[Covarr]

Okay, here's the deal. I'm considering overclocking my CPU (Core 2 Duo E7300), but I have no budget for any new cooling equipment, so I'm stuck with all stock stuff. My question is, can I safely overclock my machine, and how far?

My specs are as follows:

CPU: Core 2 Duo E7300 2.66GHz
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-G31M-ES2L
Case: Rosewill R220-P-BK
GPU: nVidia n9800 GT
PSU: Rosewill Stallion RD400-2-SB 400W
RAM: Transcend 2 x 2GB DDR2 800 (PC2 6400)
all running at stock settings.

And here is what Core Temp tells me:


I suspect this computer is already running a bit hotter than one with these specs normally would, because my air conditioning doesn't work very well and I keep it in a cabinet (and no, I don't leave it on when the cabinet is closed). Would it be feasible to overclock this machine at all without having to buy any new cooling equipment?

Thanks in advance.

[Peter.Cort]

You can overclock it yes, what are your reasons for overclocking, and when you're in game what are your temps? (provided you game)

[Yamikotai]

You can OC it yes, but I coubt you can get very far with those stock temps+cooling.

[Covarr]

I mostly want to overclock it to improve performance on various games. I already get pretty good performance in the things I play the most (Team Fortress 2), but I'm hoping to improve it to a consistent 60FPS at 1680x1040 with high settings, as well as to improve playback of HD video on youtube, as well as a few other full screen video sites, where I frequently get lag.

In TF2 it's going up to about 51C for both cores.

My house also doesn't have adequate heating, so in the wintertime I could probably get away with overclocking it pretty high (my house gets as low as 35-40F), but I wouldn't want a solution that only works four months out of the year.