Hands on - Performance - Life in the slow lane. Slowing down your CPU could lead to a quieter life - and it saves power too.

Publication: Personal Computer World

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COPYRIGHT 2005 VNU Business Media Europe

Byline: Gordon Laing.

This column - newly renamed Performance - traditionally celebrates pushing components further than they were designed to go, but in this month's edition we're going the opposite direction: not overclocking, but underclocking.

Underclocking has many useful applications and is already in wide use. Portable computers have long employed underclocking to run their processors slower than normal, thereby consuming less power and extending the battery life.

However, I suspect there are few people who'd underclock their desktop processor for this reason alone. The important potential side effect, though, is lower heat generation, which in turn means less cooling is required. Indeed, with the right degree of underclocking, you may be able to get...

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