This and That

An overclocker says why he does it.–John R. Abaray.

This is a busy time of the year for me – no time for projects, only a couple of hours to do a little surfing in the evening. I use meta search engines to do research. Just for fun, I entered overclocking and came up with about a zillion hits. OK, several hundred anyway. Then I tried overclocking dangers and got a bunch more. I found some articles about the death of overclocking and that there is no economic incentive to do it anymore.

They just don’t get it.

I was there when it all started. Yes, there were those who were trying to save a few dollars. I didn’t care about saving a few dollars – I was interested in performance and it was fun to squeeze out another extra 100 MHz.

The ultra hardcore overclocker seeks the challenge – a test of his knowledge and skills to get the absolute last MHz out. He enjoys the competition with his peers.

The hardcore gamer knows memory bandwidth and MHz is not everything. It’s the only thing. High resolutions and 32bit color no longer turns the game into a slide show. The games run faster and smoother, adding to the enjoyment of the game.

I like to label myself as a “performance enthusiast”. I enjoy the noisy challenge of air cooling. I like using less in the way of a video card and CPU. Then I try to see how much more I can get.

It doesn’t matter what label you fit into, we are all part of a community called “PC Hobbyists”.

If overclocking is dead, why do we see so many mobo manufacturers adding overclocking features?

Why do we see high performance memory geared for overclocking?

Why do we see manufacturers competing for the best hsf?

They do this because the market is growing, not because it’s shrinking. Overclocking is far from being dead. I’ve watched it grow in leaps and bounds.

So why do we overclock?

We do it because we enjoy it.

Do you need a better reason?

John R. Abaray

Disclaimer:

I do not work for anyone or get paid for anything I write. Everything I write about I pay for out of my own pocket. Everything I write in articles or say in emails is Public Domain for the reader to do with as they wish.