Hey I was wondering if anyone out there can help me with overclocking my machine. I am an advanced user but have not had experience with doing this. Any help or web links would be great Email me if you want. Thanks

Dylan: You'll get quicker help by going to the CPUs/Overclocking forum. Check the left-hand column on this page. Solarian

overclocking will shorten ur PC life and is not recommended. It wouldn't increase much performace.

Hi Overclocking could be considered as a cult activity. I don't understand the logic of overclocking the CPU then spending big bucks on extra cooling for the chip. However, as they say, whatever turns you on :-) Bit of a wit....half to be precise.

To help you better understand ferg, Overclocking can sometimes be done without upgrading the cooling capabilities. For Example: AMD makes a standard processor but limits the processor speed by the placement of resistors on the chip. Way back when the Athlon processors first came out. They were all 650s but would be modified to sell as 500, 550, 600 and 650. By moving one of the resistors to the correct placement(kind of like a dipswitch but entails sottering) you could change the processor speed and still use the same cooling. Also, the new processors could be fixed by putting a simple pencil line between pins to reroute data passing through causing the processor to perform and be detected at a greater speed. As far as I know, AMD still does this with there current processors and a standard fan will work fine. Not sure about Pentium though. Pumfa

Thanks for your explanation Pumfa but that's only part of the picture. To overclock one has to increase the bus speed and consequently not only is the CPU affected but everything down the line. Ich is right here. Chip makers have for years been making there living by producing faster chips so they do not tend to be over modest in their claims. The reason it is possible to overclock is that, as in all engineering practice, a safety margin is figured into the design. The overclock speed cuts into the safe working margin and if your chip works at the top end of the tolerance you may be lucky. If, on the other hand, the chip's critical frequency is closer to the ticket frequency you may wind up frying it. However, as I said, to each his own. Bit of a wit....half to be precise.