HP informed me that motherboards that come with HP desktops have something that disables any form of CPU overclocking. GPU overclocking works fine.

So they told me that if I want to overclock my CPU at all, I would have to buy a new motherboard. So it looks like I have to buy a new motherboard there has to be some way around this. Because I don't want to waste my money on a new motherboard.

I figured I could just overclock it a little to get a taste of overclocking before shelling out the bucks for a brand new heatsink.

So how do I escape HP's hell of anti-overclocking?

EDIT: I heard before that you need at least DDR2 800 MHz ram to overclock. Is this true, or is my configuration (two 667 MHz 1 GB modules and one 800 MHz 1 GB module) fine?

you dont.

i own a acer equipped with a q6600 " picked it up for 450 at Christmas" and the MB wont allow an oc on the cpu.

have tried every software overclocking utility and no luck



you SOL my friend.

with ddr2 prices being as low as they are, i'd honestly just get 2 gigs of overclocking ddr2, a better cooler, and an matx board that allows for overclocking, then just pop that stuff into your hp case if you're that obsessed about it.

another word of warning, your power supply might not be able to handle your cpu overclocked.

If the mobo doesn't let you OC, you can't do anything about it. The reason you can OC your video card because it's software related while CPU OC is hardware related... at least i'm pretty sure of it, anyone can confirm I am right or wrong?

A permanent GPU overclock will simply reset the bios on the graphics board.

The reason you can overclock your graphics card, but not your processor is because HP controls your motherboard, but not your graphics card. The graphics card has its own bios, which can be altered independently (so to speak) of the motherboard bios.

Even if you could overclock the HP board, it probably wouldn't get you very far, because they like to go cheap as possible on all motherboard components, so it's likely to have next to no overclocking ability anyway.

TBH, most brand name computers like Dell, HP, Lenovo, etc lock their bios and don't have overclocking features. Even the ones that do have overclocking enabled, there are a few features disabled.

I have a 500 watt Thermaltake PSU, so power shouldn't be a problem.

But if I install another version of the Phenoix BIOS (Any update for it not provided by HP), would that do the trick?

It's unlikely any bios made for HP's proprietary motherboard would allow oc. Not to mention not every motherboard chipset is physically able to overclock. Big companies tend to use the cheapest hardware for parts that they don't think typical people will notice, like motherboard. If it's something like g965, it just won't oc. You can't make a lawn mower run at 100mph. It's not going to happen.

Me thinks the OP will pay closer attention to the system he buys next time if overclocking is in his future.

I sure will. I just didn't know how to build a computer back then.

If it is a newer Intel CPU, you could try pinmodding it to trick it into running a higher FSB. Check this link or try googling it for more information.

Edit:
For some reason the forums are replacing part of the link above with *** so here it is.
http://www.***.com/forums/motherbo [...] post157697
Edit 2:
Alright, this is prety gay.
Replace the "***" with "***"

Edit 3:
WTF!
x-c-p-u-s sans the dashes

Lol, tomshardware doesn't want people to know what's on that site.

Hardcore site, btw...

I'll provide some more information.

My Motherboard info:

Manufacturer: ASUS
Model: NARRA2

Does that help?

i cant still belive people still think there is a way round a OEM LOCKED BIOS these days.

Never heard of a NARRA2 and from ASUS? I thought Dell used foxconn mobos

It's HP, read the title.

OP i think you should give up and all the rest who want to post in here. we are all clear that there is no easy way round it without spending money.

Yea I know its a HP. I'm just wondering if there is actually such a product.

They make custom boards for the big OEMs. They cut out all the features, like sophisticated voltage regulation, nicer sound, decent heatsinks, etc. Basically, even if the BIOS allowed it, I sincerely doubt you could get that board to overclock worth a damn.