immediate recover after even slightest overclock of cpu/memory

i've recently bought practically a new computer and the thing wont seem to overclock. here's the specs followed by the problem.

intel core 2 duo e6850 conroe 3.0ghz
ocz reaper hpc 1066mhz 4gb on 2 sticks
GIGABYTE GA-P35-DS3L mobo
evga EVGA 640-P2-N829-AR GeForce 8800GTS SSC 640MB vid card
500 watt psu

When i try to overclock the FSB in the bios even just a little bit the computer will restart a couple times and the settings will have gone back to normal. when it restarts it's only on for a few seconds before it shuts down. It seems as if it can't handle it. I've tried overclocking my ram from 1066mhz to 1333mhz to sync up with the cpu but that leads to the same problem.

i've read in a couple places that there might be an issue with the mobo and evga cards which wont allow OC'ing anything, is this true? also, is it possible my psu is just a pile and doesn't have enough juice to support the OC'ing? (the psu came with the case, it's probably cheap. not sure what the amperage to it is)

thanks for any help guys.

-kris

 

i should mention that upon restart after attempting OC it sounds like the cpu fan kicks in super fast, audibly noticeable for about 1 second before it turns off. it seems that ANY OC'ing of any sort doesn't work. the timings on my ram are supposed to be 5 5 5 18. i tried putting them at 4 4 4 12 and the same thing happened.

 

A poor quality PSU can give you all kinds of problems. Make sure you are using a good one. Your computer could be shutting down due to heat. What is your computer's temperature at load and idle with stock settings?

RAM timings are like magic to me, don't really know much about them.:-D I would try running them at normal or maybe slightly 'looser' timings untill you get your OC stable, then adjust the RAM timings. Check out this link for better info: http://forums.majorgeeks.com/showthread.php?t=52812

ACE256 is one of the overclocking experts here. :cool

E

 

wow. i didn't realize my cpu was already running pretty warm. at idle it's running at 42C and at load (playing crysis at high settings) it was running at about 59C. i'm not sure why it's running so hot. i have what i thought was a really good after market cooling unit. i forget the exact name but was something like an arctic freezer (something newegg suggested i get and had some good reviews). maybe i put on too much thermal grease

 

found my motherboard was limiting my cpu fan to like, 600rpms. no wonder why it was running a little warm (and very quiet). running about 2600 rpms and idling at about 35C. don't have time right now to test it further (studying for finals). will find out it's temp under load tomorrow and try OC'ing again with new fan controls.