Overclocking

Operating a Chip at higher clock speed than its rated clock speed is called Overclocking. CPU Clock speed is the product of FSB (Front Side Bus) Clock and clock multiplier. Overclocking is achieved by either increasing FSB Clock or Clock multiplier or either by increasing both.

Need of Overclocking

The idea behind the use of Overclocking concept is to increase the system performance at no cost or very little cost. We can Overclock a processor by just changing some settings on motherboard or in CMOS setup. The main considerable point in Overclocking is heat. Processor can only be overclocked if and only if proper cooling is there. E.g. Pentium 4 @2.0 GHz Processor can be overclocked to gain 2.2 GHz Clock speed.

Is it Risky?

Overclocking is a risky process because hardware works over limits of its design and specifications. Overclocking does not guarantee that hardware will work properly or will work at all. We must consider following two points before performing Overclocking:

Electromigration:  This problem arises if Processor is heated at higher temperature than defined temperature range. This can result in Permanent damage of silicon chip. This Process is a slow process and does not damage the chip immediately. This Problem can be resolved by just using proper cooling techniques that can prevent processor from overheating.

Processor Faults: Over Clocking can result in either full damage of processor or improper working of processor. Before applying any higher frequency to processor it must be tested at lower frequencies in ascending order. Only that frequency range should be applied at which processor gives better performance, crash or hang free working.

How to Overclock?

Increase Clock Multiplier: Generally Supported Clock multipliers are x1.5, x2, x2.5, x3.0, x3.5, x4.0. BY increasing this value processor can be overclocked. This can be done either by changing jumper settings on motherboard or by changing it from CMOS setup. CPU clock multiplier’s value should not be increased by more than x0.5 over its rated value otherwise processor can damage or can result in improper working.

Increasing FSB Clock Speed: This can be achieved by either changing jumper settings on the motherboard or by changing CMOS setup settings. You Might have seen a jumper in old Motherboards which has the option to operate the processor at 100 MHz or 133 MHz’. This means that if you want to operate the processor FSB at a speed higher than 100 MHz than jumper must be placed on defined pins.