Digital Home Thoughts: The Lifehackers Beginners Guide To Overclocking Your Intel CPU

"If you want to squeeze every last ounce of processing power out of your new computer or aging system, overclocking is a great-if slightly nerve-racking-option. Here are some simple guidelines for safely overclocking your CPU. Simply put, overclocking your CPU involves running your processor at a faster speed than was intended out of the box. While overclocking, at its core (no pun intended), can be quite simple, there's a bit more to it than just tweaking one setting. The main setting that determines your CPU speed (known as your Base Clock) also affects your RAM speed, so there's a bit of tweaking required to get the right balance. You'll also have to tweak a few voltage levels, because without enough power, the CPU can't run fast enough. However, higher voltage also means higher temperatures, so you need to be careful not to overheat your CPU, which can lower the life, not to mention fry it completely if you're not careful."

Photo by Blazor85

You have probably heard about overclocking and how you can increase the speed of your CPU by making some tweaks in the BIOS, but perhaps have never had the courage or knowledge to do it. Now you can, as Lifehacker have posted an indepth beginners guide to overclocking, covering everything from the terminology, explaining the concept, before finally showing you how to go about doing it. If you've ever been interested and have an intel i5 or i7 CPU, but were unsure how to do it, then this is the guide for you.