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A good majority of the people who overclock their computers are doing so to gain better performance for gaming. The advantage here is the overclocking your GPU is actually a very easy and fairly safe way to take your first step into overclocking. Your graphics card, unless it is very old, will have it’s own onboard fan. Not only that, but many cases have an additional fan, or at least a spot for an additional fan, directly next to the GPU. So with cooling relatively under control, you can actually jump right into overclocking your GPU by following this straight forward and easy to follow guide.

Continue Reading: "How To Overclock Your GPU"...

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Once you have overclocked your computers components, you’ll want to test exactly how much of an improvement you’ve gained from it. The term for this type of test is a ?benchmark?. Benchmark software is designed to run a series of standardized operations. By having the operations be standardized, you can then take the results that your computer has received from completing the operation and establish your performance gain or loss.

Benchmark software is very common place in overclocking, so it is very easy to take your results and compare them to others who have overclocked the same component so that you can determine whether you’ve reached your max potential with that component or not.

Below you’ll find a comprehensive list of overclocking / benchmark software for a variety of different types of operations. Nearly all of these programs have a shareware version if they are not free. Many of these programs cap out at what information they can provide for you based on what year they where released in, but as many people still overclock older systems, they are still just as useful of a utility to have. You do not need to download all of these applications, this is simply a resource page to put all of the overclocking / benchmark utilities in one place.

Continue Reading: "A Comprehensive List of Overclocking / Benchmark Software"...

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The term BIOS stands for basic input/output system and is the software that interfaces your computers components with the operating system. The BIOS are stored on a ROM (Read-only Memory) Flash Memory Chip located directly on the motherboard. The BIOS perform a series of common tasks such as:

• When you turn your computer on, the BIOS is what provides the instructions for your CPU to access your operating system on your had drive.

• Provides a POST (power on self test) to confirm that all your hardware is working properly when you turn your system on.

• The system BIOS authorizes activation of other BIOS chips on the components within your system, such as your graphics card.

• Interfaces your various hardware devices such as: keyboard, mouse, monitor, and USB ports.

• Monitors settings of your hard drive and the system clock. The battery located on the motherboard allow the BIOS to retain this information even when it has been unplugged.

Continue Reading: "Understanding Your BIOS For Overclocking"...

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Overclocking the components within your computer can be a lot of fun, but you really need to realize the ramifications of your actions along with the benefits that you stand to gain. Don’t take this article to mean that you shouldn’t overclock your computer, just that you should completely grasp what the end results can be.

Cons of Overclocking:

• It will void your warranty:

  • What you’re doing to your system is modifying it to operate differently then it was initially intended to. Once you’ve overclocked the component, you will no longer be able to take advantage of the warranty that the manufacturer has offered.

• Added stress on your components:

  • Your components where tested to operate at their defaults for an extended period of time. By pushing their limits, you’re increasing the stress that is being applied to it. This will result and a shorter life span of the component when compared to an unmodified version.

• Increased heat output:

  • We’ve already discussed that overclocking your components involves increasing the voltage that is sent through them. The more current, the higher the heat output, and the greater the risk of heat related damage. Heat issues will also cost you as you’ll have to purchase various cooling devices to obtain your goal.

• Efficiency is not increased:

  • Just because you’ve managed to overclock your CPU, doesn’t mean that it’s as efficient as a more expensive chip that operates by default at that speed. No matter what you do overclocking wise, the instruction set for the CPU will still remain at what it was mean to, limiting your efficiency gain.

• It’s not always an easy task:

  • Overclocking can be very frustrating. Even if you’re patient you risk frying components or winding up with a computer that just won’t turn on for some unknown reason. Unfortunately, if you’ve hit the point of frustration and want to give up, the only easy option is to buy new components as your warranty is now voided.

Continue Reading: "The Pro’s And Con’s Of Overclocking"...

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In most cases, the default heatsink and fan combination that came with your CPU will have it’s own heat paste already applied to it so that you can simply slap it down and start your system up. But when it comes to buying a separate and more powerful heatsink, you’ll need to apply your own heat paste and it is not always included when purchasing the heatsink. Over the years there have been several different methods used in applying the heat paste, but not all of them are as effective as we were lead to believe.

