The Mac platform is (still) a long way from the PC, and I am not talking about the operating system here, or the ability to customize it from the hardware point of view. In the last years, overclocking became a practice so popular with PC users, that even hardware manufacturers started to come up with factory overclocked video cards, or unlocked processors. Of course that overclocking has its risks, but you can minimize them by using the right hardware and, sometimes, the right software, as it happens with the Mac Pro. Yes, you heard that right, the Mac Pro can be overclocked, and a software tool has just been released for this purpose!
With the help of the ZDNet Germany team, "Mac Pro overclocking" is no longer a dream! The ZDNet Clock Tool allows you to easily push Intel-based Mac Pros higher than their default speeds, and so far, recent systems using Xeon processors have been reported to reach 3.24GHz from the 2.8GHz default speed. I know it's not as much as some PCs can reach, but let's remember that Mac Pros come with a standard cooling system that is probably the one limiting the overclocking possibilities.
The interesting part is that this software tool, apart from simply pushing the CPU higher, also increases the system bus and memory speed as a result, but since the Mac Pro uses only memory with error correction, an excessive overclock won't end up with wrong data written on the hard drive, as it happens with some PCs pushed beyond the decent limit.
Unfortunately, nothing is perfect, because the current version of this software overclocking tool works by loading a kernel extension that pushes clock speeds up after the system starts, and without it, the Mac Pro would get back to stock speeds as soon as the system is rebooted.
While I wouldn't recommend ZDNet Clock Tool to those who just got their Mac Pro, I can imagine that, in a few months, this software will reach a level where overclocking a Mac becomes much easier and risk-free than now. Anyway, I can't imagine Apple agree with overclocking its computers, at least for now, so if you overclock a Mac Pro, something blows up, and they catch you...then it's "bye-bye, warranty..."
