[NOSIOJ]

What is Overclocking?
Simply put, overclocking refers to the process of running hardware at a higher speed than it was originall intended/marketed to run at. Overclocking is often abbreviated to OCing.

What can we OC?
Well almost anything that has a clock generator can be made to run at a higher clock. Of course this includes a whackload of useless devices that have clock generators in them so this guide will focus only on the CPU, motherboard and RAM. The videocard is a device that can be commonly overclocked however it will be dealt with in the video section of the forum.

Why would anyone want to OC?
For people with older machines and are beginning to have problems running current generation software smoothly, OCing may give the machine the added oomph required to power through the application
For some tasks like animation or movie encoding which depends on the speed of the CPU and to a degree, that of the RAM, OCing will help reduce the amount of time it takes for, say, a movie encoding process.
Another common reason for OCing is that it's fairly easy to get the performance of a system that has better parts without shelling out the cash for those parts
For some people, the 'thrill' or simply 'because they can'

Why wouldn't anyone want to OC?
Warranties are voided when you run the system or any components outside of specification
People running [serious] servers are more concerned about stability rather than brute force, bleeding edge performance: an extra bit of performance isnt worth a random restart
Beginners (to both OCing and computers in general) or those who dont want to risk frying components. The rist of component failure increases if poor/average components are used in the system
Users that just upgraded from a really old system -- the performance jump from the upgrade will be so massive that they wont notice the additional performance delta when OCing a bit

Whats the worst that can happen if an OC goes wrong?
There are three general things that can happen if an OC doesnt go as planned, listed from most likely to least likely
The OC fails without causing any damage, permanent or otherwise. This is the most common and is important in determining the maximum amount your system can can handle for an OC. Usually a reboot or a jumper reset is all that is required.
A component gets slightly 'messed' up but is still functional. Sometime you have to run the device in a slighylu underclocked state to maintain stability. This is more common with video card OCs that go wrong and running the card a bit slower than stock clock speed will allow the card to function normally. There are two ways this failure occurs: (1) extended use of a component in its overclocked state (usually this requires both a fairly large OC to start with as well as for the device to be constantly stressed for a loooooong time i.e., years) or (2) user carelessness (OCing is not risk free and there are telltale signs of failure that should be watched for)
A component gets totally toasted and requires replacement. This form of failure almost always has a telltale sign that "something is amiss" and the user has some time to deal with it before it fails outright. If the device fails 'instantly' there are two comments to be made: (1) you pushed it way to hard way too fast (i.e., user fault for not using common sens: you simply cant push a machine that hard that fast) or (2) luck of the draw (and in this case, bad luck)
Total failure of numerous components. Same comment as above however more often then not, the culprits are (1) a bad PSU or (2) an inexperienced OCer wanting to push the system too far, to hard, too fast

Me and my friend have the same system ... but he can OC much better than I can! What's wrong?
Well just because you have the space make and model of hardware doesn't mean you can OC the same amount. There's differences in make/model all the way down to BIOS revisions, motherboard and CPU revisions -- even when all those match identically -- just because your friend can OC to a certain degree does not mean you can too.

How much can I OC my system by?
This has gotta to be one of the most common questions people ask about OCing and the answer is nobody can tell you. This should be somewhat evident from the previous question (i.e., if two "identical" systems have different ceilings than how can anyone tell you how much you can OC by?). There are some general principles but nothing hard and fast
Generally speaking you will be bound by a 33% ceiling regardless of what platform you have. There are exceptions left, right and center (but if you were an exception case, you wouldnt be reading this 101 but rather you'd be looking for a 601 or something ). What this means is that if you have a 3GHz processor, dont expect to punch past 4GHz
Intel systems tend to get bigger OCs because their architectural design facilitates running higher clocks
Common sense suggests that the better your parts the more likely you'll be able to get a higher overclock.

[techguy]

thanks for posting this Overclocking