Overclock your netbook in 5 easy ways

Be careful - Try this at your own risk

Overclocking, one of those things a geek likes to have his hands on has finally reached the Intel Atom netbooks. Overclocking is the process of running a computer component at a higher clock rate (more clock cycles per second) than it was designed for or was specified by the manufacturer, usually practiced by enthusiasts seeking an increase in the performance of their computers.

Since people have been Overclocking their beasts (read machines) to get the maximum out of them right form Day 1, Asus soon began shipping its own overclocking app, the Super Hybrid Engine, with every Eee. That lets users boost the speed of most Eee PCs by up to 10% while staying within warranty. The newly released Asus 1101HA can be run up to 30% faster. The Atom powered ASUS netbook has an automatic overclocking when it is getting powered from the wall. The overclock drops to stock when on battery. There is also an ASUS utility that allows for minor overclocking. The hardware is not up to being overclocked nor is the cooling anywhere near sufficent to handle an overclock. This can help if someone is interested in getting their apps to load faster or high definition videos to play stutter-free.

Below you can find a guide to overclock your dear processor but before you dip in, here is a word of caution: Mostly your netbook should be running a Windows rather than Linux. The battery will definitely drop, your netbook could crash or freeze if you raise the speed and temp can rise too high, too fast. Moreover the noise from the netbook's fan will rise. To add the Jelly to the cake, in case if you accidentally fry your motherboard using these third-party apps, don't expect your vendor to honor the warranty....

Use SETFSB to play with your machine’s front-side bus:

Abo's SetFSB lets you tune the speed of your CPU, memory and key controllers. Its got no cost. Use it with Intel Atom powered notebooks such as Dell, Acer, HP etc. Serves well for Windows vista, XP, even with Windows 7. Usability is a bit of a  challenge, due to the need to select the correct clock generator for your CPU and employ separate temperature-monitoring software such as Everest Ultimate Edition.

Upgrade your EEE to EEECTL:

Apart from the new Eee 1101HA, which can be run up to 30% faster, Asus netbooks can be pushed only 10% faster with the included overclocking app, the Super Hybrid Engine. For more, you need to turn to Eeectl. Also works for the older 700 series. There have been some reported complaints in the software and for some users; the developer seems to have permanently halted development on Eeectl a year ago.

Provide a high to the graphics using GMABooster:

An app called GMABooster by Vladimir Plenskiy can take your netbook's Intel graphics chip from 133/166 MHz to 400 MHz without increasing the voltage (power drain). Works smoothly on Acer Aspire One, most Asus netbooks, Dell Inspiron Minis, the MSI Wind, the HP Mini line (except for the original 2133), the Samsung NC10 and others. Nonpaying users must re-download and install a new version each week.

Enhance your netbook’s graphics with GMA Overclocking:

Hacking your netbook to run Mac OS X has been popular for the past year. A free three-month-old app called GMA OverClocking from the developer Thiana lets Hackintosh netbook users set their Intel GMA integrated graphics chip to run at the maximum 400 MHz. First install Apple's Computer Hardware Understanding Developer (CHUD) tools, then run the GMA OverClocking installer, type one line in Terminal and reboot.

This is an exclusive for HP mini 240 users: you can Overclock  your machine with a hardware hack method:

HP puts a tiny pin on the motherboard of its Mini 2140 netbook to prevent users from overclocking it. A developer known as Jenny, a member of HPMiniGuide.com's forum, figured out how to disable the pin in order to use SetFSB to overclock his Mini. Jenny had to figure out which "really tiny" resistor on the motherboard was doing the locking, cut out the resistor, and then use a soldering iron with a "super-small" tip to resolder the piece in a different location. Then he had to run the SetFSB utility. For those handy with a soldering iron, good luck. Others should keep well away.