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This is the essentials, there is muuuuuuch more than I can cover in this thread, look around in google for more info
hmmm where to start...well essentially there are four essentials you need to know.
1.FSB- and how it affects your computer
2.voltage- how and when to use it
3. Cooling
4. Stability
-programs needed-
CORE-Temp
Prime 95
So FSB, also known as the Front Side bus, This is the main setting in overclocking. When in your bios look for This field. Try raising it by 10 and testing if it is stable using Prime 95, if It can complete around ten ieterations of SMALL Ffts, try raising the FSB again by 10. In addition you will have to watch out for the speed your ram. The Speed of ram is in relation to your FSB, so it is possible to max out your ram before your processor. If you start to see Blue screen of deaths, you have gone way too far. Overall when it is all set and done you should be able to run prime 95 BLEND for 12hrs no errors.
Voltage-Raising voltage can help with stability and is essential for the high overclocks you see on this forum, but voltage raises tempurature in exponential rate so you will probably need aftermarket cooling. Using Coretemp, try to keep temps below 60c
Cooling- if you get intense about overclocking, head over to the cooling section and check out what they do over there, but for now with a light overclock, you should be fine with stock.
BTW. please post EVERYTHING about your comp. like ram speeds, timings, voltages, powersupply etc.
It will help us out in the long run
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