Heat paste is used to help transmit the heat from the CPU to the heatsink, leaving no gaps between the two. So when applying heat paste, the goal is for it to be smooth and even, with no air pockets or groves. The most common method of application has always been to spread the paste into a square using a flat edge, such as a exacto knife or a credit card, but unfortunately, that won’t always produce the greatest results. Think about it, if you’re manually smoothing out the paste with such as small surface area, you’re bound to cause some divots and grooves in the heat paste, which would ruin the effectiveness of using it in the first place. So what should you do instead of the standard spreading method?

Continue Reading: "How To Apply Heat Paste / Thermal Paste"...

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The abbreviation CPU stands for Central Processing Unit. This is the basic memory or logic center of the computer and is considered to be the brains of a computer. All of this is contained within a single silicon chip and is characterized by the specific set of instructions, bandwidth, and clock speed that it has been configured with. The instructions detail exactly what the CPU is capable of executing. The Bandwidth determines how many bits are processed per instruction. And the clock speed determines the number of instruction executed per second measured in megahertz (MHz).

While you may have a fast CPU, you can’t always take full advantage of it’s capabilities. The speed at which your CPU will run at is determined by two factors, it’s internal multiplier and the motherboard and memories front-side bus (FSB). The FSB is the speed of data transfer between the CPU and the system memory. The internal multiplier indicates the speed of the processor and when multiplied by the FSB, yields the CPU speed in MHz. If your motherboard has a lower FSB than your processor can utilize, you will bottleneck your performance significantly. Many processors do not allow you to adjust the internal multiplier as even changing it by one is a significant jump in the MHz output of the CPU. Modifying the FSB for performance is by far the easiest and most common method of overclocking your CPU.

Continue Reading: "Understanding The CPU"...

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The reason manufacturers don’t push their product as far as you will with overclocking is due to the increased chance of damaging the component. Passing the defaults that they set for their component often results in the warranty being completely voided so precaution is not something you should be throwing to the wind unless you have a lot of money to burn.

You can easily reference the default CPU/GPU speed, temperature, and voltage through freeware software that you can install for any operating system. Before you even get started, it would be a good idea to run some tests and determine where your system stands before it is modified. You will generally find that someone else has overclocked that same component and listed out the max that they could achieve within a safe zone for those readouts. It’s always good to follow what others have done, especially if several of them have similar read outs, providing you with a general idea of where you should be for speed, temperature, and voltage as you over clock the component yourself.

Continue Reading: "How To Protect Your Components"...

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Overclocking your system is going to cause your components to produce more heat as what you are doing is increasing the voltage and conditions at which they run at. Considering that digital circuits significantly slow down and wire resistance increases as the temperature goes up, you’ll need to have a way to keep the insides of your system nice and cool. Unless you’re just doing slight overclocking, you’ll need a bit more help than what came stock with your components.

Fans

You can easily increase the airflow throughout your system by purchasing additional fans for it. Many cases have extra slots for additional user added fans or you can easily modify your case so that you can insert more fans. As the fan does require a powersupply, you will need to make sure you have enough connections on your motherboard to properly power your additional fans.

Continue Reading: "Common Cooling Methods Used In Overclocking"...

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So you’ve heard the term and are not quite sure what exactly it means, entails, or why you should even do it. Well congratulations, you’ve come to the right place. The internet may contain a wealth of knowledge, especially on technology related topics, but when it comes to Overclocking, it seems like nothing is in one place and everything you come across is not very recent or poorly explained. Our goal here at HotOverclocking.com is to help you understand the ins and outs of Overclocking without needing Wikipedia up to reference terms or several browser tabs open just to learn one basic trick.

Overclocking is the general term used to explain the process of pushing a computer component from it’s default clockrate to one higher than it was meant to perform at. Clockrate is a measurement in cycles per second (hertz) at which computer components perform the most basic operations at. The most common components that people focus on overclocking are processors, video cards, motherboard chipsets, and RAM. But why would you push a computer component further than its designated clockrate?

Continue Reading: "What Exactly Is Overclocking and Why Do It?"...

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