system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
ELI5: Overclocking

From what I understand, overclocking refers to getting your computer equipment to work faster. How does that work, and why is it even necessary?

EDIT: OK guys, I think I understand overclocking now. Thank you for all of your detailed answers.
gpt
First time answering on ELI5, here goes:

Computers or rather the microprocessors inside them, and most digital devices and chips use what is called a clock signal. In concept it is very similar the guy in front of a roman ship beating a drum to help the rowers keep their rhythm. Every time he hits the drum, all the rowers pull back in unison. 

Similarly, the clock signal is an electric signal that sends a brief pulse (which is an increase in voltage) and all the listening microprocessors do 1 unit of work. Some operations take 1 clock cycle to finish, some take several.

Now, faster this clock ticks, the faster the microprocessor works, and greater the work output. Again this would be similar to beating the drum faster, resulting in the ship moving faster.

It would be a fair question to ask at this point, why dont we just run our clock or drum as fast as we can, all the time? It is easy to see how rowing at a fast pace all the time wouldn't work. There are problems with high clock speeds in electronic circuits as well!

The foremost of which is heat production, the higher the clock speed, the more the heat generated within the processor. So unless you have a system in place to cool the processor very quickly, excessively high clock speeds heat up the processor and can damage it.

Manufacturers design for a certain clock speed, which is called the rated speed or stock speed. Running a processor at stock speed is deemed safe. Enthusiasts often try to increase this to get more work output from the processors. This would be termed "Overclocking". They will most often need to put in better cooling fans or radiators or such. Otherwise they risk damaging their processor and it wouldn't last very long.