Harry wrote:so my laptop has a 1.6ghz processor. i bought it new about 2 years ago, i've never overclocked it but i just ran some stress tests for curiosity's sake and it reaches 2.5ghz, which is like an extra 65%. from what i know about overclocking, its dangerous to overclock it by more than 10-15%. am i at risk of cooking my laptop? when my cpu use is high, it reaches temperatures of 65Celsius. idk if thats hot or what
As long as your processor temps are normal it should be fine. The average temperatures of your processor will vary. Especially if you are gaming, but here's a general idea of what your laptop temps should be.
Laptop idle: 35-45C
Laptop gaming: 65-75C
Keep in mind these temps are on the higher side and they will vary depending on the games you are running and how much airflow it's getting. Once your processor starts hitting above 80C, that is when you should start worrying. It's capable of running at 90C, but at those temps you're putting a lot of strain on the chip and it's possible you might fry the chip if constantly running at these temps.
By overclocking it, you might lose a bit of lifespan on the processor since it's estimated lifespan is based on it's stock speed. And since you are overclocking it, you are putting more stress on it, but most processors have a 5-10 year life span. Each processor could be manufactured different, even if you bought 2 of the exact same processors, one might last 15 years while the other might last 5. They say overclocking at 10% really won't hurt anything (my friend had his constantly overclocked at 10% for 3 years.) If you're trying to push it's limits to run a game then I would say go for it. Get your moneys worth before it dies on you naturally, but I wouldn't leave it overclocked at 50% 24/7 because you're putting unnecessary strain on the chip when doing things that don't require over clocking it like browsing the web or animating in pivot.
TL:DR; As long as your temps are normal, overclocking your chips/cards won't put much extra strain on them, but there is no doubt your temps will increase the more you overclock them unless you have a decent after-market cooler or some form of liquid cooling to keep the temps down.
Edit: Look up the model of your chip online. Most intel chips are made to be overclocked, and it might tell you how much it's meant to be overclocked based on their own stress tests.