Does over-clocking automatically void a manufacturer's warranty ie. CPU and video card??  Also are the benefits worth the risk?

It may void the warranty.

Benefits:  Faster performance from cheaper components.

Risks:
Short Term: System crash/lock-up due to out-of-spec timing of signals within the part.
Long Term: Electromigration causing permanent part damage due to possibly required increased voltages.

I used to overclock in the old days, but processors and cards are so fast now, there really isn't a need unless you're a hard-core tweaker. As far as long-term damage to your system, by the time that happens you'd probably upgrade anyway, IMHO.

Overclocking will void your warranty. It is not worth the problems it causes. Software problems and the heat will cause its own crashes. Remember heat is your computers enemy. Overclocking creates excess heat.

as for damage, depends on the chip, the amount it's over clocked, and if there's adequate
cooling. some chips, like the celerons for example(I'm sure one of the newer processor lines can also be overclocked easily), can easily and fairly safely be overclocked. others will fry out just by thinking of overclocking them, and with other lines of processors the only difference in the different speed chips is that the manufacture has, in effect, told you to overclock it by telling you the clock multiplier to use

[url]http://www.anandtech.com/[/url] is heavily into overclocking.  Good industry contacts, especially with AMD.

Okay let’s start of by dispelling Overclocking myths. It will not hurt your system. I have never heard of any on ever hurting there system by properly overclocking a system. I have been over clocking since the birth of Pentium’s and have yet ever ruin a processor, ram or any card.

What overclocking will do?
increase heat on the CPU so you will need a better heat sink look at Alpha’s, increase stress on system components(I have old Intel starfighter 4mb video card that has been in an overclocked system till last week and has yet failed),
Yes it will shorten the life of a CPU from the 7yr industry standard to??(Have yet to kill my 266 PII @300)
Gives you free speed, buy cheaper CPU’s overclock them you now save $200 for ammo.

Think of it as hopping up your car/truck, yes it will shorten the life of the comments but lets get real how many of you have put a hyper cheap in you truck and broke all the parts??

If your system locks up or is unstable get better cooling or slow down you CPU find its happy spot. Void a warrantee, yes if you get caught. But the stars and the heavens will not fall from you overclocking. Hell I run SCSI card which is probably the most sensitive card to have in a system and never had any errors.

Clinth

From a water cooled P3 850 @ 1190

Never overclock! Overclocking makes the baby jesus cry!

And there it is.

You're about 7 years late.  

For the most part, overclocking isn't necessary as components are pretty freakin' cheap.  In the pentium/k6 days, yeah...but now...most standard machines over 1ghz suffer more from ram and disk bottlenecks than processor speed.

It's still fun on occasion to try it and see what you can do.  Think of it like the people who soup up honda Civics.  You can go a bit faster,  but you're still driving a civic.

If properly cooled you can safely overclock CPU's but I agree with sfoo, why bother. As far as video cards, go to [url]www.newegg.com[/url] and look at the Gainward cards. They're designed to be overclocked. Mine overclocked itself when I installed the drivers.

Look no further.
Some of these guys have immersed the entire computer with the exception of the hard drive and power supply in Coolinol.
Hardcore.
[url]overclockers.com[/url]

Liquid Nitrogen-It's agood thing!

Until it spills.

Celerons overclock very well.  I suggest getting your CPUs at Fry's.  They never seem to have a problem taking back "defective" CPUs.  [;)]