Overclocking a cpu

[SkyyPanther86]

From What I had an understanding of and which was probly wrong, I was led to believe that the only cpu's that were able to overclock was the amd FX series. Now the more that I read about cpu's I see that almost every comment about one says that they are able to overclock the cpu. Now from what I know I believe that overclocking the cpu involves messing with clock speed or if im wrong the address bus or the fsb. Now if there is someone kind enough to enlighten me on this subject I would be greatly appreciated.

 

[GuitarDaddy]

Yes, all modern CPU's can be overclocked.

There are two variables in CPU speed, the FSB(HTT for AMD) and the CPU multiplier. CPU speed is calculated as FSBxmulti. ie.. AMD 3200 at stock is 200x10=2000mhz or 2ghz.

You can change the FSB on all chips as long as the motherboard bios allows you too.
On AMD FX chips and Intel extreme chips the multiplier is unlocked up and down, all other chips are unlocked down but not up.

On FX/extreme chips you can overclock two ways, 1 by increasing the FSB or 2 by increasing the CPU multi. On regular chips you can only overclock by increasing the FSB

When overclocking by increasing the FSB you are also overclocking the RAM and other system components that are based off the FSB.

The advantage of an FX/extreme chip is that you can overclock by increasing the CPU multi which in effect overclocks the CPU only while leaving the Ram and other systems at stock speed.

 

[Bobthelost]

As you've worked out you were a bit wrong

The short (and not wholey accurate) version is this:

All chips have a Front Side Bus (FSB), the CPU will determine the clock speed (measured in Giga Hertz or Ghz) by taking the FSB and multiplying it by a number that's been predetermined by the CPU manufacturer, most chips are unlocked downwards ie your CPU may have an x8 multiplier, but you can tell the chip to use x7 or x6 if you want (there are reasons for this sometimes). The FX range and EE range are both unlocked completely, so while it might be desgined to use x10 you could use x12.

Any chip can be overclocked by either raising the FSB or by raising the multipllier, for more info head to the CPU/Overclocking forum and look at the stickes.

 

[GuitarDaddy]

Originally posted by: Bobthelost

Any chip can be overclocked by either raising the FSB or by raising the multipllier, for more info head to the CPU/Overclocking forum and look at the stickes.

Only FX or extreme chips can be o/c's by raising the multi

 

[mordantmonkey]

a chip frequency is essentialy the internal clock frequency and a multiplier. for example: 2(2.0GHz)
most of the time people just change the frequency (240MHz x '10x'multiplier = 2400MHz), but sometimes you can increase the overall frequency more if you drop the multiplier (270MHz x '9x'= 2430MHz). Intel chips can change freq but are usually multi locked (unless the Mobo works around it) AMD chips are downward multiplier unlocked. AMD-FX chips are multiplier unlocked both up and down, though usually increasing the multi doesn't help much.
But changing internal clock frequency also changes the frequency of the HTT and the RAM, which is why people use dividers. dividers will allow the HTT and RAM to operate at slower frequencies so they don't inhibit the possible overclocking of the CPU.

EDIT: HTT not FSB, and only on AMD