Credible information coming from TG Daily suggest that rumors about Intel preventing users from overclocking their next generation Nehalem platform are false. Instead, Intel is going to promote overclocking with Nehalem. Of course, there will be some challanges related to the integrated DDR3 memory controller used in the Bloomfield processors part of the new platform, but this won't stop Intel from making Nehalem overclockable.

When Nehalem comes to life, you can expect that our usual suspects will have overclocking motherboards ready - and Intel will have overclockable CPUs.

Only time will tell, and this time will come as soon as the first Bloomfield 8 core (16 threads) processors and motherboards for them start to surface in Q4'08. Intel is also rumored to be preparing to replace their Skulltrail gaming platform with a new one that will be based on the Nehalem platform.

During Computex 2008, Intel said that they'll change their strategy when it comes to overclocking and allowing users to squeeze extra performance from their systems. Overclocking capabilities will be the main feature of Intel's 4 series chipsets, said Eric Mentzer, Intel's vice president and general manager of the Graphics Development Group, in an interview at the Computex exhibition in Taipei. "We spend a lot of time working with our motherboard partners to figure out all the hidden bits inside, helping them figure out how to bring the best out of these platforms," Mentzer said. In the past and sometimes even today Intel used to lock down its chips to prevent them from overclocking, and that's exactly the time when terms like "FSB wall" started to mean something. Now the company is focusing to eliminate all the overclocking obstacles for us, but that will come with the cost of the warranty which won't cover death chips that were overclocked. Now comes the perfect time to ask, how is Intel going to know if my motherboard or CPU were overclocked?

ASUS, producer of top quality graphic solutions, has today introduced a new way for effective and simple overclocking with the ASUS EAH3850 SMART OC/HTDI/1G. This new Smart OC Series will allow users to increase voltages only when needed with the simple push of a button - providing them with up to 12% performance upgrades. The EAH3850 SMART OC also comes with a patent-approved luminant LED DVI output and stylish back sustainer; while the exclusive Glaciator Fansink will keep the GPU 20ºC cooler than reference designed fansinks. On top of all this, the ASUS EAH3850 SMART OC incorporates a large onboard memory size of 1GB - designed specifically to provide feature-rich DirectX 10 gaming and the best multimedia playback at ultra-high resolutions and maximum quality settings.

It seemed that no matter what, nobody could get their A64 up past 4.2GHz. When people's chips didn't simply crap out, they got cold bugs. However, the Black Edition cards really changed things, and someone finally got lucky. An overclocker named Kris recently submitted the valid result of 4851MHz from their A64 5000+. Kris used an Abit AN-M2HD motherboard, based on the NVIDIA GeForce 7050 chipset. Nordic Hardware is currently working with CPU-Z to completely validate this claim. After all, this is a monumental achievement, considering the last A64 record was 4.26GHz.

The AMD HD 3870X2 graphics processor needs no introduction. However, as some overclockers have already found out, there's no easy way to control voltages to get extremely high clocks out of their $400+ graphics card. Assuming you do not have a VCO PLL divider bug in your card's BIOS (which will limit the core clock to 860MHz no matter what), the only thing really stopping you from reaching 3DMark record books is a pesky voltage problem. Since the power layout of the 3870 is completely different from the 3870X2, the 3870X2 voltages cannot be controlled through software.

Fortunately for all you hardcore overclockers out there with 3870X2s and meaty power supplies, extreme overclocker "Shamino" published a voltage modification guide.

Enjoy.

ASUS has today introduced the world's first overclocking version of the latest generation of AMD GPUs - the ATI Radeon HD 3650 chipset, with the ASUS EAH3650 TOP. This powerful graphics card lets users enjoy an outstanding 10% improvement in gaming experiences; while both the ASUS EAH3650 TOP/HTDI/256M and the EAH3650/HTDI/256M are designed to provide feature-rich DirectX 10.1 gaming and the best multimedia playback while consuming less power with the new power efficient 55nm processors. Furthermore, the equipped Glaciator Fansink will keep the GPU 12ºC cooler than reference designed fansinks.

