OverClocking

[Maverick_Zero]

I don't know where this would go, but I was wondering I was thinking of over clocking my computer and I was wondering if anyone had any advice.

[Menokh]

no advice whatsoever.
Just make sure of 2 things.
1) your motherboard can be overclocked, some can't be(like mine)
2) make sure you know what the fuck you are doing. You could quite easily fry your processor if you don't put the heat sink and/or fan back on right. And there is a small chance of you giving it a fatal static shock.

But since I've never done any overclicking, all I can say is what I said. Have fun.

[inori]

Get the best heatsink/fan you can buy. Heat kills processors, and overclocked processors generate more heat. Also, don't forget the thermal goop.

[MottZilla]

You should look for sites with very good detailed information on it. Also, certain companies, like eMachines, they have lots of their crap intergrated and modified. And one of the things you can't do with them, is OC your CPU =\ So you might not be able to do it at all.

[vegeta1215]

Why do you want to overclock? How fast is your current processor?

[Sub-Zero]

If it involves soldering, DO NOT DO IT! :)

[Discombobulator]

If your computer can do it, you can OC your processor from your CMOS menu.
I wouldn't do it, though, unless you get a really good heat sink and processor. It tends to shorten CPU life.

[Maverick_Zero]

Well your gonna think this reason is stupid, but I have three reasons for overclocking my computer

1. I am really bored this summer
2. I want my dell computer to be faster then adam's custom one
3. I wanna seem like a really big computer geek to everyone in school talking about overclocking and motherboards.

[The Silent Assassin]

Wrong answer, McFly...

(Those really are bad reasons to do it)

[Maverick_Zero]

I guess they are I did find an instruction manual online though, maybe I won't use mine, I'll wait for a computer show and buy a shitty one.

[Master Ghaleon]

This may sound stupid, but whats over clocking?

[MottZilla]

Setting the cpu to run at a faster rate than the manufacturer built it to run at, thus, having a faster processor, but can cause problems.

[vegeta1215]

What's your current clock speed? If you already have a pretty powerful processor, overclocking probably won't make that much difference, not to mention there are risks involved.

[Menokh]

Can you even overclock a Dell?
I know my Dell can't be overclocked, but can his?
Well obviously this brings up a good point. What model is your Dell and what mobo does it have in it? You should check to see if it can be overclocked before you try to do so.

[DukenukemX]

To understand overclocking you need to know how your CPU is clocked.

If you have a P2 at 400Mhz then the Multiplier is 4 and the front side bus is 100Mhz. Multiply 100X4 you get 400 which is the clock speed of you CPU. If your CPU is a 400Mhz.

There are two ways to overclock your CPU. Increase the bus speed or the multiplier. If your CPU is a 400Mhz or older then you can change the multiplier. You want to try to change the multiplier instead of FSB since increasing the FSB will overclock the ram, PCI bus, AGP bus and other things I missed.

New Pentium 3's and Athlons will have there multiplier locked. So you either try to ulock it or increase the FSB. If you increase the FSB you better make sure the parts in your PC can handle it. The ram is important.

If you have a old PC thats older then a P2 400 you can try to change the multiplier with jumpers or if you Motherboard has a softswitch then you can do it in the bios. If you increase the clock speed you may also need to increase the voltage. Thats when it gets dangerous and you could burn the chip. The reason you need a good fan is because the the chip starts to work harder and heats up. Then you can kiss the chip good bye.

Some chips are easy to overclock. The Intel Celeron 300A was known to be overclockable to 600 Mhz easy with out really special cooling. If you have one of those then you should overclock it.