How to overclock your netbook

Overclocking an Intel Atom-powered netbook is a bit like rigging a Sinclair C5 to run off-road, but just because it's pointless, that doesn’t mean it can’t be done.

To be fair, both ASUS and MSI provided the option to overclock their early netbooks by a small amount to give an extra bit of performance on battery power, but the setting only overrode the default behaviour of under-clocking the processor when there’s no mains power.

Computer World has taken things a step further and compiled a list of ways to overclock a netbook if you’re looking a) can’t afford a more powerful portable and b) can afford to burn out your processor when it all goes wrong.

The list kicks off with the usual overclocking method of messing with front-side bus settings and since no netbook actually offers access to this in the BIOS, Computer World recommends an opens-source application called SetFSB.

It goes on to cover a dedicated overclocking tool for Eee PC owners that goes beyond the options offered by ASUS’ own Super Hybrid Engine software and also covers the GMABooster tool for squeezing some much-needed extra oomph from onboard graphics.

Owners of ‘ Hackintosh’ netbooks are also catered for and even the HP Mini 2140 is singled out for special attention and attack with a soldering iron.

Few of these overclocking options are foolproof, but taking a hot metal stick to your motherboard aside, none seem to be particularly risky (despite our initial concern) and the biggest problem seems to be the amount of effort required to get some of the options to work at all. Still, it’s an interesting article that’s well worth a read if you’re an adventurous netbook owner.

[ Computer World via Liliputing]