Use caution when overclocking your CPU
Overclocking your AMD 64 Athlon X2 processor is a cheap, albeit moderately dangerous way to squeeze extra performance out of your processor. Overclocking involves increasing the voltage and speed of the various components of your system to achieve higher speeds and computing power. Overclocking is inherently dangerous, as pushing any computer component beyond its manufacturer's recommended specifications will typically void your warranty and may permanently damage or destroy your computer's components.
Instructions
Setting Your Overclock
1. Power down your PC. Unplug any unnecessary peripherals, leaving only the keyboard, mouse and monitor.
2. Power on your PC and press the correct key when prompted to access the BIOS. Usually this is the "Delete" key, but options vary from motherboard to motherboard. Consult your owner's manual for specifics.
3. Locate the "Advanced motherboard settings," "Overclocking settings," or "Clock settings" page. Wording will be different from motherboard to motherboard. You'll be looking for settings that reference "Hyper-transport" and "Reference clock" speeds.
4. Change the proper setting from "Automatic" to "Manual," if necessary. Overclocking your CPU is a deceptively simple process of increasing your "Reference clock" speed. Bump it up in 5 to 10Mhz increments. Reboot your computer after each increase, making sure it can boot into your operating system stably. Continue to increase your "Reference clock" speed until your computer can no longer boot stably into your OS. Reboot the PC and bring the "Reference clock" speed down by 10Mhz.
5. Reboot your PC into your operating system.
Testing Your Overclock
6. Point your Web browser at the Prime95 download site (see the Resources section for link). Download the executable file to a location you can locate easily.
7. Double-click the icon to install the program and follow any installation prompts, making sure to create a shortcut on your desktop.
8. Point your browser at the RealTemp download site (see the Resources section for link). Download the executable file and double-click it to launch the program. Monitor your CPU's temperature while stress testing to make sure it stays within safe levels. Each CPU has its own safe range of temperatures, and each individual CPU will perform differently under stress testing. Make sure your CPU doesn't exceed the maximum allowable temperature set forth by AMD.
9. Double-click the shortcut to launch the program. Select "Just stress testing" and select "Blend test." Allow the program to run for 12 hours, checking in on it periodically.
10. Should the test fail at any point, you processor may need more voltage. Reboot your PC and enter the BIOS. Locate the page with the necessary "CPU voltage" settings. Increase the voltage by the smallest possible increment (usually .1V) and reboot your PC. Restart Prime95 and launch the test again. Should the test not run error-free, repeat the process until it does.
Tags: Reference clock, clock speed, into your, Reference clock speed, stress testing, your computer, Download executable