"Am I The Only One?" Eric R. Drake - 12/14/06

Is he the only one?

Since my baby Prescott-Celeron-D310 rig-that-could got sunk and retired by an ark built of Hydra-Pack that failed miserably to keep the ocean outside the boat, I have been thundering along at the speed of Sempron, in an E-machines purchased hastily from Wally world (A W3118, if you must know) that I slapped some drowned ram in from the old rig – I have been asleep at the back of the class.

i680? What? No.
After Prescott, and watercooling, and overclocking, and Folding I felt like an evil genius With my new e-machines that puled 115 Watts at the plug under full load - compared to Half-A-Killowatt-Plus of the old rig. Funny thing is, I still feel that way.
I am 24, I work between 40 and 60 hours a week in construction, and live in a cabin just smaller than 30X30. I have 2 20 amp circuts in the place, and I am lucky if i have $40 at the end of each month left over to play with. Exactly how much overclocking am I expected to do?
It seems I have allready put my money where my mouth is, and in terms of an "Enthiusiast driven market" I am allready part of the solution and not part of the problem. Sure us overclockers are a great community. I would have been long gone if we weren't.

I am only an average overclocker or was. I look up to the heroes around here as much as anyone else. But our heroes here have a dark side. They set the bar irresponsibly high for beginning overclockers -that don't and for some time can't have any understanding of how deticated and crazy about this stuff the heroes really are. Our hereoes are at the helm of the enthisiast market. Big names in hardware manufacturing pay attention to what they do and what they want, no doubt - as well as thousands of other "enthusiasts". As both a community, and a market segment, we are victims of ourselves.

This slashdot comment I ran across is even more telling about how things are.

I used to be an over-the-top flightsim fanatic. Not anymore with this rig, with this hardware, with my budget looking at FSX. I am well beyond priced-out of the gamer market. Sigh.

But my little Sempron folds 24/7. I am writing this, listening to Dirty Three on my 5.1 speakers, driven by onboard sound. I have 3 firefox windows open with about 20 tabs in each of them. I am talking with my girlfriend over AIM; I am loading my buddies video he just did for class on Gootube. I can play my $10 copy of Command and Conquer: Generals, or Freespace just fine.

Really - Considering this, my next rig might be mobile-chip-based, if not a laptop entirely. I am starting to like buying trailing-generation hardware, straight from the dribbling edge though also. If I ever am faced with the cash, maybe Ill make a point to try out an 820 rig for a year or so before I get into Conroe.
Ive got all the time in the world, and prices fall on our undesirable hardware plenty fast. Maybe I would be better off with that Yonah laptop someday after all...

Are we the only ones?

A nice Woot for this article! I feel the same way.

the price no longer is worth it.

I find myself playing Descent: Freespace and the original Descent.

Starcraft is still superior to Company of Heroes.

I feel the same way too. I also love being a hardware vulture in the classifieds

I dunno... I'm still up for some OC action. However I'll only go as far as I can safely push the hardware and maintain full functionality of the installed software.

I'll do the easy low risk mods and stick with quiet high-end air cooling.

So I doubt I'll ever be able to push a dual socket board as much as I do my Iwill DH800 but even a 25% OC on a Woodcrest duallie would be worthwhile and only needs a piece of tape over one BESL pin.

To sum it up for me: I would be considered a casual overclocker as I'm not risking over $2k of equipment for that extra 5% benchmark score. I'll read and enjoy others who do this drag racing sport, but I prefer driving on those winding mountain roads.

I am pretty much the same way. I cannot afford to keep up since about 2 years ago when an XP1700 and an NF-7 was still a descent rig. Forget shelling out $300+ for a video card and another $300 for memory etc. Its just not worth it. Nowdays even if you do drop the cash for a top of the line part or entire computer, you are only top dog for about 2 weeks and something better has come along and your parts have dropped in value by half of what you paid for them. I am typing this on a Compaq laptop with a Celeron 800 that is getting the web surfing job done just fine. I have found my old hobbies of hunting, fishing and dirt bike riding again and I feel that it is money better spent than sitting on my *** staring into my $300 monitor and getting fat. It was fun while it was fresh, but frankly the whole scene has gotten stale to me. I love these forums and still frequent them in the evenings when I am not doing something more constructive. I have also met a lot of cool people and even made a few friends, and I have also learned an aweful lot from the freindly community here and I thank you all for that. Aloha .

