How to Overclock Your Computer 101

Conclusion

Keep in mind that overclocking any part in a computer will cause that part to emit more heat than it would at stock.  This makes it essential to have adequate cooling not only on each individual part, but in also proper case ventilation and air flow.  A third party CPU cooler is absolutely essential if any overclocking is planned, as both the stock Intel and AMD coolers will not adequately keep up with increased temperatures.  As far as the video card and RAM are concerned, both are up to personal preference.  Unless extremely overclocked, the RAM will almost never require any cooling other than the airflow provided by case fans, while modern video card stock coolers (especially those that create “double wide” cards) are more than adequate to deal with everyday overclocking.  It is worth considering water cooling (especially for the CPU) if extreme overclocking is the goal, as this not only provides increased stability, but also increased life expectancy for each part cooled this way.

A Brief Warning

It is important to know that a system may boot and run stably for a short to moderate amount of time (1-2 hours), then fail for no discernible reason.  Situations like this are most likely due to heat issues, and as such it is important to keep an eye on system temperatures whenever possible.  As a very general rule of thumb, 90C is hot, 95C is very hot and anything approaching 100C warrants considering an immediate shutdown.  Be sure to look up information for each part that is being considered for overclocking, as some hardware is designed to withstand different temperatures than others.

To sum it all up, there are just a few key things to remember when overclocking.

1) Adjust everything in small increments 2) Stability test early and often 3) Only adjust voltages when necessary, never on a whim

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