Editing Front-side bus (section)

===Overclocking===

{{main | Overclocking}}

[[Overclocking]] is the practice of making computer components operate beyond their stock performance levels by manipulating the frequencies at which the component is set to run, and, when necessary, modifying the voltage sent to the component to allow it to operate at these higher frequencies with more stability.

Many motherboards allow the user to manually set the clock multiplier and FSB settings by changing [[jumper (computing)|jumper]]s or BIOS settings. Almost all CPU manufacturers now "lock" a preset multiplier setting into the chip. It is possible to unlock some locked CPUs; for instance, some AMD [[Athlon]] processors can be unlocked by connecting [[electrical contact]]s across points on the CPU's surface.  Some other processors from AMD and Intel are unlocked from the factory and labeled as an "enthusiast-grade" processors by end users and retailers because of this feature.  For all processors, increasing the FSB speed can be done to boost processing speed by reducing [[latency (engineering)|latency]] between CPU and the northbridge.

This practice pushes components beyond their specifications and may cause erratic behavior, overheating or premature failure. Even if the computer appears to run normally, problems may appear under a heavy load. Most [[Personal computer|PC]]s purchased from retailers or manufacturers, such as [[Hewlett-Packard]] or [[Dell]], do not allow the user to change the multiplier or FSB settings due to the probability of erratic behavior or failure.  Motherboards purchased separately to build a custom machine are more likely to allow the user to edit the multiplier and FSB settings in the PC's BIOS.