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Dell’s latest Gen5 gaming desktop will give you the option to overclock the Intel Pentium D 840 Extreme Edition dual-core microprocessor from its original 3.20GHz clock speed to 3.40GHz and 3.60GHz speeds. The interesting thing to point out is that changing the clock speed is all you can do in the BIOS. There are no settings for altering the voltage, DRAM to system bus dividers or any of the other typical "high-end" overclocking options. Although Dell doesn’t officially condone overclocking, it doesn’t say users shouldn’t do it either. For example, when you go to the BIOS, you will find the following notice warning you about the potential dangers of overclocking:

"Dell does not recommend operating the CPU at a frequency that is greater than the manufacturer’s design specification. Operating the CPU in this manner may cause your system to shut down unexpectedly causing loss of data and may reduce the operational life of the processor. If the system shuts down unexpectedly or is unstable, please select a lower CPU operating frequency. Please refer to the tech sheet included with your system for additional information."

Since this is only a 12.5 percent overclock from 3.20GHz to 3.60GHz, you will not find too many applications that will be unstable at such speeds. Even if you do, you will always have the option to reduce the clock speed. By warning the user in the BIOS, Dell has taken care of the basic caveats that a company must provide for a "risky" activity like this. Interestingly enough, Dell never says that users will void their warranty if they overclock the system, which leads me to believe that Dell may have tested each system thoroughly at each speed to make sure majority of the overclocking attempts meets their stability and safety standards. Now, as far as the technical support issues are concerned, you can be rest assured that Dell’s technical support will request you to lower the clock speed to default to get to the root of almost any problem. Additionally, if they determine the problem to be the result of your decent 12.5 percent overclock, they will request you to keep the microprocessor at its default clock speed.

In my opinion, Dell has got the initial steps just about right for their target customer. They are not enabling the high-end BIOS settings, such as CPU and memory voltages that would result in component failure or in system’s failure to post. Secondly, they have given the initial warning, so users can’t complain and hold Dell responsible for their overclocking experiments. This way Dell gets to avoid the unnecessary legal headaches that may arise in the future and users get to enjoy a bit faster system. Thirdly, from what I assume, Dell has made sure that the system is stable at the 3.40GHz and 3.60GHz speeds in majority of the applications to make this option actually beneficial to their customers. By doing that, they are preventing people from calling this feature a mere marketing ploy.

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