Overclocking tutorial for newbies/beginners

Overclocking is about getting your computer to run faster than it actually is intended. To read further, and try some of the things I suggest is at your own risk.

If you are computer freak like myself, and not afraid to risk burning the processor, just read on. But if you are a little sore to your computer, you should probably stop here.

In any case, overclocking is to take small steps and make sure that your computer's cabinet is well chilled. If there is no proper cooling on your processor / graphics card then you are out of it.

This article is intended for beginners who want (and can afford to take risks) to address this. To go further in depth, I can recommend you to visit some expert and dedicated overclocking sites where you can find many guides to come forward.

What is overclocking?

Overclocking is really rather simple. It's about getting your computer to run at a higher clock frequency than is intended. The benefit of overclocking is that you can buy a processor that runs at a given speed, and then put the clock rate up so it runs as fast as a much more expensive processor. The same can be done with similar way for RAM and graphics card.

How do I get started?

Overclocking is a little dangerous, but it is not something that you threaten to break arms and legs of. To get started you should take a backup of your documents and important data. But if you are ready to bear up all things, there should not be major problems.

One of the things that will be good to have on hand is a diagnostic program that can monitor your processor temperature. I can recommend the Asus Probe, which can be downloaded for free at asus.com. It is designed for motherboards from Asus. If your motherboard is of a different manufacturer, the manufacturer has probably developed a similar piece of software that you can find on their website.

What type of overclocking?

There are two different ways you can overclock your processor. One is called FSB-overclocking, and the other called Multiplier-overclocking. Ideally the FSB-overclocking is the easiest and most effective way to overclock, and therefore we will deal more with it.

Your processor works with two speeds. One speed is the internal, which is also the boast with you to your friends. My computer was running, for example, with 1333 MHz internally factory made. Now run it with 1450 Mhz because I have overclocked it :cool:

The second speed is the external, which the processor communicates with the rest of the system. If your computer was purchased within the last few years, the external velocity probably either 100 or 133 megahertz (MHz). Processor contact with the outside world otherwise known as the Front Side Bus (FSB) and the external velocity is just as FSB work with.

Procedure for overclocking

If you have a backup, there is nothing wrong to go. Restart your computer and go into your bios setup.

Depending on your motherboard bios system will differ slightly from the menu items and descriptions, but I will try to describe it as well as I can.

Inside the bios, there will be a menu item called something like 'Advanced setup'. Under 'Bus Frequency" or "FSB Frequency" there should be something like 100 or 133. It allows you to change. It may be that you first have to change a default setting to manual setting.

Try to set your FSB frequency up to 5 megahertz to 138 MHz (if it was at 133 Mhz). Save your changes and your computer will now run with a relatively higher clock frequency. The internal speed of the processor is directly connected to the external velocity. The relationship between the two speeds are determined by the so-called 'multiplier', which I will come back to.. later.

If it runs stable you can try the same maneuver again and put the FSB further with 5 Mhz. You can do this until you observe that the system begins to make mistakes, and becomes unstable. When this happens, go back into bios and set the FSB down to 3-4 MHz. So would like to run the system stable.

Where is FSB-overclocking?

FSB-overclocking works on your entire system at once, as you adjust to the whole motherboard internal communication speed. Therefore, both your processor, RAM, graphics card, etc. work faster when your FSB is overclocked. It also means that it is not necessarily your processor becoming breathless first. It could be your RAM or your PCI ports only get off. If so, you can successfully invest in additional cooling of these parts.

What is Multiplier?

Multiplier is the factor that determines the processor's internal speed relative to FSB speed. My own computer has a FSB speed of 133 Mhz, and process variety is an AMD Athlon Thunderbird 1333Mhz. So Multipliers 10 because 133x10 = 1333 (not quite mathematically correct, but it goes :wink: )

If you raise your multiplier change only internal processor speed as the FSB speed will not change. So you will not achieve the same results with this type of overclocking. But if you already have overclocked your FSB and your RAM will not take more, the next step would be overclocking the multiplier.

However, it is not all processors that support this type of overclocking. AMD's processors will suffer a small action first, and Pentium 4 does not permit.

What can I overclock otherwise?

One obvious thing to overclock is your graphics card. In demanding game you can revitalize your graphics card with a time overclocking. I can recommend the Power Strip, which provides an easy approach to this. The program can be downloaded here: http://www.entechtaiwan.com/ps.htm

When I overclock, my computer will not start!

Then you probably been a little too aggressive with your overclocking. You can save the situation by going into bios and choose to load "Setup defaults". This will lower the FSB to normal and you should be able to boot (unless you burn something) :ohyeah: