T
hemodernPCenthusiastscene
hasalwayshadoverclockingatits
heart.Infact,overclockinghas
beenaroundaslongoreven
longerthanpeoplehavebeenmoddingand
otherwiseupgradingtheirPCs.A smalltweak
toa systembus,sometimesevenbyusing
jumpers,hasprogressedintoa multifaceted
industryofcooling,motherboards,thermal
pasteanddeliddingtoolsthatarealldesigned
tomakeoverclockingyourCPUeasier,safer
andmorecommonplace.ANTONY LEATHER INVESTIGATES THE DARK ART OF
OVERCLOCKING AND SHOWS YOU HOW TO DO IT
This is why we at Custom PC love it.
Sure, we like our PCs to be cool and quiet,
but most of us learned our trade off the
back of overclocking and will always look
to eke out that extra bit of performance
where we can. It’s why we love water-
cooled PCs too. The extra cooling capacity
can allow for the fastest-running, quietest
machine possible, all while looking great
as well.
Overclocking can appear to be a
minefield to newcomers, though, withvery different approaches not just between
different CPU sockets, but even between
CPUs in the same range. It also depends on
what you want to get out of it and whether
you’re looking to boost gaming or content
creation performance or hoping to smash
some world records in benchmarks. This
month we’ll be delving into all aspects of
CPU overclocking, including the theory
behind it, as well as the practical steps to
do it yourself, with some advice from world
record overclocker, Ian ‘8Pack’ Parry.THE ULTIMATE
FEATURE / CUSTOMISATION