GIGABYTE has launched an overclocking contest open to anyone in the US or Canada with a GIGABYTE Intel X38 or P35 series motherboard. There is a grand prize of $2,500 for the winner, along with a GIGABYTE X48 motherboard, with the runners-up getting cash prizes ranging from $200 to $2,000 as well as goodies such as laptop bags. The contest involves overclocking your processor and uploading your 3Dmark06 score to GIGABYTE, before going head-to-head against other users, with the overclock receiving the most votes becoming the winner. The contest will run until 20th January next year - for more details, check out this page.

When AMD first released the 5000+ version of the Black Edition series of processors, it seemed pretty unimpressive. However, the Black Edition processors are a lot like the old FX processors: they come with an unlocked multiplier, and are hand-picked for overclocking. And so, while the Black Edition processors may not be the best at stock clocks, they certainly are good at overclocking. Just as an example, a Chinese overclocker was able to push his 5000+ Black Edition to a respectable 3.5GHz on stock cooling.

Nobody is ever satisfied with just leaving a world record intact. And so, renowned overclocker "MickeyMouse" recently slapped together a Core 2 Duo E6850 clocked at 5,190MHz , two ATI Radeon HD 2900XT's in CrossFire, a couple gigabytes of DDR3 clocked at 923 MHz with 7-6-5-15 timings. With a little help from liquid nitrogen and dry ice, MickeyMouse pushed his system all the way to 34,792 points, snagging the world record. MickeyMouse aspires to break 35,000 points.

Jon "elmor" Sandström decided to have another crack at the record books, and was recently gratified. Using a fully modded ASUS P5W64 WS Pro, a Core 2 Extreme X6800, 2GB of Mushkin XP2-8500 (running on a 1:1 ratio at 3-3-3-5), an S3 Trio64+ PCI graphics card, a Silverstone Zeus 850W power supply, and of course, several liters of liquid nitrogen, Elmor set a new Core 2 Duo speed record. His Core 2 Extreme X6800 reached speeds of 5854 MHz, as proven by his CPU-Z Validation. Rumor has it that Elmor still has 30 liters of LN2, and is going to try beating the SuperPi record.

Asustek Computer, one of the world's largest producers of computer components, on Tuesday unveiled what it calls "the world's first hardware based real-time overclocking device for graphics cards" along with its new Nvidia GeForce 8600 GT-based graphics board. The tool may be useful for not very experienced overclockers.

Asustek's OC Gear real-time overclocking device should be installed into a spare 5.25" bay and connected to an USB port. Specially developed software will allow end-users to adjust system master volume, graphics processing unit's (GPU's) clock-speed, GPU fan speed using a simple knob as well as monitor GPU temperature and current frames per second (FPS) information.

The EN8600 GT OC Gear graphics card from Asus is equipped with 256MB of high-speed 1ns GDDR3 memory as well as high-performance cooling system, thus, can provide sufficient overclocking potential for those seeking additional performance.The Asus OC Gear device itself is also compatible with various graphics cards by Asustek Computer, the company said, however, it did not reveal whether the software needed for Asus OC Gear will support other than EN8600 GT graphics boards.

Most people might think that an old application such as Aquamark cannot be used to judge the gaming performance of systems that are designed to run games like Company Of Heroes and Supreme Commander. Well, to a lot of overclockers, Aquamark is still a very useful tool to benchmark computers.

And on to the juicy stuff. HWBot user Joe_Cool, on May 31st, officially smashed the Aquamark record to smithereens. Joe_Cool got his score of 267,877 points with...

• A lot of liquid nitrogen, enough to cool both his CPU and GPU.
• An Intel Core 2 Extreme X6800 @ 5247MHz
• An NVIDIA 8800GTS @ 828/1134 (2268 DDR) MHz

Joe_Cool is still testing with this deadly combination, so he may smash his own record in the coming days. We'll keep you posted.

Here is the result and result details.