Member Panel

Hi,

Can anyone give advice on overclocking cpu's? just wouldnt mind knowing a little more about it, whether its worth doing and how you go about doing it!!

Thanks

Hello and welcome back to the forum.

Let me just mark your thread as "Open" ready for the team to answer your questions.

JB.

Hi philharris,

Whether it's worth it or not depends on your circumstances, some people just overclock for the fun of it and to obtain high scores in benchmarking software. Whilst others use it to gain a genuine increase in speed, I did this myself - I overclocked from 1.86GHz to 2.8GHz and certainly in Vista I have noticed the speed difference. However overclocking does shorten the lifetime of your CPU and if done incorrectly could render your CPU useless. You may also need extra hardware, such as a new CPU fan and heatsink to keep temperature low, as heat increases when the CPU runs faster.

As for guides on how to do it, there are lots around the internet. General and specific CPU family guides. What is the make and model of your CPU, and I'll see if I can find an appropriate guide

upgrader

[Moved thread to Overclocking Forum]

Hi My cpu is a AMD Athlon 64 x2 5000+, also is it possible to to the same for a graphics card? its a Geforce 8600GT

thanks

Hey phil,

There is a few articles on Tom's Hardware which will help you. Also if you google for your CPU + motherboard you may find someone who has already overclocked that combination, or even a guide for that specifically.

Overclocking Guide : What Is Overclocking? - Tom's Hardware
Overclocking Guide Part 1: Risks, Choices and Benefits : Who Overclocks? - Tom's Hardware
Overclocking Guide Part 1: Risks, Choices and Benefits : Who Overclocks? - Tom's Hardware
How To Overclock Your Graphics Card : Introduction - Tom's Hardware

Also I forgot to say in my last post, overclocking will void your warranty.

Hi these articles are great but they still dont tell me how to actually do it. Im struggling to find something in google about this and I cant access any of the settings in my bios for the cpu. Is there software capable of doing such things?

Ah, if you have a pre-built machine you may find you can't actually modify any CPU settings therefore can't overclock. What is the make and model of your PC and/or motherboard?