Vista - Noob here...

Hi all,
I'm fairly new to the forums, and a total noob to Vista and 64 bit, but learning fast from all the great info here.
I'm looking into MAYBE clocking my CPU to around the 3.0-3.2 Ghz range if possible.
I've been reading in here for a couple days, getting some idea of the hows and why's, ( or why nots! ) But its very obvious I need alot of help and some good info. So, anyone willing to help me out? First alittle about the machine...
I had it custom built by HP, so the motherboard may not be clockable as most of the high end boards. We'll see.
Q9550 Quad @ 2.83
Front Side Bus ( Processor Dependent ) 1333/1066/800 MHz
8 GB OCZ RAM 800 MHz
2 Seagate 500GB 32 MB HDD's ( 7200 )
1 Seagate 1000GB 32MB HD (7200 )
1GB GeForce 9800GT
PC Power and Cooler 1000W PSU
2 Samsung Opticals
I'd think in preporation, either a better heat sink or a cooler for the CPU is needed, but I havent looked at any base ( stock ) temps at the moment. If anybodies willing, I could use some good help, and I could also use some advice on apps for monitoring, and testing stability. I know this is a big order but I have nothing but time..LOL
Thanks in advance all.

First off, nice sounding rig.

Secondly, it will depend of course heavily on the mobo, but that 9550 should hit 3.4 GHz easy. I'm able to ramp my 9450 to 3.4 (FSB set at 425) without even touching the voltage (it's at 1.17).

With the 9550's multiplier you can hit 3.4 with the FSB at 400.

The problem of course is going to be the motherboard since it's an HP, unless you bought one of the specialty PC's from them most of the big OEM's don't make it easy to overclock.

As for coolers, pretty much anything other than the stock cooler will do. The 45nm chips run fairly cool as is, and you shouldn't need to up the voltage to high levels. The Thermalright and Zalman coolers are both great. They might not fit in your case though, so you have to take that into consideration.

This isn't an overclocking forum, so while we do brush over some topics, you're never going to get the sort of comprehensive information you need here that you would at an overclocking specific forum.

Plan to spend a lot of time reading. You can start here: Howto: Overclock C2q (quads) And C2d (duals) - A Guide V1.7 - OverclockersClub Forums Gain a thorough understanding about exactly what it is you're doing when you fidget with each setting.

Second, google all your parts and be as specific as you can be. Some parts may share the same name and model number, but Rev.2 hardware usually react very differently. If this means you have to pull some components out and look around for the info because you don't already know, then so be it. Find out what each of your components usually does. Combined, you will have an idea about exactly what speeds you can expect to get and the settings you need to use in order to get there. I would pay particular attention to memory and your motherboard. Don't find your kit running on some other board and then apply those settings to yours. Find your board and your memory. Doing so will save you many headaches... and backaches clearing cmos.

Third, do nothing until you've acquired a really good heatsink. Cooling quads is no easy feat. Do your homework and find out which coolers work the best. I could tell you, but that would defeat the purpose of this do-it-yourself project.

Lastly, and this should probably be second, do the requisite homework on your bios. Will it even work or is it locked down? Are there any other HP bioses which are better or worse in terms of overclocking? Find like minded users with the same hardware and pick their brains.

Good luck and have fun.

Thanks for the quick replies!!!!
I've been doing alot of searching around, and alot of reading, so I'm not going to just jump in... but thanks both of you for the good advice on learning all I can first.
I'll have to see exactly how locked down the BIOS is... I guess thats my first step.. see what I can actually get into. A cooler wont be a problem I think..I've worked with Zalman alot on my XP machine and they are pretty good at making sure they can cool ya if your gonna run hot..LOL. I'll look at the BIOS on next start up and see what options I have to start with, then I'll take it from there. I'll post back once I've had a look.
Thanks again all!

Really, that's news to me? While they make good stuff, their focus has historically been on keeping things quiet. Assist #1, forget about what you "think" may work well based on what you've used in the past, and don't just take the first suggestion, or even the third because you trust the brand or the poster; instead, go find out for yourself what actually does work well with what you intend to do with the part. You're the one who has to live with the results, nobody else.

When it comes to overclocking performance, it sure does look to me like the Zalman is closer to the bottom of the list than it is to the top, would you agree? AnandTech: Thermalright Ultima-90: Small Wonder?

SgtBaxter was kind enough to link for us this very important article: AnandTech: Intel's 45nm Dual-Core E8500: The Best Just Got Better The summary is this: we can't be really sure how accurate our Intel tempurture reading are at the moment. Since we can't rely on accurate monitoring, given that you're planning on OC'ing a quad core, now is no time to short change yourself on the quality and performance level of the heatsink.

+1 to that last line.

Heat is a BIG enemy of the CPU.. best not short it.

here's a verygood link that can help you on you clocking...
Overclockers Forums - Powered by vBulletin
scrooge

Just turn the clock to a later time, and you'll be flyin in no time. hehe Sorry!

2007? Could you find an even older article?

Looking at that list, pretty much every cpu cooler there is fairly equal. Most are within 100MHz and a few degrees of each other. There are ones that are near 70C, those I'd avoid as there's no reason to toss the stock cooler with those temps.

Let's be honest in what we're telling him, considering he's not looking to overclock with insane voltages, and that 9550 will be pretty cool to begin with. For what he's trying to achieve, *almost any* cooler on that list will be way more than what he needs. The Zalman 9700 I originally had would sit under 30C idle and about 45C full load, when the fan was running at half speed. The pipes and fins wouldn't ever get warm to the touch. Not bad for something I got on sale for $40. I'm not a Zalman fanboy, I just wanted a decent cooler that wasn't expensive.

My bad... I take it something has come out which is better than the Ultra-120 Extreme?

We can assume all we want, but we don't know how hot his room is, we don't really know how hot the cpu is going to get, we don't know what voltage he's going to end up pushing through the cores and we don't know what fan(s) he's going to use? These unknown variables will determine how hot he runs. Given that, I don't see how advising he purchase the best performing heatsinks is not being honest with him or bad advice. They all cost about the same, so I fail to see the issue?