I have a question for you all. I am new to the overclocking scene and was wondering the best way to do it or if anyone could help me out.

Get a good heat sink or water cooling, up your voltage and up your frequency.

Get a good heat sink, and a cheap proccessor.

Or http://www.overclockersclub.com

It's not as hard as it seems. What chip do you have? Basically you'll up your Front Side Bus as far as it can go stable, with the voltages that you have now. Once it starts getting unstable, then increase your voltages by a little bit and you should be able to go farther. DO NOT expect to max everything out at once, that's how you fry components. Don't just up your Vcore to the max setting, thinking that it will help the most. If you have an unlocked AMD, then having a higher FSB and lower multiplier is better than having a slower FSB and higher multi. For instance, if you want to run 2.2 GHz, running at 200 FSB with an 11 multi is better than running 176 FSB with a 12.5 multi, even though they're the same clock speed (200x11=176x12.5).

RAM is critical when you overclock, and it can start to become the limiting factor once you get high enough. Also, make sure that you have a pretty good PSU. Like the others have said, you need a good heatsink or alternative cooling methods to cool that processor down. The processor only gets hotter if you increase the vcore.

tell us what hardware you plan to overclock.

I'll tell you, one of the easiest and safest overclocks is to get a NForce2 motherboard (ultra 400 chipset) and a Mobile Athlon XP 2400/2600+

Anyone have an AMD FX-53? I hear those are fairly easy to overclock.

Just to note: Your warranty is void with AMD if you use thermal compound or any heatsink other than their's. It probably doesn't matter, but some of you may like to keep your warranties for a few years before you start overclocking.

The FX-53s aren't really easier to overclock than other chips, they're just so damn fast to begin with. On the topic of voiding the warranty, exactly how would they be able to tell if you didn't use their heatsink or thermal compound? No one really cares about that, and it's not like you can't send the chip back for an RMA. There is no possible way of knowing what heatsink or thermal past you use.

The above post was mine.

Yes, I agree with the HeatSink theory. They won't be able to know. Make sure you buy Retail and not OEM if you want warranties though. Thermal Compound is a bit trickier. You may have to spend some time cleaning off your cpu before you send it in.

All it takes is 2 minutes of cleaning with a little 92% Isopropyl alcohol.

the first rule of overclocking is: you get what you paid for.
the second rule of overclocking is: things will go wrong so be prepared.
everything after that is easy.

You also have to be incredibly lucky.

luck does have lots to do with it but i still refer you to rule number 1.

Personally I never touched anything but the FSB on my processor, just to play it "safe". As long as you take small steps of 1-5mhz up on the FSB, it's unlikely you can cause any damage to your CPU or any other components. Worst case, it won't boot properly, you reset your settings and start over no harm done. Be sure to run prime95 and test your stability at every small FSB increase. It's available on seek.