Overclocking a computer, is it really that hard?

[afroebob]

I have an older computer, from late 2007 or so but at the time it was damn nice back in the day. I'm going to be buying some new parts and I've already done some upgrades but I still have to get a new processor and I figured since I'm probably going to get rid of my old one soon I might as well try to overclock it and see if I can make it last a bit longer. Anyways, it's an Intel E6650 Core 2 Duo and I was wondering how hard it is to really overclock a computer? I hear its quite simple, just go into your BIOS and change a few things. So, any tips you can give would be great.

P.S. I upgraded my power supply from 300 watts to 500 watts so that's not going to be a problem and I also have a great cooling system so it shouldn't overheat.

P.S.S. I didn't see a computer hardware forum or anything really close to it so I put it under 'Advice'.

 

[MrTub]

Well here is a guide that explains everything.


http://www.overclock.net/intel-cpus/497993-newbie-guide-overclocking-updated-core-2-a.html

I have personally not used it with if you look at the comments it seems to be pretty good

 

[Vonnis]

Overclocking isn't hard, it's just time consuming if you want optimal settings. Basically you change some clock settings, change voltage, test for stability, if it's stable and temperatures are fine you raise clock frequencies further, if it's not stable you increase voltage or slightly lower clock frequences. Once you reached a speed you're happy with you can try lowering voltages for optimisation (if you raised voltage more than one step at a time that is). Besides the fact you're going to do a lot of rebooting, I personally don't consider an overclock stable unless it has run prime95 for at the very least 24 hours, plus a minimum of 10 full resource passes in linx. I often have kombustor running together with prime95 for a part of the prime95 run just for shits and giggles, but that isn't really necessary, it's more to check if my psu can keep up with the power draw of an overclocked cpu and gpu.
Before you do anything, read the guide Tubez posted, and google around a bit more. You don't have to know about every single last BIOS option you have, but it helps to know the most important ones. It's always better to understand what exactly you're doing, rather than having a basic idea about some things, fucking around with the rest and hoping for the best.