Overclocking is making your computer’s hardware run much faster than what they are designed for by manufacturers.

Well, if you are thinking about it, Yes! Of course, you can make your old computer run at speeds you would never have expected of it.

But it isn’t as simple as it looks. Do it wrong and your computer ends up as crap! So, in this article, we help you understand what exactly overclocking means, and what all it can help you with.

Overclocking – Achieving Higher Speeds

Generally, there are various ratings each CPU is tagged with, once they are manufactured. These data sheets contain useful information of what the CPU voltage levels, speed of operations are and so on. At these specifications, the CPUs work normally as expected.

For instance, the Intel i3 3220 which speaks of having a clock speed of 3.3 GHz, under normal operating conditions almost reaches this benchmark speeds; if it is overclocked, it can be made to run at speeds above the 3.3 GHz mark.

The level of overclocking doesn’t need to be specific and often depends on that particular CPU. Some processors now also come with a turbo mode, through which you can increase clock speeds in small bursts.

Overclocking, which involves more resources (say voltages) obviously produces more heat. Based on the level of overclocking you may need to employ even the liquid cooling or even liquid nitrogen in some cases.

According to a news article in Softpedia, a single core Celeron D 352 processor could be overclocked from 3.2 GHz to a massive 8.3 GHz with the help of liquid nitrogen.

Read all about it from Softpedia.

All the advantages you can expect from an overclocked PC

1. Simply, you can go for a CPU with lower specification and get it overclocked. Thus making this entire deal inexpensive.

2. If your computer is too old and just before you try and dump it, overclocking is what you can think about. Hence improving the computer’s life.

3. Though with increased power consumption, you get to experience better graphics, games and video application with minimal expenses.

Also do remember that, if your computer usage is limited to editing the document, surfing the internet and so on, you wouldn’t notice any better performance.

Conclusion

The negative point about this overclocking is understanding what your hardware is capable of and overclocking only to that mark.

Merely overclocking without stability is just useless. Though your computer runs much faster than before, if it can’t run a particular application reliably, it’s all worth nothing.

Also because all these computer hardware is simply silicon, an increase in temperature of components occurs with increasing voltage levels and is never good for your computer.