Overclocking question

[Baelic]

Hello MMO-Champ community, got a question for ya.

I have a Core2Duo e8400 that I've been thinking of trying to Overclock, I haven't yet cause I was scared of blowing it up and rendering my computer unusable (I can not afford a replacement right now).

But I've been reading some articles that seem to suggest I can OC it to 4ghz easily just on the stock Heatsink/Fan ALONE!

Now I understand that just going into the system BIOS and just cranking up the juice is gonna get me into trouble so what would I need to do to increase my chances of success? My mobo is a EVGA 750i FTW if that helps.

[Deleted]

I only have experience overclocking a E6400 CPU, but here is some fast advice:

- Make sure you take small steps, and test the system thoroughly each time you change something. Only increase the FSB with maybe 10-20Mhz at a time at first, and then move to smaller gains (like 2-5Mhz). Whenever you get a BOSD, compensate with a minor voltage increase and see if the system stabilizes. Make sure you always have a "fallback" point.
- Check what RAM you have and what it can handle. I had 400Mhz modules on my CPU at first, and they failed around 566Mhz if I remember correctly.
- If you are lucky, your MoBo will allow you to change the BUS ratio. I remember running mine at 9x instead of 8x.

Edit:
And one more thing: never aim at a certain Ghz number. All chips are different and there is little point in saying "I must reach 4Ghz" because you might never do. Take small steps and once you reach a point were you aren't comfortable going any further (voltage/temperature) you stop - and supposedly drop back a few steps.

[OhpUldum]

First step in any overclocking situation is to understand that you can harm the computer and unless you are able to replace the parts you can potentially damage you should not overclock.