How to overclock your Dell XPS 420 Q6600 to 3.0Ghz.

In this document I will show you how to overclock your Dell XPS 420 Q6600 processor from 2.4Ghz to 3.0Ghz. My ram is 800mhz, not the standard 667 that comes with the machine, I do not know if this will matter. This mod is easily reversible and will do no harm if your ram isn’t up to par.

In order to do this I went to my local Advance Auto Parts store and purchased the Permatex Complete Rear Window Defogger Repair Kit, it was about $10.

Next, you will need to unplug your computer, turn it on its side on a solid working surface. Remove the side panel to gain access to the inside of the case.

Next, separate the blue pcie support bracket from the heatsink and swing it up.

Now loosen the 2 screws with a phillips screw driver on the heatsink. The screws do not come all the way out, just loosen them.

Once the screws are loose swing the heatsink up and to the right

Next, lift the heatsink out of the case.

Now, release the cpu from its socket. Push down on the end of the metal bar and away from the cpu, then lift straight up.

Now, lift up on the metal cpu retainer

Lift the cpu straight out of the socket. Try not to wipe off the thermal compound on the top of the cpu.

Here is a picture of the bottom of the cpu before modification.

Set the cpu upsidedown somewhere that has plenty of light and get the bottle of defogger repair solution out. Shake the bottle well and get a toothpick or paperclip handy. Connect the dots shown in the picture below with the repair solution. Be very careful to only connect the 2 dots. You may want to put some tape on the surrounding dots to keep from connecting ones that shouldn’t be. Let dry for 20 minutes or so.

After the solution has dried re-install everything the same way it came out. No other action is needed. The computer will automatically detect the new speed.

Below is a shot before and after using cpu-z showing the overclock.

Additionally, I was able to use a piece of software called cpucool to get an additional 250mhz overclock. I'm not going to walk you through this, but I believe you will need to get the software from the author himself since it is still in beta testing. Your PLL manufacturer is IDT and PLL type is CV184. Use the fine tune option to set your divider to 357 and hit the freq set button. I would recommend you run prime95 for 24-48 to make sure your system is stable. So far my max stable overclock has been 3205mhz. An 800mhz overclock from stock, not too bad for a Dell.