Overclocking
We were able to get our Core 2 Extreme QX6700 running at 3.2GHz back when we reviewed it, so I expected big things for the QX6800—at least 3.46GHz should be possible, right? After all, the QX6700 would post at 3.46GHz and begin booting Windows before things went sideways.

Unfortunately, the QX6800 didn't do much better. I was able to get it booting into Windows at 3.46GHz with just a minor voltage tweak, but it was very shaky. Raising the voltage from 1.375V to 1.4V didn't help. Neither did 1.4125, 1.425, or 1.4375V. The thing just wouldn't quite stay stable. One of the four cores, in particular, threw errors in Prime95 pretty quickly at 3.46GHz, seemingly no matter what. I contemplated going higher with the voltage, but two things held me back. One was the fact that adding voltage seemed to be making things worse, not better. The other was the awe-inspiring price tag on this CPU.

And I was just using air cooling, although it was a very large air cooler with a fast fan running full-tilt. I wouldn't be entirely shocked to see this CPU become stable at 3.46GHz with good water cooling or the like.

Here's our officially official proof of overclocking success, the CPU-Z screenshot.

I also ran a couple of benchmarks at 3.2GHz, just to prove that the QX6800 overclocked is even, uh, fasterer.

That's what mine did, anyhow. Your mileage may vary.