The average person should avoid overclocking their own computer for the same reason they should not attempt to perform surgery on their own bodies -- it's dangerous, with a strong chance for undesired results!

But, technically speaking, anybody can overclock their own system. Several years ago, this was a little easier to do than it is today, simply because the computers were much less complex, there was less variety in terms of peripheral devices and sub-component proliferation in general, and, statistically, fewer things could go wrong.



But now, the learning curve is very steep, the process of "where to begin" is more than a little daunting, and computer performance has risen dramatically, requiring much more precision to "tweak" a system better than it is already. And, as alluded to on the What is overclocking? page, there is always the chance that an overclocked system (without a proper cooling solution, which is itself an entire project of considerable complexity) can overheat, and even catch fire.



If you have technical savvy, decent manual dexterity, as many tools as "Tim the Toolman" Taylor, and some money to burn, you might not be as disadvantaged as some other would-be-overclockers. After all, everyone had to start somewhere! But if you want/need a system, and you don't want to have to "go to school" to learn the entire trade, just leave the hard work to us, and we'll take care of it.

Previous question Next question