Overclock Your CPU and Speed Up Your PC

Are you looking to get better performance out of your computer but can’t afford the cost of hardware upgrades? You are in the right place as we will explain methods to overclock your CPU to get the most out of your computer.

Overclock Your CPU – The Warning Stuff

Just a little warning. Modifying the components needed to overclock your CPU may void your warranty. Keep in mind that no vendor will accept returns for CPU’s that have been damaged from overclocking. Also, it is important to use specific PC monitoring tools to keep track of your tweaks and see which ones work best. Overclocking your CPU will push your PC over the specified limits and increase power consumption and generate more heat. It is not a bad idea to add extra cooling to your PC when you are overclocking your CPU.

How to Overclock Your CPU

The initial speed of your CPU is determined by 2 factors, the clock rate base and the multiplier. If you want to overclock your CPU, you are going to want to increase those variables. It is also best to have a unlocked processor so you have more flexibility over the changes. CPU’s change all the time so just do a Google search for unlocked processors if you are looking to install a new one to mess with. Most of the time, you are able to overclock your CPU via your computers BIOS.

So, here is what you do. Reboot your PC and go into the BIOS settings. Getting into the BIOS may be different on some computers. Sometimes you hit escape or delete right as the computer boots. If that does not work for you, you should see something right when you computer boots that says “Hitfor BIOS settings”.

Once in the BIOS, you should see a “Performance” section. This is the main section to overclock your CPU. Under the performance section, increase the multiplier by 1 then reboot your PC. If you reboot your PC and do not get an error or a reboot loop, you are in good standing. Let your computer boot up and download CPU-Z. If you do not have it, download it here.

CPU-Z is a monitoring tool that will show you results as you make changes to overclock your CPU. Open the CPU tab in the CPU-Z program and take a look at the “Core Speed” and “Multiplier”. You will notice that they will change depending on the processes running on your system. Now its time to run a benchmark test to ensure your PC can handle a load after you overclock your CPU. Now we need to run a benchmark stress test. One of the best tools for this is PRIME95. After you run the program, you will see a “Stress Test” button. Click that button to put your PC under a full load. When you overclock your CPU, you want to make sure it will run smoothly under a heavy load. If the stress test does not cause reboots or bluescreens and you want to try for more speed, go back into your BIOS and bump up that multiplier again then run the same tests.