Overclocking the processor

[Getback]

Any advantages to this? Is there a real performance gain or is there real trouble in the future? Whenever I read a review about a processor some one buys a 3 gig processor and then overclocks to 3.8.

I have never overclocked for 2 reasons, stability and heat.

[humble]

To a degree current processors are designed for overclocking since it helps to sell product. So are many current motherboards. If you have the right MB you can overclock quite a bit with stock cooling and be just fine. No question that once you start to raise the temps more then 10-15% over stock (just my thoughts) you might create longterm issues...but most CPU's are running way below any critical temp at this point.

[Gunthr]

There are very real gains in performance at the cost of more heat produced and shortening the useful life of the chip.  

Its best to think of overclocking as an enjoyable hobby if you don't already know much about it.  There can be setbacks and time consuming issues to overcome.

You can easily overclock many cpu's simply by raising the frontside bus.

I've been running my 2.8 gig cpu at 3.2 gig for the past two years.  Very noticable diff in performance, and I will be upgrading b/4 the cpu reaches the end of its life.