How to Overclock an Athlon CPU
Athlon is a brand of CPU (Central Processing Unit) commonly found in desktop and laptop computers. A CPU acts as a computer system's brain, processing data calculations that allow the system to function. The speed of the CPU's data calculations determines the speed and strength of the computer as a whole. To increase the data processing speed of an Athlon CPU, you can change the settings in the BIOS menu. The process of speeding up the CPU's data calculations is called overclocking.
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Instructions
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Power on the computer system you wish to overclock. Press the "F11" key during boot-up to enter the BIOS menu. Select the "BIOS Features Setup" option and hit "Enter."
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Locate and select the "External Clock" setting. Edit the value listed under "CPU Host Bus Frequency." Increase the value by one or two settings and press "OK." This edits the speed of the front bus of the CPU, which directly influences the speed of the processor.
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Locate and select the "CPU Core" setting. Edit the value listed under "Multiplier." Increase the value by one and hit "Enter" to accept the change. Choose the "Exit and Save" option in the BIOS menu to finish booting your system. The Multiplier setting tells the CPU at what multiple of the front bus speed to run. For example, a multiplier of 12.5 and a front bus speed of 133 megahertz would cause the CPU to run at 1.66 gigahertz.
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Power down your system if it has booted successfully and you wish to overclock the CPU further. Repeat the value editing process by raising both values to the next highest setting once more. Once the computer system refuses to boot after changing the values, you have reached the overclocking limits of your CPU. Return both the front bus speed and multiplier values to the last known boot friendly values.
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Tips & Warnings
Edit and test the values one at a time for a more optimal overclocking setup.
Overclocking can damage your computer (see References). Never let your system idle for long periods of time and overclock at the same time. This results in excessive heat generation by the system, which can damage computer components.
