Overclocking
Overclocking, or reclocking is the process in which we get the
internal components of a computer to work faster than they were
designed to. Most often the CPU is the first item that is
focused on. Then the video card and RAM come in.
I will warn you, if you don't have the time or patience, this
is not for you. Learning how to do good reclocking will take
a lot of
time, and a lot of reading. Although it takes a considerable
amount of
time and patience, I find it a fun past time, and the end results are
worth while.
The most common reclocking terms are listed below,
- Vcore
- This is the amount of voltage that is delivered to the processor core
by default. Often this is increased in small increments to
push the CPU
faster. Voltage increases usually add the most amount of
extra heat.
- Mhz or Ghz - This is the clock speed of
measurement of electrical components. It is the current
measurement of
CPU and RAM as well as other computer components.
- FSB - This is the speed in Mhz at which
the motherboard communicates with the CPU.
- CPU Multiplier - Because the speed of a
CPU can only be held for short distances, a motherboards information
needs to run at a slower speed. To get the CPU to run at the
speed we
want, we simply multiply this FSB speed to get the CPU speed.
This is
the multiplier. If your CPU has this locked, the only way to
overclock
is by increasing the FSB.
The general idea behind an reclocking, is to first increase
the multiplier, then the FSB. Once the system becomes
unstable, you add
more voltage. Basically you keep going through this until you
can no
longer get rid of the additional heat you are creating.
If you are interested in learning reclocking, get yourself
- a
good heat sink and fan for your CPU.
- a temperature monitoring utility, preferably the one that
came with your motherboard, I find they are the most accurate.
- hardware that lets you change the clock speeds.
- a program to put your system under full load
- a solid understanding of the risks.
- go to overclocking.net,
there is a ton of information about everything you will need for
reclocking. The more you know the less you are at risk.
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