Audioaficionado brings up a good point.

He mentioned a pinmod.

There used to be days when you could pretty much:

1. Pinmod.
2. Slap a cooler on.
3. Go.

Same with jumpers and whatnot.
that was before my time, but im pretty sure thats how it was.

Compare with 680i and kilowatt PSU's
(those arent cheap BTW)

Wow I can agree with all of this.

i JUST upgraded from 478/AGP last week. And I went to another end of life platform! 939!

I went for lower temps and I got just that. I'm on a 7800GT (best video card I've ever had) and 3000+ with gig of RAM.

I just can't afford what everyone else can. If it wasn't for some paypal funds I had laying around, I wouldn't have even done this. Cost me $240 shipped. People pay more than that just for their conroes/PSU's/GPU's/ SOUND CARDS!!!

I'm to the point where I buy used hardware exclusively. I rarely go to newegg now, and when I do, it's to see if I'm getting a good price on the used stuff in the classifieds. A 7800GT @ $140 shipped was a hell of a deal.

Now my temps are in half, I can pull a mild OC, and I can play the games I've always played, now with playable framerates. I went around 4 years with my 478 rig which treated me very well. Only upgraded the video card twice, which were very small upgrades. I'll be on this rig for years too. I might spring for an X2 if I find a VERY good deal on one.

Maybe when I'm older I'll be able to plop a fair amount of money and actually have something "current". I doubt it though, I'm only 21 years old now, and I swear each day theres less and less free time to enjoy my fresh "midrange" system.

Really sucks cause I love computing/tinkering with hardware.

orionlion82 said:

Audioaficionado brings up a good point.

He mentioned a pinmod.

There used to be days when you could pretty much:

1. Pinmod.
2. Slap a cooler on.
3. Go.

Same with jumpers and whatnot.
that was before my time, but im pretty sure thats how it was.

Compare with 680i and kilowatt PSU's
(those arent cheap BTW)

Click to expand...

pinmod is now penmod, no really it is. look at a older P-D say the 533fsb parts and find the correct pads to pen. zing! a guy did this over at xs with his dell, worked like a charm but he had a buddy solder the pads not pen.

Evilsizer said:

pinmod is now penmod, no really it is. look at a older P-D say the 533fsb parts and find the correct pads to pen. zing! a guy did this over at xs with his dell, worked like a charm but he had a buddy solder the pads not pen.

Click to expand...

hah, right! Lga instead of Pga.

i need to hit the lottery or something, you cant get this stuff out of your blood...

Um, the article does fail to mention that a power supply never draws to its maximum wattage specification. So unless you actually have that kind of current load placed on the power supply that unit alone will have no affect on your electric bill.

As for everything else, I pretty much agree. Games of modern times seem to be aimed at pimping new hardware when they really don't need to do so in order to be profitable. There are plenty of emerging engine technologies that curb the need for excessive amounts of calculating and rendering muscle while still delivering lively detail and rich physics.
I have never been one to favor eye candy over playability. And I think the recent success of the Nintendo Wii is demonstrating that the public is caring less about visual sofistication and more about actual gameplay.

Modern software and games are too bloated.

While this rig cost nearly 2,500 dollars a year ago, I must tell you I have no plans for a major upgrade for a very long time. This thing will last me until the end of high school (2.5 years) and the I will probably get a laptop for college. I am happy with what I have and upgrading does not seem cost effective at this time or in the near future. I see hidden costs in a higher power bill and my room is already hot enough with this thing running less than eight hours a day.

