How to overclock my cpu and how to tell if i can.

[GigaBowser]

Could anyone tell me how to over clock and how to tell if i can?

(Im not too good at this stuff so, yea.)

When i overclock my cpu, it raises my ghz, which then i need more cooling, right?

P.S. Whats the max i can OverClock to if i get water cooling?

Thanks

[Xelatomis]

OCing is not just keeping the processor cool. Your motherboard needs to not fry aswell. Leading to my next question...

Specs?

[The Last Man]

Well, first of all, googling the simple question of "How do I overclock my CPU?" probably would have yielded better results.

But since you did not do that I will do my best to help.
First of all your CPU has something call an FSB (front-side bus) which (correct me if I am wrong) is the speed at which the CPU communicates with the ram, and controls the clock speed of your CPU via the multiplier. With most CPU's the multiplier is locked meaning it can't be changed (sometimes they allow you to lower them with but not raise them) so consequently (unless you have an extreme edition intel processor or a black edition AMD processor) you must change raise the FSB in order to raise the clock speed of your CPU. Now before you go raising your FSB to a ridiculously high number, realize that with greater speed comes a greater need for power. You give more power to the CPU by raising the voltage. With more electricity comes greater heat, thus requiring better cooling. That does not mean you can go buy a liquid nitrogen cooling system and overclock to 10ghz either, then you have to factor in the voltage tolerance of the metal used (what voltages will it just cease to work, etc.). Overclocking is tricky business and everybody gets different results with the same processor just because of the fact that nothing is perfect.

For a more in depth tutorial read [url=http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/cpu/display/oc-guide.html]here[/url](and I do strongly suggest you read that article).