Overclocking is the process of running a computer component at a higher clock rate (more clock cycles per second) than it was designed or specified by the manufacturer. People who overclock their components mainly focus their efforts on processors, video cards, motherboard chipsets, and random-access memory (RAM). It is done through manipulating the CPU multiplier and the motherboard's front side bus (FSB) clock rate until a maximum stable operating frequency is reached. Before you take action, you need to keep the following in your mind:
1. You should first get to know your motherboard. Some motherboards have jumper or switch blocks on the board that you manually have to adjust and others you need to change BIOS or CMOS settings.
2. Get to know the factory rated value of the CPU. Usually a jump by about 30% is ok.
3. Remember that the processor speed increase needs more voltage to operate at that speed.
4. Before overclocking, you need to backup your system data.
5. It is best to start out your CPU Overclocking project by slowly moving the processor speed up in half clockings, you do not want to immediately jump to the highest speed your motherboard supports. So if you have a 300MHZ CPU, then the first step would be to take it to 350MHZ, do not touch the voltage at this point, and see what happens. If the system comes to life then let it continue to boot and see if the system generates any errors. If no errors are generated, then you have successfully overclocked your system by 50MHZ - a step in the right direction. If the system will not come to life, or your system is generating errors while trying to boot your operating system, there are 2 options. Either put your system back at the settings that you originally wrote down or bump the voltage up by a factor of .1, so if you were originally at 1.8 volts then you would want to bump it up to 1.9, and see what happens, same as before, if the system comes to life, then wait for it to boot and watch for any errors. If it will still not come to life after an initial .1 volt bump on a mere 50MHZ overclock then it means that your motherboard / CPU one or the other is not going to be able to support the overclock, and put it back into its original configuration.
6. If you were able to get the 50MHZ overclock to work, then you are on your way. Just keep using that pattern, bump up the speed, followed by error check and voltage bump. Keep this process up until you find a speed that just flat out will not work. After you find this speed that just will not work, drop the MHz down 2 levels. For example if you have a Celeron 300A and you have gotten it to overclock, but it stops responding at 600MHZ then drop it back down to 500Mhz remember to check the voltages and let it run.
The following are the steps to overclock pc processor, cpu:
1. Find out whether your motherboard can be adjusted in the BIOS setup, with jumpers or not at all.
2. Find out clock-speed limitations of the motherboard.
3. Check and fix all the system problems if any.
4. Back up your system.
5. Shut down computer, disconnect all peripherals from computer, and remove cover of chassis.
6. If your motherboard has adjustable jumpers, locate and change the jumpers that control the CPU speed. If you have a BIOS-adjustable motherboard, make changes according to your motherboard manual.
7. Put system back together, and reboot.
8. If computer does not boot, and CPU still works, try lowering the clock speed. If that doesn't work, restore the original configuration. If you have a BIOS-adjustable motherboard, make changes according to your motherboard manual.
