Part 3: What are the disadvantages of overclocking? Here's the bad news... Overclocking your system has many down-sides as well. First and foremost, it voids your warranty...and as I'm sure most people know, an Applecare warranty is a very good warranty. There is also the possibility that while you are attempting to overclock, you might touch another piece on the inside of the computer...and if you aren't grounded properly, that could cause a serious problem. Static electricity is a computer chip's worst nightmare. If any static touches anything on the inside of the case, you can pretty much say "Bye-bye!" to your entire motherboard. Another thing that might happen is that when you are pulling off the jumper cap or putting on the individual jumpers, you might accidentally bend one or two of the pins. This is not too much of a big deal, as long as you've got a pair a of tweezers handy to gently (and I stress the word "gently") bend the pin back into proper position. Finally, the last major thing that could happen is that your CPU could burn out. If you overclock your chip to the extreme, it could overheat and fry. You have to make sure to keep a close eye on your CPU's temperature for the first week or two, even if you only overclocked it by 50MHz...it can still have a very dramatic effect on the CPU's temperature. Now for the small stuff... Frequent crashes/freezes can occur when you overclock. If this happens often (two or three times a day), try bringing the speed down by 50MHz or so. And the last thing that can happen: Data corruption. It can happen. For no reason at all, bang! Your hit with an alert box telling you that your finance and tax information is corrupt and can't be opened. Always make sure to have your important data backed-up, or you might be on a speedy ride that could mess up your job, budget, or almost anything else.