HP Bios has no options?

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wxduff

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willard

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Computer manufacturers like Dell and HP don't want you overclocking, so they do not provide the options in the BIOS.

There are two main reasons for this. First, it's easy to destroy your hardware when overclocking if you don't know what you're doing. Second, overclocking means you don't need to spend as much on their ludicrously priced upgrades, which is where they have their highest profit margins. Ever wonder why they charge $200 for $50 of memory?

If you want to overclock, you need to build the system yourself. Sorry.
 

willard

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Replacing the motherboard would indeed let you overclock. The HP board is listed as micro ATX, as is the one you picked out, so it should fit in the case. No guarantees, though. I've seen plenty of proprietary case designs that wouldn't accept new motherboards, so I don't feel comfortable recommending it.

If somebody else has more experience with this, they could give you a more definitive go/no go answer.

[Edit] Just noticed the CPU in that system is an i5-2400. You can't overclock Sandy Bridge chips that don't have a k at the end of their model number. Other chips are limited to changes in BCLK, which Sandy Bridge is highly intolerant to. You'll need to replace the CPU with a 2500k as well if you want to overclock. Sorry.

The i5-2400 is more than enough for most people. Are you just looking to overclock for the hell of it (perfectly valid reason to overclock in my book) or is there something your computer is struggling with?

Also, there is no benefit to having more than 8GB of memory unless you're doing video editing, rendering or other similar tasks. The vast majority of users will never use more than 4-5 GB of memory.
 
The main problem with replacing the motherboard in that system is that the OS is OEM and therefore cannot be used with a different motherboard. You might be able to boot with a new motherboard, but it would fail validation and couldn't be reactivated.
 
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