Introduction

      Those familiar with Tim the Tool Man from Home Improvement might remember his famous motto referring to “More Power!” In this age of perpetually improving PC gaming standards, where gamers are constantly striving to experience better graphics, more intense sound, and more realistic physics, oftentimes these gamers have to resort to Tim’s motto in order to get what they want. Better gaming requires better hardware, or, if you can’t afford better hardware (which is often the case) it requires more power, and that’s where overclocking comes in.

      In the context of PC gaming, when we speak of overclocking, we are usually referring to one of two things. There is the very widely used, much less dangerous, and much easier to accomplish GPU (graphics processing unit) overclocking, and there is also the potentially giant-paper-weight creating FSB (front side bus) overclocking, the latter of which is not even always possible depending on certain factors. If you are still wondering what it means to overclock a PC, here is a pretty good/simple definition provided by (uh-oh) Wikipedia:

“Overclocking is the process of forcing a computer component to run at a higher clock rate than it was designed for or was designated by the manufacturer.”

      So basically, it involves “tricking” part of a computer into “thinking” that it is faster than it actually is. A word to the wise, though, before we delve deeper into this concept; Do NOT try this at home (unless you really know what you are doing), it can potentially destroy a perfectly good computer, and it almost certainly will void your warranty.