Overclocking

I am really interested in overclocking pc, laptops and also graphics card. Overclocking is possible if you know how to do it. After extensive research, I have gather what it is best to have overclocking done on the pc.

PC

If you do want to overclock your pc, it is vital that you do get a good motherboard. What do I mean by 'good' is that the motherboard must supoort higher frequencies, either in the increase of Front Size Bus (FSB) or higher memory settings (800, 1066, 1333 and 1666). It will be best if the mother board supports SLI (Nvidia) or Crossfire (ATI). You do not need a big motherboard but the motherboard must suit what your pocket can allow you to do so. If you are thinking of a dual core or a quad core Intel or AMD CPU, you might want to get Abit and also Gigabyte motherboards. The reason why I did not recommend Asus motherboard is that for the price that you are paying, you could have purchased a better and more advanced Abit or Gigabyte motherboard.

If you are on a budget, you might want to get Asrock motherboard. They do cheap and cheerful motherboards with integrated graphics. I have used one of them before when I build my AMD Athlon Duron 1800. Oh yes, A Duron 1800 mobo with the CPU for less than £50! That is really cheap, ok? Anyway, if you want future proof, you might want to get the state of the art motherboard which supports 45nm CPU (for Intel). As for AMD, it is much better because they don't really change their chipset so often. They are still using AM2+ chipset for the main stream pc although it is set to change to socket AM3 in due time. Make sure you buy a motherboard which comes with support of DDR3 memory. That will be good as the motherboard will last you for another five years without any fail.

Enough said about motherboard. What is necessary is that you need to get a good CPU cooler which is silent and also efficient. You might want to use Artic Cooking Freezer Pro 7 for your Intel dual core/ quad core. There is also a similier product for your AMD dual core/tri core/quad core. A word of advice
when you are buying a good CPU cooler. If you are looking at overclocking , make sure you get AC Freezer Pro 7 for less than £14. This is only for air cooling. You can also make way in purchasing Zalman's CPU cooler but you got to be very careful before you buy one. This is because not all Zalman's CPU cooler is good. You might be very interested in their flowery shape fins but trust me, not everything which they are selling is good. The best place to check the review is go to tomshardware.com and you will be able to look for it over there. You can also do with water cooling

I have talked about motherboard and CPU cooler. The most important thing is that you need to have a good processor!!! For Intel, you might just want to spend £50 for a dual core CPU. The E2160 is a good bargain at that price range but it has only 1MB of L2 cache and the speed is only around 1.8Ghz. Although it is only running at 1.8Ghz, don't despair because with a good CPU cooler ( and not water cooling), you will be able to overclock the cpu to 3.0Ghz easily provided you have correct hardware to support it.

Alternatively, if you want to spend a little bit more for an Intel Dual Core, get the latest E8400. It is priced at around £150 and it is equipped with a speed of 3.0Ghz. FSB rated at 1333 mhz and it has 6MB L2 cache as it is based on the new Wolfdale chipset (45nm). According to Custom PC, the chip is faster than the Intel Quad Core (with G0 stepping) Q6600 (2.4ghz) which is currently selling for £160. This is because the Q6600 is still based on the 65nm Kentsfield chip and not the newer 45nm chipset. The E8400 is highly overclockable, fast and inexpensive!!! Go for it!

If you think that you still need an Intel Quad Core, get the Q6600 as I have mentioned. You can also go for the Q6700 which is another £160 on top of the Q6600 for the extra 200 mhz at 2.6Ghz. Both these chips are manufactured using the 65nm wafer. If you want something newer than the 65nm chip, you can go for the Q9300 but it is still in limited amount as it is still very new.

As for AMD, I think the best thing is that you go for the Phenom chip. Forget about Athlon X2 but just go straight to Phenom X4. There is 9400, 9500, 9600, 9600 Black Edition and also the new 9300 version. Get the new 9300 version because it is using the B3 stepping which has eliminated the TLB bug which caused problems in the L3 cache. However, just to inform you taht the Black Edition is somehow different because it has an unlocked FSB. It is just like the Extreme Edition of the Intel chip. It is just that the unlocked FSB on the black edition is not as good as the Intel extreme chip when it comes to overclocking.

The next thing is that you need a good graphics card. I would think that if you have the money, go for the ATI HD 3870 X2 or the nvidia 9800 x2. If not, get the HD 3870 or the Nvidia 8800GTS. For mid range, get the Nvidia 9600GT or the ATI HD 3850. Good luck!

Next, you need some good memory. I do have some good memory for you to choose. I do recommend 2GB at least since you are overclocking. Memory such as the Crucial Ballistix BL2Kit128 64AA804 is a good start. You might also want to try out OCZ's PC2-8500 REAPER HPS EDITION OCZ2R PR10662GK. For budge pc, I would just stick to Kingston Value or Corsair Value memory. If you have a little but more to spend, you want the 2GB Corsair Twin2X2048-6400 memory.

You do need a casing for the computer. Try Antec silent series and you will be happy with it. I don't like Lian Li because it is just too expensive. Antec should be fine.

Well, I think that should be sufficient for the hardware part. You will also need to go to BIOS to overclock your FSB (if your CPU is locked). If your CPU multiplier is unlock, you can just overclock the CPU without touching the FSB. Remember, do it at your own risk!!! Try a little increase at a time. Don't be too extreme! Good luck!

Laptop

As for laptop, I don't think you can overclock much unless you are using a gamer's laptop like the Dell's XPS. However, having said that, you can overclock the graphics card on your laptop by using ATItool or nTune. You can also use drivers from omegadrivers.net where it will pump up your graphics card. If you do have an unlocked CPU on your laptop (extreme edition), you may overclock the CPU from the BIOS provided you are able to do so by your motherboard provider.

Graphics Card

If you intend to overclock your graphics card on a pc, you might want to change the graphics cooler to a better one like Zalman Graphics Card cooler. After replacing the stock cooler, you can use the softwares which I have mentioned above ( from overclocking a laptop) to overclock your graphics card in windows. Have fun guys!!!