Whenever you buy a piece of hardware, you are the owner of that
hardware. No matter what people or corporations try to do to lock in
your device, it is still yours, and therefore you can do whatever you
want with it. Provided that you have hardware from a manufacturer who
understands those principles, you can do plenty to juice up your system,
whether it be a computer, tablet, or smartphone.
One of the best things you can do — with appropriate hardware,
firmware, and/or software — is to speed up your system by overclocking
it.
What Is Overclocking?
Simply put, overclocking is the process of tweaking system settings
so that your system (or at least components in your system) is running
faster than the manufacturer set. Most commonly, people overclock their CPUs and possibly their RAM. For CPUs, this is achieved in a number of different ways.
First, each CPU core has something called a “front side bus speed’.
This is the base, external frequency which all of your motherboard
components runs on. The CPU uses a multiplier for its internal
frequency, so that it can have accurate timings with the rest of the
system. These are usually the two things — more the multiplier than the
front side bus speed — which users change to overclock their CPU. To aid
with the CPU’s increased need for electricity when it’s running at a
higher frequency, the voltage usually needs to be increased a little bit
as well for the CPU to run stably under the new frequency.
When it comes to overclocking the RAM, usually the voltage needs to be
increased to automatically gain a higher memory frequency. Again, this
can be done only so much before the RAM becomes unstable and your
computer doesn’t run. Changes for the CPU and RAM are usually done in
the BIOS, although extreme-edition hardware will usually come with
capable software as well.
Users also overclock their graphics cards
whenever possible to get the best gaming experiences. Graphics cards
have two parts, the core frequency and the memory frequency. With
higher-end graphics cards, the software should allow you to do this
fairly easily.
Benefits of Overclocking
Before you make the decision to overclock, you need to be aware of
what benefits as well as consequences it has. As far as benefits are
concerned, you’ll see a nice improvement in performance. Things should
be running faster, smoother, etc. Of course, if you’re running something
which requires heavy use of a certain component, you’ll experience a
bottleneck and no increase in performance if you don’t overclock the
component which is giving you the bottleneck.
Consequences of Overclocking
However, that’s where the benefits list already ends. The main point of overclocking is to gain extra performance, but it comes at a price if you’re willing to pay it. For example, overclocking is an art where settings have to be carefully chosen for the system to run stably. While attempting to overclock, you may find your system to be unstable, making it restart or show BSOD often. Your overclocked components will also generate more heat, so it’s vital that you make sure that your cooling solution — whether air or water — is sufficient to transport the heat. Also be aware that because of the extra stress and heat which the component has to go through when overclocked, the life of that component, before it breaks or fails in any sort of way, will be reduced. Also, it’s most likely that you’ll be voiding any warranties you may have on the components which you overclock.
Conclusion
In the end, it really depends on your needs — or wants — on whether
you should actually overclock. If you run mission critical applications,
then most likely not, so as to maintain the longevity of the system. If
you’re a casual user, then I suggest not to overclock simply because
it’s recommended for people who have plenty of experience with
computers. If you’re a gamer, then you’ll most likely want to overclock
because it gives you the added performance for something that isn’t
considered mission-critical. When it comes to smartphones and tablets,
it really depends on whether you actually need the extra performance, as
you’ll be using up more of your battery. Just remember that you’ll need
to root your device to achieve that, and that you set your CPU governor
settings appropriately for maximum battery life.
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