It’s almost always the case that an
overclocked PC will draw more power, so
even though the cost of the PC might be the
same, it will be costing more in terms of your
electricity bill. It’s also unlikely you’ll be able to
use a stock cooler when overclocking and even
some low-end aftermarket air coolers might
not be up to the task. Most HEDT CPUs with
high core counts will require either AIO
liquid coolers or custom liquid cooling to
cope with overclocking. All told, it’s likely
that you’ll need to spend more money
when you’re overclocking, either to buy a
better cooler or simply on your electricity
bill, although the latter is unlikely to be
much more than £10 extra a year.
CAN YOU OVERCLOCK
ANY CPU?
When it comes to meaningful overclocking,
the answer is no. AMD has kindly offered
overclocking support on all of its Ryzen and
Threadripper CPUs and APUs, although
you’ll need a B-series or X-series chipset to
do so. Intel, on the other hand, has its main
overclocking enthusiast CPUs scattered
all over its two desktop platforms. All of its
X-series HEDT CPUs can be overclocked,
but on its mainstream platform, you’ll need
to look out for K-series models such as the
Core i9-9900K or Core i7-8700K. The most
fruitful way to overclock any CPU is using its
multiplier, and outside of Intel’s K-series CPUs,
all its other mainstream desktop CPUs are
multiplier-locked, which is a shame.
WHAT COOLING DO YOU NEED?
This will vary hugely from CPU to CPU when
it comes to overclocking. As we mentioned
earlier, with HEDT CPUs such as AMD’s
Threadripper and Intel’s Core X-series, their
highcorecountsandthefactthatIntel’s
CPUsarestillusinga 14nmmanufacturing
process,meansthatwhilea decentaircooler
canhandlethematstockspeed,assoonas
youstartoverclocking,theygeneratea huge
amountofheat.Watercoolingwithlarge
radiatorsis recommendedhere– aircooling
simplywillnotcutit.
FormainstreamCPUs,thingsaremuch
morevaried,butattheveryleastwe’dsuggest
notusingthestockcooleryourCPUcamewith.
MostIntelK-seriesCPUslacktheseanyway,
butAMD’sincludedcoolersareonlydesigned
tohandlethingsatstockspeed.Youmightbe
abletoapplya smalloverclock,especiallywithCPUssuchastheRyzen5 3600,whichonly
hasa TDPof65W,butevena modestcooler
upgradeherewillofferfarmoreoverclocking
headroomandmuchlessnoisetoo.Largeair
coolersorAIOliquidcoolerswillpaydividends
asyoumovetoprocessorswitheightcores
andabove,andwhilemanymid-rangeair
coolersand120mmAIOliquidcoolerswill
getthejobdone,you’llseemuchlowernoise
levelsfrommorecapablecoolers,evenatthis
endofthescale.AllofAMDandIntel’srangesofCPUscanbe
overclocked, but not all within those ranges
Large all-in-one coolers such as this NZXT Kraken
are great for cooling most overclocked CPUs
h
C
p
c
yDIFFERENT WAYS
TO OVERCLOCK
YOUR CPU
T
here were already several ways
to overclock CPUs before AMD
introduced its newly competitive
Zen architecture in 2017, but
its arrival brought with it a couple more
considerations. Namely, whether to go the
manual or automated route.MANUAL OVERCLOCKING
Both AMD and Intel CPUs can be overclocked
manually. This refers to the simplest way of
overclocking them, which is to apply a set
voltage and increase the CPU’s multiplier so
it runs at a specific frequency. There’s
nothing wrong with doing this and, as
long as you try to reduce the voltage as
much as possible rather than entering
a single large voltage and leaving it
at that, it’s all you need to do to get
more performance out of your PC.
There are some downsides to manual
overclocking though.
As you’re applying a fixed voltage and
frequency, this can lead to higher power
consumption and operating temperatures.
You can avoid this with Intel systems to
some extent by making sure SpeedStep is
enabled, which allows your CPU to lower
its frequency and current draw at idle.
Overclocking individual cores can also help to
lower temperatures and power consumption.
For example, in multi-threaded workloads,AS YOU’RE APPLYING A FIXED
VOLTAGE AND FREQUENCY,
THIS CAN LEAD TO HIGHER
POWER CONSUMPTION
FEATURE / CUSTOMISATION