Hardware enthusiasm has just taken another step towards the mainstream. Buying a fast PC is merely a matter of money, but tweaking a system for ultimate performance still requires considerable knowledge and patience.

This is where Nvidia's new Enhanced Performance Profiles 2.0 (EPP 2.0) are supposed to step in. Launched with the new nForce 790i chipset, EPP 2.0 provides high-speed memory settings beyond the standard JEDEC ones.

Extra performance for free

Hardware is often capable of considerably higher settings than the current standard. Processors almost always run at least a few hundred megahertz faster than they are rated. Graphics card GPUs and memory usually do too. The results are extra performance for just a little bit of trial and error.

Memory has this ability as well, and most performance modules are aimed at this. If your motherboard only supports DDR2-800 as standard, then sticking in high-end memory with a faster rating won't do you much good. The standard latency timings (indicating how fast it responds to requests) may be better when running as DDR2-800. But you will get PC2-6400 bandwidth whether you like it or not - unless you have a poke in your BIOS and improve matters.

But memory overclocking really is a black art, by far the most complex and least rewarding of all the core hardware tweaks you can perform. Getting your CPU to run faster involves a juggling act between clock multiplier and FSB, with a bit of extra voltage to keep things stable.

You will get noticeably faster application performance in return. Graphics overclocking mostly involves increasing core and memory speeds until things fall over, unless you enter the shady world of hardware modification. This will provide faster gaming.

Memory, in contrast, has at least six variables to consider, and maybe more. You increase the speed of the memory by advancing the bus speed it is running on, but there is a clock divider to consider too. Then there are at least four timing values, which will have to be increased to allow the faster clock speed. Maybe a bit of extra voltage will keep things stable. Oh, and you might find increasing the motherboard Northbridge voltage beneficial, too.

With the trade-offs between timings and brute sustained throughput, you can never be certain that your tweaks will actually be faster, either. Only extensive performance testing of different configurations will tell you for sure. See what I mean about a black art?

EPP 2.0 and XMP - memory overclocking made easy

This is where EPP 2.0 comes in. The memory manufacturer will have tested its modules and found the optimum settings for you. Memory already has a bunch of standard settings stored in EEPROM on the module itself. These are called the SPD, and the motherboard reads this to work out how to configure the memory automatically.

Less than half the 256-byte EEPROM is actually used to store the SPD settings, however. So some of the remainder can be used to store the extra EPP 2.0 settings. A compatible motherboard will then have a single BIOS option to enable this configuration. Instead of juggling umpteen settings, you can simply select EPP 2.0 mode and the memory will be configured for you. Voila! One-click memory overclocking.

As its second-generation name implies, EPP 2.0 is not a brand new idea. It is essentially the DDR3 version of EPP, aka SLI Memory, which came out in 2006. Intel has also launched a similar idea in the shape of XMP, for its '3 series' P35 and X38 chipsets, plus the new X48 chipset which is currently arriving. Like EPP 2.0, XMP lets you choose a performance configuration beyond standard SPD with a single BIOS setting. Both formats are receiving a healthy level of support, particularly from Corsair.

Unfortunately, though, neither EPP 2.0 nor XMP really go far enough yet. They set your memory timings, FSB speed and voltage to values the RAM manufacturer knows its modules can cope with. But the rest of the system is still up to you. In particular, the FSB chosen by the profile could put your processor and Northbridge beyond their capabilities, without a bit of extra voltage.

So although EPP 2.0 and XMP are a step in the right direction towards performance overclocking for the masses, there's still quite a bit of a way to go before your granny could give it a whirl. Unless she has a PhD in computing, that is.