How to Start Overclocking

1. It is essential that you know and understand your system, and what all the settings are.
2. It is essential that test your hardware throughly, particularly your motherboard, RAM and CPU at standard settings, with your CPU at default speed, your RAM with manufacturer latency settings set manually, and all the other settings for voltages, etc., set to manufacturer specifications. The starting point for all hardware testing should be memtest (http://www.memtest.org).
3. I have a strong preference for letting my system burn-in, in normal use, for a week or two before attempting to overclock. This is particularly true with a completely new build, with new components, since I want to be absolutely certain that if I must RMA a component, that I have done nothing to possibly void any warranties.
4. Then I proceed slowly. Personally, I have had much better long-term results moving my clock speeds up slowly. I understand impatience may tug at you to get going, but my best advice is to move slowly and deliberately. First, start by moving up your FSBs a few mHz a day, and running with that. You will reach a point where your system is unstable, either in memtest, or within your OS. At that point, I increase vCORE one tick at a time, to see if I can stabilize the system that way. I never increase the vCORE beyond a prudent level. I strongly advise you not to do so either. Remember, excessive vCORE is a CPU killer.
5. When vCORE no longer helps, or you have reached a prudent maximum voltage, the next step is to increase the vDIMM a tick or two, if that is possible. Remember, I said earlier that most motherboards were somewhat limited as to how far you can increase vDIMM.
6. The next step is to increase the latency of the RAM settings. This requires some experimenting, because it is difficult to absolutely tell you which, or whether any, of the RAM settings might help. Try each, and memtest to see if you can get stable.
7. If that doesn't work, the next step is to see whether the RAM or the CPU has maxed out. To do this, take the RAM out of the equation by changing the ratio to 5:4, or 3:2 even - it really doesn't matter which. Since the RAM is now running slower, this gives you room to increase the FSBs on the CPU to see if it still has some room for increased speed.
8. Either the CPU has more room or not, and you will quickly find that out in the prior step. If it does, then your choice is to run at whatever maximum you have reached or to run the RAM at 5:4 at a higher FSB. Benchmarking will determine which alternative produces better overall system performance. If the CPU doesn't have more room, and it is unlocked, you can reduce the multiplier and see how far you can push your RAM. Again, benchmarking will tell you what combination of multiplier and FSB gives the optimal system performance. If the CPU is locked, you may have maxed out.
9. In any case, the trick is to maximize overall system performance, testing the results with various benchmarking software, to try to find the "sweet spot" of which combination of FSBs, multiplier, voltage settings (remember my continuing warnings about this), and latencies give the best results.
10. There are two additional tricks: First there is one further voltage adjustment you can make;and that is to increase the voltage to your video card, and other slot based peripheral cards by a bit. Sometimes this can help to stabilize an otherwise unstable system. The other is to make sure that you have your peripheral frequencies locked - some motherboards have this lock, others do not, and in some that have it, it simply doesn't work.
11. Finally, if you still want to push further, join us and post for help at http://www.abxzone.com and let one of us see if we can help you make a few adjustments here and there to increase your overclock a bit more.

Conclusion

Overclocking is like any other hobby. Fun, good clean fun, as long as it doesn't become a compulsion. It can be a real learning experience, helping you to understand how your hardware works, how the hardware components work hand in hand to maximize your computing experience. It is also safe as long as you are prudent and reasonable in your demands on your hardware. Enjoy it, be safe, and happy computing.

Why I emphasize being careful!