How to overclock, and is it that safe?

Basically, you need to read some guides.

the best advice we can give is to make sure you are absolutely sure of what you are doing before you do it.

As long as you know what you are doing, its very safe. in fact it would take a very large amount of stupidity to do any real damage to your system
Make sure that once you have your new OCs you stress test thoroughly.

Its not especially difficult, but you need to read the guides and not just go off bits of info on the forum.

What kind of motherboard?

This should be your first stop.
HOWTO: Overclock C2Q (Quads) and C2D (Duals) - Guide v1.6.1
http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/240001-29-howto-overc...

Next stop should be a guide for your particular motherboard. Google is your friend.

If you have a Gigabyte motherboard:
Shadow's Gigabyte motherboard OC guide
http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/forum/page-245679_11_0.ht...
It's for an EP35-DS3L but all the Gigabyte Core2 BIOS's are similar.

Go through the guides. Then take your core voltage off Auto and set your memory voltage to factory recommended values. Change the System Memory Multiplier (or whatever your BIOS calls it) from AUTO to 2.00, 2.00B, or 2.00D - whichever you need to set the Memory Frequency to twice the FSB. Then when you increase the FSB, the memory clock will rise in in proportion with it. At an FSB of 266 MHz, your memory clock should be at 533 MHz.

Download CPU-Z to check your FSB:RAM ratio. It should be a 1:1 ratio.

Warning - confusion factor between what the BIOS calls things and what CPUZ calls things. What the BIOS calls "memory frequency" is actually the memory clock. What CPUZ calls "memory frequency" is half the memory clock - DDR2 RAM, remember? It transfers two chunks of data each bus cycle. What you want in CPUZ is a 1:1 FSB:RAM ratio.

Overclocking memory doesn't accomplish much besides limiting your CPU overclock where the real speed comes from.

For a serious overclock, you will need better than stock cooling.
http://www.frostytech.com/top5heatsinks.cfm

The guides will discuss testing. The "guides" are guides. They are not cookbooks. Each system is different. So always, YMMV.

If you stay within Intel's recommended limits for CPU voltage and temperatures, CPU overclocking is safe.

I figure that GPU's run hot enough, so I do not overclock GPU's.

Your CPU should go to about 3.5ghz on stock cooling and stock voltage. Your bus speed is 266mhz. If you raise that to about 333mhz you will get to 3.5ghz (because CPU multiplier is 10.5... 10.5 x 333= 3500ish).

If you raise your bus speed, your memory will also increase in speed, keep your memory frequency at 400 or lower if using DDR2 800 and keep at or below 333 if using DDR2 667 memory. Same goes for DDR2 1066. (in CPUZ 400mhz is effectively 800mhz in BIOS because DDR stands for Double Date Rate). You keep your memory frequency down by changing the FSB/DRAM ratio or Memory Multiplier, Different BIOSes call it different names.

Each time you increase the bus speed to test the CPU overclock you must stress your system using Prime 95 or another program that is similar. Prime 95 is nice because it lets you run blend tests which stresses your whole system for stability. It is recommended to run Prime 95 for about 12 hours. You must also keep an eye on the temperature of your CPU, Try not to go over 70 degrees on any core. I would recommend a good after market cooler like a Hyper 212 plus which can be found at a Micro Center for about 30 dollars.


Keep in mind that every chip is different and some are great overclockers while others are mediocre. You just have to see for yourself.


Overclocking a graphics card is a lot more simple. For Nvidia cards you should use Riva Tuner for the overclock. Video cards do run hot but it is safe up until about 80 degrees. A 9500gt in my opinion should not go over about 70 degrees.

+1^ for jsc

hey this is my motherboard   Asus P5KPL-AM/SE

@cromedome: how will i know if my memory is a 800mhz or 667? thanks 

guys thanks for all your comments... ill try to research 'bout the stuffs you've mentioned. it really helps a lot