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Newbie Guide to Overclocking
What is overclocking?
Overclocking is a process of making various components in a computer to go faster than their stock speeds. So if you buy a processor (lets say an e7300 2.5GHz) and make it go faster (lets say 3.6GHz), that can be deemed as an overclocking.
HALT! Do not proceed any further until you have read this:
Dell, Gateway, eMachine, etc... do not overclock, so it is not even worth trying.
A little bit more of some explaination:
This guide is intended to explain how to overclock and its uses. It was made for those who have computers (moreover, motherboards and other components) that support overclocking. If you bought a brand of computer like Dell, Sony, Gateway, HP, eMachine, or any other crappy PC (not saying all of them are) that comes for a store like Walmart, Best Buy, or Circuit City, then this guide does not pertains to you. This guide is meant for anyone who has a motherboard made by ASUS, GIGABYTE, Abit, DFI, (sometimes Intel), or any other well known brand know for their boards and overclocking abilities. But be forewarned, not all boards made by these companies are made to overclock. Check and see if yours does for going any farther than this final line.
Note: There are ways to bypass hardware overclocking via software, but it is not recommended and can make your PC unstable, even rending it unable stay stable. Overclocking software is made for boards that supports overclocking so that changes can be made without having to restart.
Further notes:
-Motherboards not designed for overclocking will not go as far in overclocking, become unstable sooner, and heat far quicker and do not have adequate cooling
-If your computer uses a Celeron, Sempron, or equivalent processor, then no matter how much you overclock, there is no way around their crappiness. They are great for learning how to overclock, but other than that, there is not much of a yield in performance that you may be looking for in gaming or benchmark (or measuring how well your computer performs).
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Disclaimer for my own protection:[/B]
[B]WARNING!!! READ THIS DAMN WARNING!!! I DO NOT WANT TO HERE YOU WHINE YOU BROKE YOUR COMPUTER, SO READ THIS WARNING!!!!!![/B]
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Overclocking can really mess things up, and it wares down your hardware and its life-expectancy. In other words, the more you overclock, the short your computer will live (like how an F1 car's engine must be replaced after each race). [/B][/I]
If you attempt to overclock, then I, Lord Xeb, of this forum and its inhabitants are not responsible for any damage or destroyed hardware when using this guide. Follow at your own risk.
[B]Why would you want to overclock if it could be damaging?[/B]
Simple, to get more out of what you payed for. Overclocking is similar to going and upgrade a car's engine by boring out its piston chambers and adding better fuel enjection, air intake, transmission, etc..., but there is always a risk in doing so. But it all boils down to one thing: performance. It is hard to fry your system if you are careful and know what you are getting yourself into. If you are careful about what you do, then it is rather hard to do any kind of permanent damage to your system by pushing it to its sheer limits.
As with any kind of performance enhancement, there is a level of risk involved. The first and foremost danger is heat. Heat will degrade and damage your components beyond repair if left unchecked and will most definitely lower your system's life span. When you overclock, you are making your computer do more work than it is used to, thus it is going to generate more heat, so having a good cooling system is essential. If you do not have sufficent cooling, then your system could and will overheat. Overheat by itself cannot kill your computer though, the only way for that to happen is to repeatedly overheat it time and time again past the recommended temperatures. YOU SHOULD ALWAYS TRY TO STAY BELOW 60C!
And as luck would have it, you do not have to be overly worried about your system overheat as there will be signs before you system becomes a fried potato. Random crashes are probably the most common sign. Overheat is easily prevented by the use of thermal sensors which can tell you how hot your system is getting. If you see temperatures that you think is too high, then either run at a lower speed, or get better cooling, which I will cover later on.
The other danger of overclocking is voltage. Too much, and you can significantly shorten your components' lifespan. A small boost will not do much, but if you plan on a rather hefty overclock, you may want to be aware that it will decrease the lifespan of your computer's components. But this is usually not an issue since most people who will overclock do not use their components for more than 4-5 years and there is a good chance your components will not fail before 4-5 years regardless of the voltages running through it. Most processors are designed to last in upwards of ten years. So most of of the time, loosing a few of those years is worth the performance gained for overclocking.
Please note, much of this first part of this guide is based off (but not plagiarized) of this other guide, thus credit should go to it:
http://forums.extremeoverclocking.com/showthread.php?t=79266