Reply:
Over clocking is the term for deliberately operating a computer processor at speeds faster than the manufacturer's product specification defines. People want to do this for two reasons:
 | First, manufacturers invariably charge more for a processor that they warrant will run at faster speeds. |
| Second, some users claim they do this and achieve faster speeds with no ill effects. |
If you want to get a good introduction to over clocking with an eye to maybe "doing it" yourself, please go to one of the many web sites that specialize in that subject. My experience, my training, and my emotional make up all predispose me to a very conservative approach in how I design and operate electronic devices. Therefore, I'm going to answer the question; but I can only give you limited "how to" help.
The reasons why over clocking can sometimes be OK:
| Some motherboards from mainstream manufacturers facilitate over clocking in their utilities and setup menus. If you are going to engage in this practice, you would be well advised to build your system around such a motherboard. |
| Within a given family of processors, the reason some chips from a given manufacturing process may be rated slower than other chips may be simple supply and demand: The manufacturer may have orders for processors of different speeds. But the manufacturing process is more economical if all units are made the same and some are simply packaged and priced at lower speed than they could actually achieve. |
The reasons why you need to be cautious when over clocking:
| Over clocking always increases power consumption. This increases heat. If you are going to over clock, verify the capability of your power supply and the chassis and CPU cooling equipment. |
| Manufacturers don't deliberately de-rate their processors. Nor do they deliberately manufacture and sell devices at a price that is lower than they could demand if the product were accurately labeled. So the scenario in which manufacturers build one processor type and then sell identical items at two different prices is not assured. More commonly, manufacturers carefully screen the output of their processes. Each item is tested to determine where in the range of acceptable performance it lies. Then the products are accurately labeled and packaged. |
| A processor that has been over clocked will be operating in a gray area of performance. It may execute many millions of instructions correctly. But, the combination of additional speed and more heat can cause aberrations in performance. Perhaps only occasionally will the processor misstep on a command. Perhaps you will notice the error; and perhaps you will not. Can you tolerate occasional system lockups? Can you live with possible loss of data files from your hard drive because the processor dropped a bit on a write command? |
My bottom line: This is not politics or religion: there is no simple answer. It depends on several variables that need to be evaluated in each individual case.
Revised: 21 February 2006