Just recently, in the article The Iceman Cometh: P4 at 4.1 GHz , we introduced a PC system in which an Intel Pentium 4 was able to attain a clock speed of more than 4 GHz. Compared to the many overclocking attempts by some fanatics, our system ran stably .

Most users are familiar with extreme overclocking only in connection with liquid nitrogen, where the CPU die is cooled to about -100° Celsius for a few minutes. In this scenario, however, you have to make special preparations, since it can be fatal to work with liquid gas.

In addition, only a few users are able to build and operate these types of PC systems. To use one of these record-breaking CPU cooling systems in one's home or even in the office borders on the insane: nitrogen is heavier than air and therefore displaces the air that you need to breathe. In addition, the low boiling point can cause serious damage when disturbed.

In order to enable efficient cooling for modern processors, a more technically refined solution is needed. Even the generic fan coolers that you find in the chain store PCs have long since been equipped with copper cores for better heat transfer. Friends of overclocking can easily determine that with conventional fan coolers, a significant performance boost cannot be attained. Greater success can be reached with water-cooling, although here, the inexperienced user could quickly see a small fortune go to waste.

AMD Athlon XP 2800+ overclocked to 2835 MHz. This clock speed corresponds to a model rating of nearly 4000!