02/05/2014
Common CPU Overclocking Methods
The most common methods of overclocking your CPU is to either raise the multiplier or raise the FSB (frontside bus) — while not the only options they are the most common. To understand overclocking, you have to understand the basics of CPU speeds. The speed of a CPU is measured in Megahertz (MHz) or Gigahertz (GHz). This represents the number of clock cycles that can be performed per second. The more clock cycles your CPU can do, the faster it processes information.
The formula for processor speed is: frontside bus x multiplier = processor speed.
Example:
(1) Pentium III 450MHz
The CPU runs at 450 million clock cycles per second. The CPU runs at at a speed of 450 megahertz. Using our processor speed equation we have: 100MHz (frontside bus) x 4.5 (multiplier) = 450MHz (processor speed)
The frontside bus connects the CPU to the main memory on the motherboard — basically, it's the conduit used by your entire system to communicate with your CPU. One caution with raising the FBS is that is can affect other system components. When you change the multiplier on a CPU, it will change only the CPU speed. If you change the FSB you are changing the speed at which all components of your system communicate with the CPU.
Using our example above, the multiplier is 4.5. Since valid multipliers end in .0 or .5, you could try increasing the multiplier to 5.0 to obtain a performance boost (which would result in 100MHz x 5.0 = 500MHz). By far the easiest way to overclock a CPU is to raise the multiplier, but this cannot be done all all systems. The multiplier on newer Intel CPUs cannot be adjusted, leaving Intel overclockers with the FSB overclocking method (because of this AMD is becoming more of a popular choice for overclockers). The equation formula doesn't change for the method of raise the FSB. In the example above the FSB was 100MHz. Raising it to 133Mhz would change the equation (133Mhz x 4.5 = 598.5 MHz).
Sometimes overclocking can be that simple -- other times it's not.
Depending on your motherboard, overclocking is done one of three ways: by changing jumper or dip-switch settings (from .on. and .off. or .close. and .open.), by changing some of the Chipset Features settings in your BIOS, or by using a combination of both. In overclocking you will need to know your hardware, plan your overclocking method, and, of course perform many tests once changes have been made. You may need to adjust your CPU voltage, and you will most likely have to try several settings before obtaining a successful and stable overclock result.
