Windows 7 - Overclocking

Could any 1 explain to me what it is exactly is or link me to another thread. Also is it worth doing and is it easy to do?

This is just an opinion and meant just to help. I personally do not think that it should be done. This next portion applies to me as much as you, if you have to ask you should have another do it. I have helped on many BSOD, because of overclock. This is a great OS, does not need much help.

Now just wait a bit, the others will come along and say I am wrong.

I personally only overclock when doing a hardware review that calls for stressing the system to see how the hardware performs in some hot and sweaty tests and then keep it at 3.8 to 4.0.

No reason to shorten the life of today's expensive components.

Ok. Thanks for your help.

I hope that we have helped and that you enjoy the OS as much as I do.

OC'ing is pushing a piece of computer hardware beyond its manfacturers spec'ed settings.

ex: injecting nitrous into a V8.

Will basically shorten the life span of OC'd hardware. Done correctly, most people will have bought a new system before OC'd system dies. You OC, the cpu, the ram, and the video card.

I have used Clockgen to increase the FSB only, on a daily basis, without any problems or glitches, for a modest gain of 14%, using an AMD dual core +3800. It seems a bit peppier with it set at 239, standard is 200. No voltage tweaking will ever be completely safe, and as memory gets faster there is hardly any reason these days.

- It isn't worth doing. It isn't easy to do, and mistakes are expensive.

They might, but I won't.

If you really must OC, do it gently, and for the right reasons. If you want to get a little (and I mean little) bit of extra performance out of some less than top end hardware, then sure. I made my last system perform better by doing it, and I compensated for a hardware limitation. But if you're just after benchmarks and bragging rights with OC nerds, well, they might be impressed, but just remember that women don't usually care too much about how well you can OC that rig, and that's what matters. Especially if the woman is your wife.

And if you can't afford to replace that CPU if you fry it, you have no business overclocking it.

Overclocking is the ability to push your components a little further than they are intended to go. Generally speaking, to do this, you increase the front side bus speeds, multipliers and adjust voltages to the components. Most often the risk of shortened life comes from the increased heat generated by running the components faster.

Overclocking is an art and takes lots of patience. Some components simply cannot go any faster without losing stability, so it's always a matter of trial and error to see what works and what doesn't. But you have to be careful and do things slow, because you can fry your components pretty quickly if you do something a bit too radical too fast.

People overclock because it's free and allows them to tinker. It gives them more performance for the same price as a more expensive chip. However, the actual improvement in day to day tasks is probably almost non-quantifiable...so it's questionable whether the effort is really worth the investment of time.

You've been given good advice. Overclocking is almost an art form. it requires special parts (aftermarket cooling mostly) extensive knowledge of your bios,CPU,Memory, and motherboard.
most often requires raising voltages which creat more heat and shortens the life span of systmem parts.
You can easiy brick your system if not done right, lots of research, not 2 exact systems will overclock the same.
It takes a lot of time trial and erorr and I would only reccomend doing it on a system you can afford to break, it's time consuming and not something anyone can tell you how to do. If your really interested in learning go to forums dedicated to overclocking.
It took me a while t learn how to do it, and now I still do but only just a small overclock.
It originated out of people being able to buy cheaper Cpu's and clock them up to a higher priced one now it's all about benchmark scores and pushing parts to or past their limits no one ever talks about how long the the lifespan is or how much it hs cost them to get their and in my opinion the gain verus risk and lifespan for bragging rights isn't cost efffective.
Although you can learn a lot about Bios and how your hardware works together,voltages,vcore memory timings
cpu mutipliers,plan on a lot of BSOD's no boots, CMOS resets.
This is why I say if you really want to get into overclocking do it on an older system not the one yo need for everyday use. These are just my opinions. Fabe