The Motherboard, Processor, and Memory - Overclocking
(Page 15 of 18 )
Imagine you’re driving around in a car. As you cruise the highways, there’s nothing stopping you from blowing past the speed limit and driving 80 or 90 miles per hour. Sure, there’s the threat that you’ll get pulled over and lose your license, and your car’s engine is only powerful enough to reach a certain speed. Plus, pushing your vehicle to perform faster than its makers had in mind will increase the wear and tear it suffers.
What Can Happen with Overclocking? -- Overclocking your processor can void warranties and prematurely age, or even damage, your equipment. Overclocking pushes your equipment past its specified operating parameters. It increases the amount of heat your components generate and can lead your gear toward an early death.
In a similar vein, you can push your processor to perform past its specification. Through the popular action known as overclocking, you can push your machine to find its true limits, though not without some risk to your components. Some folks see overclocking as a free upgrade: getting a 1.5GHz processor to run at 1.7GHz boosts the system speed, not to mention the overclocker’s ego.
Indeed, overclocking is such a popular pastime for do-it-yourselfers that it’s cultured a massive community on the Internet, with dozens of web sites dedicated to the practice. They’re stocked with how-to guides, features discussing new and current processor technology, day-to-day industry news, and burgeoning message boards full of mostly friendly users who swap anecdotes, victories, warnings, and technical information. You can even find books on overclocking.
The ability to overclock processors is strongly dependant on the system’s motherboard. Some motherboards offer little or no control over bus or multiplier settings, while others give you full control over those and even voltage settings. Note that Intel and AMD lock the multiplier settings within their chips, but AMD processors can be unlocked (see Figure 2-22).
Figure 2-22
Many BIOS setup programs let you bus overclock the system.
 This chapter is from Build Your Own High Performance Gamers' Mod PC, by Chen and Durham (McGraw-Hill/Osborne, 2004, ISBN: 0072229012). Check it out at your favorite bookstore today. Buy this book now. |
Next: Overclocking Intel Processors >>
More Computer Systems Articles
More By McGraw-Hill/Osborne
| Recommended by Dev Hardware |
|---|
|
