What exactly are the risks of overclocking?
Overclocking can reap some big dividends, but if you’re not careful, it can also turn your nifty new CPU into a paperweight. As stated above, every processor has its limits. Exceed them at your own peril. Generally, even if you go past the point where the processor is stable, if you realize this and back the speed down, you should be fine. One way to hose your processor in a hurry, however, is to push the voltage too high. Any time you overclock your system components, you void a warranty of some sort, and you risk burning up your CPU, motherboard, hard drive, video card, and the neighbor’s cat, plus you might start a fire, burn down your house, and the heat could release an obscure microbe hidden deep in the bowels of your home that could bring plague and desolation to the entire human race. However, you’ll probably just experience a system hang and have to reboot.
