Headline: Dell To Sell Overclocked Machine.
It is a truth of capitalism that it can absorb any idea, any concept, no matter how antithetical it may seem to that system, even rebellion against the system, so long as someone can figure out how to make enough money from it.
This, too, has come to pass with overclocking.
It is also a truth of capitalism that when it absorbs that idea, it tends to neuter it in a way that makes it no longer a threat to the system. When rebellion turns into buying something, rebellion becomes just a marketing word.
This is also the case here.
Yes, Dell is hardly the first OEM to offer an overclocked machine, but it is the first major one to do so, and it’s a good time to point out the difference between that kind of overclocking and the DIY variety.
The DIY variety of overclocking has always been somewhat subversive because it almost always (and usually quite deliberately) let people spend less money on computer components than they would have otherwise.
This is obviously something the people who make and get paid for the components have never terribly liked.
In contrast, this kind of overclocking brings only delight to component makers. Why? They invariably use only top-of-the-line components (with top-of-the-line prices), and lots of them. Who wouldn’t like somebody paying the max for your parts?
Then, to help justify the hefty premium being charged for compiling the gold-plated-priced parts, they then modestly overclock the part so that people who buy them can tell themselves they have something very special (which makes them feel very special).
That’s official overclocking, making people spend a lot more money to get a fast luxury computer.
Quite a bit of a morph, isn’t it?
I’m afraid that official overclocking has about as much in common with DIY OCing as buying a Ferrari does with hotrodding.
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