The february 2009 issue of PC User is just around the corner and being February, it’s our annual upgrade superguide where we cover the daylights out of the latest processors, motherboards, memory, coolers, power supplies and other odds and ends.

The issue has only just been put to bed in time before Christmas but it’s a cracker with lots of extras beyond just reviews of the latest components.

I’ve contributed a couple of surprises to the issue but the one I had quite a bit of fun with is finding out which of the latest CPUs is the most overclockable. I don’t want to give the game away but what I can say is that the days of needing water-cooling devices to get a processor up to 4GHz are gone. In fact, when you read the story, you’ll be surprised at just how easy it now is to crank up the latest CPUs well beyond their design spec.

However, I was intrigued to read today that while we might be enjoying Intel’s 45-nanometer chips and their overclockability (is that a word? well, it is now), Intel is expected to begin releasing the first of its 32-nanometer processors by the end of 2009. And I reckon overclocked clock speeds of 4.5 and even 5GHz won’t be out of the question.

Overclocking isn’t actually good for the CPU’s warranty – in fact, it kills it. And it’s probably not all that good for the CPU itself if the truth be known but there are two things that kill a CPU – heat and voltage. Too much of either and you can toast it faster than a marshmallow with an oxy-torch.

But each time Intel shrinks the die size, it reduces the amount of power dissipation to achieve a typical clock speed. That means raising the clock speed, and keeping the temperature and voltage within specification can get easier. Obviously, there are other issues involved but when you boil it down, overclock a CPU is no longer rocket science, particularly with the features built into many of today’s motherboards.

The February 2009 issue of PC User goes on sale January 2.

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