What is overclocking?

Matt

Matt

Oblivion Junky
Im pretty sure that im not the only noob who dosnt fully understand what overclocking is and how it works but i may be wrong.

If anyone could pls take some time to describe it simply id be realy greatfull, cuz it seems realy intresting that people can squeeze out better performance for their pc.
 
OC put simply?

Overclocking is running a CPU, video card, RAM, bus, or whatever else has a clock-generated speed, and running it faster than the speed. How much faster depends on the part, the voltage, cooling, and luck. You're only guanteed the speed that the manufacturer says, nothing more. As a general rule, overclocking does void your warranty on whatever is overclocked, so understand that before overclocking anything. Having said that, there are companies that provide the means to overclock, even though they don't come out and endorse it. So far, only DFI has really been publically gung-ho about it, although Abit, Asus, Epox, Chaintech, MSI and Soltek are a few companies that tend to have good overclocking options as a whole as far as motherboards go.

Overclocking the CPU and RAM are done with the motherboard, usually in BIOS. Some companies are also providing a utility to allow overclocking in Windows. They're fine, but in the past Windows-based OC tools tended to be rather flaky. While that part is resolved, you still have to worry about it like any other software, as in crashing and bugs are still a possibility. Most of it is just the old school overclockers, like myself, that love the BIOS settings over the OS-based software. With BIOS, you set it, and it stays that way. While, yes, you can change some stuff and not boot up, you can reset BIOS and start fresh---although any non-OC'd settings you have made will also be reset to their defaults. If you take it slow, and test your OC in increments, you'll do alright. It's doing stupid stuff, like pumping in excessive voltage and/or using poor cooling.

Most of what I said regarding CPU overclocking applies to the video card, but you don't have a BIOS that you can get into on the video card. It does have a BIOS, but I haven't heard of any video card that allows you to OC through it's own BIOS. You do have programs, like Riva Tuner or Rage3D Tweaker, that you can OC your card through Windows. Outside of physically modifying the video card's circuit board (also PCB: Printed Circuit Board) and/or flashing a modified BIOS for your video card, you cannot change the voltage.
 
OC put simply?

My cpu is runing at around 23deg celcius on an average temp day. Would i need to get another cooling system to overclock my pc. I wouldnt over do it but it would be awsome to squeeze a little more out of what ive got.
 
23 C is actually very good, and if you're getting that, you might just want to stick with what you've got. Your two best friends to help test the stability of your OC are [google]Memtest[/google] and [google]Prime 95[/google]. Memtest is used to test the memory for errors, and can be put on a floppy or burned to bootable CD. It's a very handy tool to have on tap regardless of overclocking. Prime95 will also give your CPU a beating.
 
23C is a very good temperature, just make sure you've got accurate readings. With stock cooling, don't expect to overclock far, if you are going to then a new cooler from Thermaltake, Arctic should do.
 
Im not gonna pretend that im an old hand so do you think it would be safe for me to overclock my pc if ive never done it before. And if you do can you tell me where to get good instructions to do so.
 
Is it safe?

In general, yes. As long as you're not jacking the voltage up to an excessive level and have decent cooling, you're fairly safe. If you take the OC slowly, you'll run into instability before you fry anything. Anything outside of stock settings carries some sort of risk, but tolerances outside of the stock speeds are there. How much is where you get your OC. The other thing is if you have a prebuilt rig. Your Dell or HP box isn't made to overclock, so don't expect much of anything in BIOS for these options. [google]SoftFSB[/google] would be your best shot outside of modifying the BIOS, reflashing it with the modified BIOS and/or physically modifying the motherboard to accomodate the OC. If you're really serious about overclocking, you'll want to have a motherboard that offers these options, but to start out with, SoftFSB is probably your best bet if you own a pre-built rig from the big boys.

Now, if some local shop built it, you might have a better shot, depending on what motherboard they used. Again, the list of options depends on the motherboard you have.
 
Hi,

My Confi Is Amd Athlon 64 Processor 3000+
1.80ghz, 512 Ram, Nvidia Geforce Xfx 256mb Graphic Card
Asus Motherboard

Is It Possible To Overclock My Pc.

Any Suggesions ?

And I Want To Know The Benefit Of Overclocking...?
 
Just a curious question if you got your self an already overclocked graphics card which has been overclocked by the manufacturer like EVGA or BFG (because their cards are always overclocked editions) and you then overclocked it some more, would that then void the warranty too?????

and also another question: can they tell if you overclocked it if you sent it back to them with the original clock speeds (don't worry I'm not going to do anything illegal just curious to know lol)
 
It would void the warranty because they have design/made it at a "safe" overclock.

And I don't they could tell, unless the problem stems from the overclocking.
 
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