Overclocking 101

You have two ways to overclock your CPU: Increase the CPU multiplier to boost its frequency, or jack up the frequency of the system clock (or FSB), which controls the RAM and motherboard. Changing the multiplier is the easier method. For example, if your PC's FSB runs at 200 MHz and its multiplier is set to 14, the CPU would run at 2.8 GHz. Crank the multiplier to 16, and the CPU runs at 3.2 GHz. However, except for high-end CPUs in AMD's Athlon FX or Intel's Extreme Edition line, all modern processors come with the multiplier locked. That's why most overclockers must instead raise the speed of the FSB, a trickier procedure.

Increasing the FSB speed affects not only the CPU rate but also how fast data moves between memory and the CPU. Tweaking this timing can cause your PC to crash, so you may have to adjust RAM and voltage settings in the BIOS as well. You'll find help at the forums mentioned above. Be careful with these settings, however--a mistake can be disastrous.

To find out how much faster your system can go, nudge the clock settings in its BIOS up one click and then use your PC for a while to see if it crashes. If it doesn't, increase the setting one more notch, and keep on until the system fails. At that point, push your clock back one (though you might want to give yourself a little safety cushion).

The procedure may sound intimidating, but it really just boils down to trial and error (mostly trial, I hope) until you find the fastest stable settings.