Remote controlled overclocking
In case there was any doubt that Asus takes
its overclocking seriously, it’s included some excellent software with its
Republic of Gamers motherboards for overclocking your PC remotely. Called ROG
connect, it allows you to connect a laptop or netbook directly to the iROG chip
on the motherboard via USB and overclock in real time. Even better, Extreme
editions of Asus’s motherboards let you connect to the service via Bluetooth.
ASUS
ROG iDirect: Overclock from your iPhone or iPad
When connecting via a phone, the
overclocking interface is simplified, using sliders with the touchscreen of
your phone. You can also use it to monitor your system’s temperature and
health. Using a laptop or phone as a second screen to do your overclocking is
incredibly useful – especially as the iROG interface deals directly with the motherboard
rather than going through an operating system. This means tweaks and changes
can be implemented on the fly without interrupt what you’re doing. Running a
benchmark tool and then adjusting the overclocking settings on a laptop is a
great way to see how your changes are affecting your PC’s performance straight
away, and is a great reason to get an Asus Republic of Gamers motherboard.
Asus isn’t the only remote overclocking
specialist though – MSI offers and Android-based version of Afterburner to clock
up your GPU wirelessly from your phone too.
CPU: AMD Overdrive
Of the two main processor manufacturers,
it’s AMD that comes out on top with its Overdrive software. Of course,
Overdrive is only going to be of use if you have an AMD processor, but the
software is robust enough to have convinced a swathe of regular overclockers
away from using the BIOS to tweak the settings.
Take at face value, AMD Overdrive is simple
and easy to understand, and gives you a good overview of your processor’s
health and performance. However, dig a little deeper and you’ll uncover some
fantastic tools and settings that can unlock the overclocking potential of your
machine.
Make
sure you download the excellent AMD Overdrive tool if you have a suitable
processor
There are two ways to use AMD Overdrive.
The Novice mode makes things simple by providing a slider that controls setting
such as the PCIe clock speed. More settings can be accessed by switching to the
Advanced Control mode, which lets you change – among many settings – clock
multipliers for individual cores and Hyper Transport frequency. AMD Overdrive
also handles memory timings and on the main overview page you can keep an eye
on your system’s health as you tweak.
Even better, there’s also a built-in
benchmark that can access the changes you’ve made and highlight any
improvements while also testing the overclocked system for stability. By
default, the test runs for an hour and puts a test load on your processor,
making it run at full capacity. The benchmark can also be set to run for a wide
range of time from a mere five minutes to seven days.
Helpfully, the changes that you make in AMD
Overdrive are implemented immediately and don’t require a restart, which takes
away a lot of the thumb-twiddling tedium of waiting for your PC to reboot, only
to find that it’s unstable – leading to further tweaks and countless restarts.
If you want a completely hands-off approach to overclocking, there’s also an
Auto Clock function that can automatically tweak your system for. Of course,
that means you miss out on a lot of the fun of overclocking, but you could
always use the settings it chooses as a base and work up from there.
