Quote: "over clocking is basically removing safety restrictions on your computers processor"
Wrong!
Quote: "You get free programs that will change the settings automatically so that it is more "safe" so that you don't frizzle your pc"
not necessarily..
Processor's speed is determined by FSB (front side bus) and the multiplier. A typical example is an FSB of 200MHZ with a Multiplier of X11. as the name suggests, multiply the FSB to get it's actual speed:
200 * 11 = 2200mhz, or 2.2ghz
there are 2.. ok 3 major factors which determine how high you can take the FSB and Multiplier. Firstly, if your motherboard/BIOS and.or CPU allow it in the first place. Chances are if you bought your pc from a major retailer, the settings will be locked as a safety feature, or in other cases you may have to press a "secret button" during boot-up. its common for CPUs to have their multiplier locked, but not the FSB. The exception to this that im aware of is the AMD black edition CPU's which are designed for enthusiasts who want to overclock and know what they're doing.
Secondly, you need to keep your processor cool, and remember that when playing games, the cpu will reach higher temperature than when you're sat toying around in bios. Most CPU's can live up to around 80celcius/175farenheit, but it's best to keep below half of that. the cooler your cpu is, the more stable it is and the longer it'll last. keep a close eye on the temperature of your cpu. if you can't see the temperature while gaming, check it immediately after as the cpu may cool quite quickly if it gets above 50 celcius i'd tune it down a bit, or go out and buy a better cooler. Note, it may not be the cpu cooler that's the problem, it may be that you case fans aren't good enough to extract the hot air from inside the case. clean the fans and heatsinks regularly as dust only insulates heat.
Thirdly, the voltage. Like a car, you need to provide the CPU with extra power to maintain the speeds without stalling. You should be able to get away with a 5-10% increase in speed without needing to increase the voltage. if your pc begins to stall, increase the voltage just a bit. if you've increased the voltage and the pc is still stalling, then you've gone too far, turn the FSB and voltage back down to the last stable setting, and wait until you have a new cooler or more reliable power supply before trying again.
you can get software which will do all this for you automatically, testing the stability for a few minutes before overclocking further. however, it's best to use the software recommended by your motherboard, if you purchased the motherboard, you should have a disc that comes with it, including the drivers and a specialised overclocking software/tool for that motherboard.
what happens if you've gone too far? most motherboards will have some sort of safety against over-overclocking. most latest tech motherboards will detect a problem due to overclocking, and automatically lower the speed, sometimes the system will automatically reboot while doing this, other times it may occur without you even noticing in the middle of a game. with slightly older motherboards, the pc will beep at you when you turn it on, and then it refuses to boot. look around on your motherboard for a reset switch which will reset the cpu to normal speed, or an underclocking switch which will typically reduce it to half the normal speed. chances are the pc still wont boot up straight away as the pc's cirtcuits will still be recovering, cpu cooling back down and the capacitors discharging etc.
check to see if your motherboard has any overclocking safety features first, before even thinking about overclocking! some CPU's will fry on even the slightest speed increase, depending on the cooling, age/condition, grade of silicon, or manufacturers design.
