Overclock

Overclocking is mostly practiced by PC enthusiasts in order to squeeze the most performance out of their machines. Some enthusiasts will do this so they can buy a lower-end system, overclock it, and achieve the performance of a higher-end system. However, the cost of an adequate cooling system, and often even the cost of choice overclocking components results in a base of overclockers who mostly overclock as a hobby, or as a 'sport' of sorts - always striving for more speed.

Many enthusiasts will purchase high-end components to begin with, and then overclock them to achieve even more performance. The fastest home computers in the world are overclocked, and a stock (running at manufacturers specifications) system is often no match for an overclocked one.

The main aspect of overclocking is the need for more effective cooling than that of the innefficient air-based cooling systems which come with most PC components. High-end, specifically designed, copper heatsinks are commonly used with powerful fans for better cooling of PC components. Water cooling is another popular method, using water as a heat carrier instead of less-efficient air. Instability is a major danger of overclocking, although most overclockers check their work for full stability. By giving more voltage to components, and cooling them more efficiently, stability at high speeds can be maintained.

Commonly overclocked components include:CPUs, video cards, motherboard chipsets, and RAM. Methods that have been used to cool overclocked components include: forced convection (a fan blowing onto a surface); water cooling (similar to how automobile engines are cooled); liquid nitrogen (perhaps the most dangerous method); phase change cooling (as used in refrigerators; and submersion (placing the entire computer in an inert fluid). Of the aforementioned methods, air cooling, water cooling, and phase cooling are the most popular, due to efficiency, availability, and affordablity.

Overclocking arises in part by the manufacturing processes of CPU's. In most cases, CPU's with different rated clock speeds are manufactured via exactly the same process. The CPU's are tested and the clock speed that the CPU is marketed under is the speed at which the CPU has been tested to operate consistently well. With proper voltage, and cooling applied, slower CPUs can be made to run at the same speed, or faster, than similar CPUs with higher rated clock speeds. It is a commonly held view that overclocking results in instability, which is not the case when performed correctly.

In addition, there have been situations in which a chip manufacturer will deliberately underrate a chip to respond to marketing pressures. This results in an inexpensive component, which (with a little bit of voltage) is easily overclocked to match the speed of a more expensive component. The best modern example of this would be the AMD Athlon XP 2500+ processor, which is easily overclocked to match the speed of the AMD Athlon XP 3200+, a processor four times more expensive.

Overclockers

An overclocker is generally defined as someone who overclocks his or her computer. The term overclocker has grown to include a wider group of people. In some ways overclockers have grown into a group of computer modifiers, known as computer modders. The two are closely related. As overclockers brought extreme forms of overclocking to their computers, computer modders took what they did and improved upon it by creating aesthetically appealing computers that are overclocked as well.

Overclocking is still a very prolific hobby/practice. With cooling methods becoming more and more advanced, and with inexpensive microprocessors still being produced with the same core circuitry as faster microprocessors of the same series, a large number of computer users overclock to some extent.

See also CPU locking, Front side bus, Underclocking, OverDrive