Overclocked

From TheBestCaseScenario

Overclocked is.. When a certain component works outside of its nominal specifications, we can say it is overclocked, if the specifications have been modified in such a way that either the frequency of the part has been increased, or, in case of [[RAM], the latencies have been improved. That's the short version...

Overclocking is a common technique to get the most out of a given part to make it better than it was, get more life out of it and maybe even get the best possible performance around. Think of it as having yourself on a coffee and sugar diet: you can work harder and longer. But the downside is that is shortens our life :) So, normal, after-market and exotic solutions are employed to keep the side effects as minimal as possible.

In order to achieve a stable and permanent overclock, all parts must work together and do it without errors.. at all. In order to achieve a higher frequency, we bump up the speed >> components can't understand the signals error-free at one point. So, we bump up the voltage too, as to give the component more head-room to see the change between a 0 and a 1. But with each increase in voltage and calculations done over the stock settings, heat is generated. The heat will shorten the life of the part by slowly eating to its structure, evaporating and losing precious molecules that either conducted or isolated electrically. Also, on the short term, heat adds to the restlessness of electrons and again hinders the normal operation by changing the contents of the signal. So, to keep down on temperature and "noise", cooling is essential when dealing with an overclocked part.