Raspberry Pi enthusiast Mike Walters pushed the RP2350 chip to extreme limits during Christmas holidays, achieving a remarkable 873.5MHz overclock using dry ice cooling. His experiments began with exploring the Pico 2's voltage regulator capabilities, which can be disabled to allow voltages above the standard 1.3V limit that constrained the original RP2040.

Initial tests revealed the chip's performance scaling with voltage: at 1.1V it ran stably at 312MHz, while 2.0V pushed it to 654MHz. Adding a heatsink and fan helped manage temperatures, but Walters discovered the on-board regulator couldn't deliver requested voltages above 2.2V due to current limitations. He then used Test Point 7 to externally inject power from a bench supply.

The dry ice experiments at Pimoroni HQ proved most successful, cooling the chip to around -80C and enabling the 873.5MHz achievement. Walters built a rigorous testing setup using CoreMark benchmarks, UART communication via a Pico W, and real-time temperature monitoring displayed on a monitor. The comprehensive rig allowed precise voltage and frequency control while maintaining stability during extreme overclocking attempts.