I spent too much on my current rig, but atleast I stress it a fair bit. I'm a senior in H.S. right now so I will atleast be using this rig for the first part of college along with a new laptop & PDA combo. I pretty much upgrade ALL of my equipment every 3-4 years with my main rig being heavily upgraded annually.

Here's my cycles:
1st - year 2000:
Main Rig: 1.33 ghz Socket A Athlon, 256mb DDR RAM, 20gb HDD, 32mb GeForce2, 19" CRT
Laptop: 760E Thinkpad, 133mhz P1, Win 98SE, 32mb RAM, 2gb HDD
PDA: Jornada 547
Camera: HP Photosmart 318 (2.1MP tank)

Year 2002:
Main Rig: Abit NF7-s, Athlon XP @ 2.4ghz, 512mb DDR RAM, 40gb HDD, AIW 9800 Pro, 15" LCD
Laptop: Gateway Solo 1450SE, 1.33ghz Celeron, 256mb RAM, 20gb HDD
PDA: Compaq iPaq 5950 (awesome PDA!)
Camera: Same HP

Current/Year 2006:
Main Rig: Opteron 165 @ 2.5ghz 24/7 OC, 2gb DDR RAM, 120gb HDD x3, X1900XT, 19" LCD & 15" LCD
Laptop: Gateway Solo 1450SE, 512mb RAM, 40gb HDD
PDA: same iPaq with damaged screen mod
Camera: Olympus D-580 (4mp with zoom); will have a Digital Rebel XT in <6 days

Future (subject to change of course):
Main Rig: Same + new HDD
Laptop: Apple(!) Macbook Pro, C2D, 2gb ram, 160gb HDD
PDA: Axim X50v?
Camera: Digital Rebel XT + D-580

That's ALOT of money over seven years!!! It easily totals over $10k. I think I need to stop buying computer parts and buy a M3 instead

Cyrix_2k said:

I spent too much on my current rig, but atleast I stress it a fair bit. I'm a senior in H.S. right now so I will atleast be using this rig for the first part of college along with a new laptop & PDA combo. I pretty much upgrade ALL of my equipment every 3-4 years with my main rig being heavily upgraded annually.

Here's my cycles:
1st - year 2000:
Main Rig: 1.33 ghz Socket A Athlon, 256mb DDR RAM, 20gb HDD, 32mb GeForce2, 19" CRT
Laptop: 760E Thinkpad, 133mhz P1, Win 98SE, 32mb RAM, 2gb HDD
PDA: Jornada 547
Camera: HP Photosmart 318 (2.1MP tank)

Year 2002:
Main Rig: Abit NF7-s, Athlon XP @ 2.4ghz, 512mb DDR RAM, 40gb HDD, AIW 9800 Pro, 15" LCD
Laptop: Gateway Solo 1450SE, 1.33ghz Celeron, 256mb RAM, 20gb HDD
PDA: Compaq iPaq 5950 (awesome PDA!)
Camera: Same HP

Current/Year 2006:
Main Rig: Opteron 165 @ 2.5ghz 24/7 OC, 2gb DDR RAM, 120gb HDD x3, X1900XT, 19" LCD & 15" LCD
Laptop: Gateway Solo 1450SE, 512mb RAM, 40gb HDD
PDA: same iPaq with damaged screen mod
Camera: Olympus D-580 (4mp with zoom); will have a Digital Rebel XT in <6 days

Future (subject to change of course):
Main Rig: Same + new HDD
Laptop: Apple(!) Macbook Pro, C2D, 2gb ram, 160gb HDD
PDA: Axim X50v?
Camera: Digital Rebel XT + D-580

That's ALOT of money over seven years!!! It easily totals over $10k. I think I need to stop buying computer parts and buy a M3 instead

Click to expand...

well, you bring up an interesting point!
10K in hardware - but that wouldnt be so bad if you could get out from under "Obselete" 1 year old computer components without a tragic loss, or ripping off some poor fool. even if you did, over the years you loose in the end.

it makes me wonder about that price fixing thing. i am going to go re-read the thread...

and yes - 10k is the kind of money that will give you quite a bit more saftey and freedom once you get out in the real world. its a heck of a "cushion" in bad times, and tough situations. lets put it this way - i would sit on my rig for 7 years if i could get 10K just for not touching it. whoa! that would be a hell of an investment! odd to think about investing in computer hardware by not upgrading and instead saving the money you would have used... cool.

