Overclocking guide: Part 1

What is Overclocking?
Overclocking is the process of making various components of your computer run at faster speeds than they do when you first buy them, and were designed to run. For instance, if you buy a Core 2 Duo E4300 processor working at 1.8 GHz, and you want it to run faster, you could overclock the processor to make it run at 3.0 GHz.

Disclaimer:
WARNING: Overclocking wears down the hardware and the life-expectancy of the entire computer will be lowered if you overclock. This guide is merely for those who accept the possible outcomes of this overclocking guide and overclocking in general.

Why would you want to overclock? Well, the most obvious reason is that you can get more out of a computer than what you paid for. You can buy a relatively cheap processor and overclock it to run at the speed of a much more expensive processor. If you're willing to put in the time and effort, overclocking can save you a bunch of money in the future or, in some cases, can give you a faster processor than you could possibly buy from a store 

The Dangers of Overclocking
 The first and most common danger is heat. When you make a component of your computer do more work than it used to, it's going to generate more heat. If you don't have sufficient cooling, your system can and will overheat. By itself, overheating cannot kill your computer, though. The only way that you will kill your computer by overheating is if you repeatedly try to run the system at temperatures higher than recommended. Pentium 4s run MUCH hotter than any other CPU for example, so you should always check what the normal operating temperature is for your particular processor.

Don't get overly worried about overheating issues, though. You will see signs before your system gets fried. Random crashes are the most common sign. Overheating is also easily prevented with the use of thermal sensors which can tell you how hot your system is running. If you see a temperature that you think is too high, either run the system at a lower speed or get some better cooling.

The other "danger" of overclocking is that it can reduce the lifespan of your components. When you run more voltage through a component, it's lifespan decreases. A small boost won't have much of an affect, but if you plan on using a large overclock, you will want to be aware of the decrease in lifespan. This is not usually an issue, however, since anybody that is overclocking likely will not be using the same components for more than 4-5 years, and it is unlikely that any of your components will fail before 4-5 years regardless of how much voltage you run through it. Most processors are designed to last for up to 10 years, so losing a few of those years is usually worth the increase in performance in the mind of an overclocker.

The Basics

Let's have a quick look at some of the terms that will be used a lot in this guide:

Multiplier - a technical explanation here
Front side bus (FSB) - a technical explanation here
Northbridge - a technical explanation here
Southbridge - a technical explanation here
BIOS - a technical explanation here

When you buy a processor, or CPU, you will see it's operating speed. For instance, a Pentium 4 3.2GHz CPU runs at 3.2GHz, or 3200 MHz. This is a measurement of how many clock cycles the processor goes through in one second. A clock cycle is a period of time in which a processor can carry out a given amount of instructions. So, logically, the more clock cycles a processor can execute in one second, the faster it can process information and the faster your system will run. One MHz is one million clock cycles per second, so a 3.2GHz processor can go through 3,200,000,000, or 3 billion two hundred million clock cycles in every second.

The goal of overclocking is to raise the GHz rating of your processor so that it can go through more clock cycles every second. The formula for the speed of your processor if this:

FSB (in MHz) x Multiplier=Speed in MHz.

So, in short, (FSB) 200MHz x (Multiplier) 10= 2000MHz CPU speed, or 2.0GHz.

Let’s look at this table of Core 2 Duo CPUs:

CPU	FSB/quad-pumped (MHz)	Multiplier	Speed (MHz)
E4300	200/800	9	1800
E4400	200/800	10	2000
E4500	200/800	11	2200
E6300	266/1066	7	1860
E6320	266/1066	7	1860
E6400	266/1066	9	2130
E6420	266/1066	9	2130
E6540	333/1333	7	2330
E6550	333/1333	7	2330
E6600	266/1066	9	2400
E6700	266/1066	10	2660
E6750	333/1333	9	2660
E6850	333/1333	9	3000
Q6600	266/1066	9	2400
Q6700	266/1066	10	2600

So, if we were to overclock the FSB with a $99 Intel Core 2 Duo E4300, we could do the following progress:

CPU	FSB (MHz)	Multiplier	Speed (MHz)
E4300	200 (stock speed)	9	1800
E4300	233	9	2097
E4300	266	9	2394
E4300	300	9	2700
E4300	315	9	2835
E4300	333	9	2997
E4300	345	9	3105

 -“OK, that’s fantastic, but how do I overclock??”

See you on part 2 of the guide!