How to Use the MSI Overclocking Center

Overclocking hardware involves changing the speed and/or timing values of system components, such as the processor, memory or video card. Increasing the speed or changing the timing of these components can increase the performance, but can also increase heat output and potentially affect stability. Additionally, overclocking may reduce the lifespan of your hardware because of the parts running hotter than normal. Use caution when attempting to overclock your system -- you may, for example, only want to make small increases in values to see how they affect your system before making additional increases.

When you run the application, you see a main System Info tab with three sub-tabs: Motherboard, Memory and PCI. These tabs display information about your hardware and the things connected to your motherboard. The Motherboard tab displays information about your motherboard, processor and BIOS. The Memory tab has the total amount of memory, as well as information about each of the filled slots and their memory timings. The PCI, or Peripheral Component Interconnect, tab has information about all the components connected to the motherboard. You do all of the actual overclocking with this utility via the main tab, labeled "D.O.T.", which stands for Dynamic Overclocking Technology.

The main D.O.T. tab includes the sub-tabs Basic and Advance. The Basic tab has some preset profiles for overclocking, including Cooling, Silence, Default, Game or Cinema. These are all quick and basic methods for influencing the overall performance or operation of your system, without having to tweak a bunch of individual overclocking values. Profiles like Cooling or Silence may actually slightly underclock the system to help it run cooler and quieter, which uses less power.

The Advance sub-tab allows you to modify the five included preset profiles. This section is for experienced users who want to manually tweak specific values, such as change processor core speeds and voltages for any of the profiles. For instance, if you think a profile is too conservative and want to lower or increase affected values even further, then you can do that here. Use the Advance sub-tab only if you're an experienced user. Overclocking hardware can be a tricky and inexact process, and any performance gains may be entirely negligible and not worth the risk.