Here's what's really scary - the old Athlon that I listed is still running to this day and it really doesn't feel that much slower then my Opteron rig when doing day to day tasks. However, I do a lot of video editing and transcoding where the extra speed of my opteron is almost needed. What used to take me four hours now takes me 30 mins. Sometimes this speed is invaluable but most of the time it just goes to waste since I let the computer transcode overnight so as long as it completes in <15 hours (night + school), I'm fine. Infact, the only times I've actually needed a fast computer have been due to procrastination on my part - if I had planned better, I probably could have elimated $4-5k in computer parts. I basically would have needed more ram, more HD space, a new PDA, and two new laptops to carry me through from the year 2000. The PDA is because the jornada died, one new laptop is because the 760e was ancient, even for back then, and the last new laptop is because the Gateway's battery is shot, its hinges are worn out, and it overheats now. Everything else, including my first digicam, would still be perfectly usuable today.

The way that they make computers feel obsolete within a year nowdays really just feeds into the average persons obsessive compulsive buying habits. The "gotta have it now" syndrome goes hand in hand with todays microwave it, cant wait and extra 2 minutes generation. I am 32 and I fall into that as well from time to time, but for me, enough is enough and I am tired of feeding the cash cow and have pretty much called it quits on trying to keep up in the computing game. I miss the days of P2 and P3's and picking up a 66 or 100fsb Celeron for $50 and OC'ing the snot out of it till you had the equivalent of a $300 cpu. And in those days (a whole 5 years ago) I needed to do that just to be able to run the modern games of the day at the needed fps. It was fun then, and a challenge. You didnt have the option of buying a so called overclocked cpu or card straight off the shelf. Nowdays its all a game of lying to the customer without actually lying (afterall, its right there in the fine print) lol. Have a good day guys, I still love these forums and the friends that I have made through them.

I think that it is important to note that overclocking, back in the days of PIIIs and AXPs, used to be about SAVING money rather than spending it. The idea was that you could buy the low end chips and overclock to high end speeds, and thus get a faster system for less money. In fact, that is still what I am doing with my A64 and 6800gs, so perhaps instead of leaving the hobby some of us could refocus our goals on OCing to save money and extend the life of a system.

Also, the A64 and 6800gs I have can run every game on the market, so it seems to me that PC gaming in no way has to be really expensive.

seamadan000 said:

I think that it is important to note that overclocking, back in the days of PIIIs and AXPs, used to be about SAVING money rather than spending it. The idea was that you could buy the low end chips and overclock to high end speeds, and thus get a faster system for less money. In fact, that is still what I am doing with my A64 and 6800gs, so perhaps instead of leaving the hobby some of us could refocus our goals on OCing to save money and extend the life of a system.

Also, the A64 and 6800gs I have can run every game on the market, so it seems to me that PC gaming in no way has to be really expensive.

Click to expand...

On the nose. Still oc'ing my celly d's, 754's, xeons and a couple low end c2d's. Folding non stop.

Why are people that complain about this stuff on the front page so focused on the highest end. Cheap is still cheap. You can buy a $60 A64 and overclock it to 2.8ghz. You can buy a $180 C2d and overclock it to 3.2ghz and poof your at the top end. Motherboards are just as cheap as they were back then. Video cards for the top end are somewhat more expensive (anyone remember when the GF2U was $500?) but you can still buy great performance for under $200 if you wait for alittle while. Ram prices are still about where they were before. Overclocking hasn't gotten more expensive these guys have been looking at the higher end and not at the areas where overclockers have historically dominated.