Overclocking, for some, seems too good to be true, but it is very possible (and sometimes fun) to do. However, overclocking can have its consequences. When done improperly, damage may result in your system, and in the worst case, a complete system failure. This guide will focus completely on PCs, though it is possible to do on Macs as well. Also, if you have absolutely no idea of the overclocking fundamentals, it is suggested that you read this first.

How to Overclock a PC

Thanks for sharing, threeone.

Is it safe to over clock Laptops or is there a chance they can get really hot?

Originally Posted by jezzaboi123

Is it safe to over clock Laptops or is there a chance they can get really hot?

Bottom line....A BIG NO. Laptops have the bare minimum cooling hardware and most have no option in the BIOS to change the fan speeds. Unless you spend 2K on a gaming laptop....there's always an exception to every rule and gaming laptops are those exceptions. The BIOS themselves are limited by default, just the nature of the beast.

Originally Posted by threeone

Overclocking, for some, seems too good to be true, but it is very possible (and sometimes fun) to do. However, overclocking can have its consequences. When done improperly, damage may result in your system, and in the worst case, a complete system failure. This guide will focus completely on PCs, though it is possible to do on Macs as well. Also, if you have absolutely no idea of the overclocking fundamentals, it is suggested that you read this first.

How to Overclock a PC

I've been OCing for about 6 months now, it's completely addictive. Trying to push the limits for the extreme OCrs, but for the enthusiasts, just tweaking it bit pays off with big dividends as far as speed and stability.

Overclocking is not recommended w/ Windows 8.

An excerpt from an article by Gavin Clarke:
"Overclocking of CPUs dramatically increased the probability of that first PC outage.

Microsoft Research compared chips from two different vendors - simply called vendor A and vendor B - and found overclocking hit them both right in the reliability bracket.

Overclocked chips from vendor A were 20 times as likely to crash during Microsoft's eight month test period after a period of five days of continuous running versus chips from vendor B, at four times as likely. Once overclocked, chances of the first crash for vendor A were one in 21 and one in 2.4 for a second; for vendor B, it was one in 86 and one in 3.5.

The relatively good news was the probably of follow-on crashes for overclocked systems were about the same as those for tamper-free chips - albeit incredibly high."

Microsoft strongly discourages the practice when in conjunction w/ Windows 8 and further suggest it unnecessary w/ Windows 8

Cheers,
Drew
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We OC's are fully aware of the risks involved with OCing one's system. It's a risk reward venture.

So my question is; why is Intel and AMD making and selling CPU's that are all ready factory over clocked? Why are they making CPU's over clockable in the first place. Why are GPU manufacturers making GPU's that come with factory over clocks all ready installed.

It just makes me wonder why MS would really want to claim it's not safe to over clock a system. I can under stand that for a retail PC and laptop but for custom built PC's, this is an absurd statement to say the least. As far as I know, and I'm fairly new at OCing, OCing has nothing to do with the OS. It's strictly hardware based.

Some people have gotten away with murder, but still we don't legalize murder.
Then others have gotten away with Overclocking their PC, but we who have to repair computers for a living, have never legalized that practice.

Over clocking at best, without BSOD's, will still raise the operating temperature of the CPU, RAM, etc., and shorten the life of those parts. To a technician, that's the last thing we would want to do.
We do our best to do the opposite....make the Computer last as long as possible.

To that end, we just minimize the work load on the CPU and RAM, so it WON'T be overworked.

I hope I didn't offend anyone, but that's my take on "Overclocking".

TechnoMage

PS: When I first built my PC, many years ago now, I did try to overclock the CPU.
The computer CRASHED and I had to reset the CMOS on the motherboard to get it working again.
That was all it took me to know that I should never OverClock my PC again.