://www.cpuid.com/cpuz.php

Core Temp: http://www.alcpu.com/CoreTemp/

And Prime 95 for stress testing. http://www.freewarefiles.com/prime-v_program_19638.html

I had to raise my voltage a bit to get to 3.2ghz stable, but as long as you have proper cooling it's ok.

Also you might want to consider Diamond as a thermal compound it has amazing results.

http://www.petrastechshop.com/icdi7cathco.html