How to overclock a cpu?

Let's start really basic.

For a CPU cycle to take action, it needs to "charge up". Your voltage will determine how fast it can "charge up". More voltage, means faster charge (like water pressure in a pipe). When you over clock you are asking it to run the cycles faster. Therefore you need more voltage to keep up also. If there isn't enough voltage or "charge" in time for the next cycle, errors occur. This is low stability issues to BSOD if it is really bad. Someone else may be able to explain it better but that is the very basic explaination for changing voltage when OCing.

This is what I have said before to new OCers:

As I say to everyone overclocking, take it slowly. Overclocking takes time. I spent a solid 12 hours working on my pc over the course of 2 weeks. Eventually you will learn how your CPU works and functions according to different settings. It is like meeting someone new. You don't really know who they are until you have spent some time with them, so take your time.

There are lots of ways people OC their CPUs. One way is to apply a medium level voltage and lesser OC (multiplier) to find thermal limits, test the temps, then see how far your multiplier and base clock will go.

The other way is to push both up slowly at the same time. This is what I did at first.

My other method of OCing is to push the multiplier as far as I can on auto voltages. Then, once I find the limit (either temps or vcore too high for my liking), I will fine tune the voltages manually. This I found was more successful, as I easily found the best vcore for my OC.

There are tonnes of guides to check out, so read up! You might find info in one that isn't in the other which could help you out.

There are also things to look out for. You may encounter what is called a voltage wall. The is a strange block in which your CPU frequency will not be stable past a certain point, unless applying a large voltage increase. This can be frustating for some, as it causes heat issues. My CPUs voltage wall is at 1.32V on my 3570K.

Also, you may be able to test a setting and be stable, but the actual performance is lower than what you would expect. This is due to the CPU making error corrections. This is caused by a too little voltage to run perfectly, but not enough to be 100% accurate. (Or something like that, I'm not entirely sure.)

Before I finish, basic things to remember:

-Take it slow.
-Record your changes on paper.
-Set yourself a low goal to begin with. Then aim higher when your more confident and understand your system and settings better.
-Ask for more help if needed.
-Check other peoples results to see what your CPU could be capable of and what to expect.
-Read up on others experiences to see how they went about OCing.

(Literally a copy and paste from old thread haha)

After you overclock, you want to run a program called prime95 to check that your CPU is stable and not too hot. Another test people like is Intel Burn Test

You will want to download CPU - Z and Core Temp to monitor voltages, clockspeed, temps etc.

You want to try and stay under temps of 80°C for safety when you are running prime95 or intel burn test when Core Temp says your CPU (all cores) running at 100%.