Wow!! What a week - a lot of information to wade through and so many new terms! Overall though it hasn't been too bad - I realized that I do know a little something about the inner/outer workings of computers and laptops - only I just never really knew the "real" names/terms for some of the components. However, a concept that was quite muddy for me was "Overclocking" - I had never heard this term so I had no point of reference. I can laugh at myself so I will tell you that I originally thought the term referred to staying on your laptop or computer too long and I thought, how can this possibly multiply anyone's time.
Finally I understood that overclocking is when a Modder (term used in "How Computers Work" by Ron White) and/or Hobbyist (term used by Dr. Olson in UF ISM3004 video lecture "02.04 Inside Desktop"), who has purchased a personal computer (PC) with a specific clock rate - i.e. 3GHz - Intel CORE i5 - decides to increase the speed of that machine by speeding up its internal clock (a resonating quartz crystal oscillator).
You see this clock/crystal is like the PC's conductor and the faster the crystal vibrates, the faster the PC's multiplier ticks. The multiplier is the component which controls the length of time that electricity is flowing to most of the PC's components, so the faster it ticks, the faster all those affected components inside the PC are enabled to work. When there is no electricity, these components are forced to wait or sleep (this wastes time)... Keeping the electricity coming - keeps the components revved and working!!
One way Modders/Hobbyists are able to accomplish this is by going into their PC's motherboard's setup and setting it to run at 4GHz instead of 3 (note: some manufactures lock the multiplier rates so that they cannot be altered). Modders/Hobbyists do this because they want to increase their machine's performance and know that the machine will exceed the listed speed because all manufacturers have factored in a certain margin for error. What they don't know is by how much will the PC's speed increase and will this modification destroy the machine.
WORD OF CAUTION: This is not recommended and even if you did this and your PC initially survives, there are still drawbacks: 1) Manufacturers have not extensively tested and certified the PC to run at the new speed. 2) Your machine will consume a lot more electricity. 3) Consuming the additional electricity causes it to generate significantly higher levels of heat. 4) The higher levels of heat will definitely decrease the PC's reliability and could cause the machine to become over-heated or even to burn-out. Modders/Hobbyists do address this issue but their solutions are not discussed in the written text of this blog. So with all that being said, 5) you still will not know how long your PC will last once you alter it.
TOO RISKY for me... Again this is NOT RECOMMENDED, but for those of you who are brave at heart, or maybe has some money you want to burn (pun intended...), below I have provided a YouTube video series that walks you through the entire process step-by-step for an Intel product(s):
Intel Overclocking Basics Part I: Introduction
"Video uploaded to YouTube by FrogurtX , 2009. Permission granted to reuse with YouTube Standard License."
Intel Overclocking Basics Part II: Preparation H
"Video uploaded to YouTube by FrogurtX , 2009. Permission granted to reuse with YouTube Standard License."
Intel Overclocking Basics Part III: Manual is Your Friend
"Video uploaded to YouTube by FrogurtX , 2009. Permission granted to reuse with YouTube Standard License."
Intel Overclocking Basics Part IV: Overclocking the BEAST
"Video uploaded to YouTube by FrogurtX , 2009. Permission granted to reuse with YouTube Standard License."
Intel Overclocking Basics Part V: Testing
"Video uploaded to YouTube by FrogurtX , 2009. Permission granted to reuse with YouTube Standard License."
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