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Overclocking is a Counterculture
dayeight sent us an article at ZD Australia which talks about overclocking as a counter-culture. There are of course so many subsets of the generic (and overused) 'Geek' term, but this is definitely one of the cool ones. It's also an easy one for the mainstream world to understand since they are already quite familiar with the automotive gearhead culture that has existed for decades.
Just two quick comments:
Unless my memory is playing tricks on me, the cost in real dollars of a beat up but running car around 1960 was about the same as a new motherbaord + CPU + memory is now, i.e., cheap enough to be a hobby. And you get something useful when you are done.
In addition, working on a car was (and is) a learning experience, as is putting together your own computer system. (You get dirtier working on a car, however.)
My big complaint about overclocking CPU's is that while you can get better heatsink/fan units with thermal glue to better dissipate the heat when you overclock the CPU, what happens if the fan dies? This could result in a Chernobyl-like meltdown of the CPU, and you'll be out US$65 to US$200 for a lower-speed overclocked CPU that is now useless. This is especially true of the AMD Athlon CPU, because the Athlon CPU runs quite hot even when NOT overclocked.
Besides, a more efficient method to get more speed is to get as much RAM as you can afford and get a faster hard drive. I usually recommend around 128 to 192 MB of system RAM, because then you don't have to use the hard drive so much as virtual memory, which speeds things up quite a lot.
Raymond in Mountain View, CA
Completely agreed.
But, software licensing has set a nasty precedent. The DVD (DeCSS) fiasco has called the bluff of hardware 'ownership' , and been slapped down for it. We buy the disc, but we apparently only LICENSE THE RIGHT (or privilege if you ask the RIAA) to use the content.
How long before Intel and AMD ( and other hackable hardware manufacturers (Ford??) ) try to LICENSE USAGE RIGHTS to hardware over which THEY retain OWNERSHIP.
Can you imagine having to SIGN A EULA for your next car??? This seems to be where things are going - unless technically minded, prestigious people fire back at the media, and reduce overclocking to what it is... Putting bigger pipes on your hot-rod.
That's all we're doing after all. We're replacing plugs with Platinum tipped ones, putting in after-market filters and hoses and wires.
I don't hear Ford bitching about people tweaking their cars. In fact, a heavily modified hot-rod is sweet to the manufacturer. It shows that it's owner is PASSIONATE about what it can do; not that it's owner considers the COTS version inadequate.
Cripes! Why don't people understand this??
-- What you do today will cost you a day of your life.
...swimmers may shave their bodies (or heads) to cut down on resistance.
...cyclists walk around town wearing clothes that could have gotten them arrested in Alabama not so long ago (helmets that look like dinosaur skulls, shorts that let you count pubic hairs, and colors that blind drivers is you whiz by them in traffic on a sunny day).
...physics-impaired yuppies frequent oxygen bars, and guzzled bermuda grass smart drinks (yeah, catch their pick-up lines if you want to see how well *that* works)
...the average american drinks more beers on a single weekend than s/he reads books in a year
...if my brain were on, I could come up with far more diverse and colorful examples...
... and *I'm* counterculture for changing a few BIOS settings and using a non-factory cooler on my PC?
doodz... in ten years, they'll look back, and we'll be pop culture. In fifty we'll be the culture, while those other freakazoids will just be considered 'fellow riders' on the subway
... and *I'm* part of a counter culture
__________
If you can go to bed, knowing you did a valuable thing today, you're very lucky. If you can't... it's not bedtime
I find it strange, the way people look at overclockers, and the way the media treats them.
It's not that they are 'ripping off' Intel, or AMD. it's not doing something 'wrong', and it's not doing something 'illegal'.
Let's look at something like a resistor. A plain, old resistor. You can pay one price for a pack of resistors with a specified tolerance of 15%, a slightly higher price for 5%, an even higher price for 1%. Now, it is not uncommon for a hobbyist to simply take some cheap 15% bags, find ones that are over tolerance, and file them down to increase ristance, providing a very accurate match to whatever they are building. In short, they 'hacked' the resistor. Nobody would accuse them of 'ripping off' the company that made the resistor. What you are paying for, when you buy that expensive bag of 1% devices, is the fact that they are guaranteed to work to within 1% of the specified speed.
This is very similar to what happens when Intel sells a chip. When they sell a chip rated 500Mhz, they are in no way saying you are not allowed to run it faster, they are saying that they guarantee it will work at 500Mhz. So, if you are a manufacturer, and you want a 500Mhz chip for your computer, you buy a chip that's guaranteed to work at 500Mhz, right?
To put it a different way, a 500Mhz Pentium-III is guaranteed to run at 500Mhz under specified conditions: A certain voltage, a certain shape of clock signal, a certain amount of heat dissipation (cooling), etc.
It shoudl be obvious then, that this rating of 500Mhz only applies as long as the other conditions are met. IF you change those conditions, the rating is meaningless.
So if you cool your chip with some extra fans, effectively doubling the cooling, it can probably run faster.
Why, when I supercharged the boxster, the fly-by-wire controls were undersampling at a paltry 60Hz, so I overclocked the Motronic. That pup's cranked up to 87.5Hz. A real driver can feel the difference in responsiveness.
Then there's the traction control. When you're cornering at 25 MPH over stock capability, you need the active suspension and tracking controls to be just that smidge faster. So I overclocked the suspension subcomputer from 40kHz to 50kHz, just to get that extra edge.
Of course, with all this improved speed and handling, I need the Antilock Brakes to be smarter. I upgraded them to 16 M of memory (for performance history checking), and upped the skid detection frequency to 36 Hz.
This is all pretty kRad and all. So I put on fat headers, a mega tail pipe, and a dual-GPS navigation assistance system. It's PHAT!
Now, if I could just debug the device drivers (/dev/car), I'd port it to Linux, 'cause these BSoDs (Blue Skids of Death) are drivin' me nuts!
Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachtani?
www.fogbound.net
This article portrays overclockers as not only people trying to steal from Intel and other computer manufacturers, but as people who only do it to get the higher number. I quote, "And what do overclockers do with these faster computers? Not much, actually. The most popular application involves running a measuring program that proves exactly how much faster the overclocked chip is running. Overclockers make printouts of these speed readings and send them to each other." This is just prue ignorance. Yes bragging about it is fun, but that is by no means the main reason for overclocking. Ask any overclocker what they do most on their computer and I bet every one would tell you that it's play games. We don't make them faster just for shits and giggles. It's about getting enough frames per second in Quake 3 to be able to run it at 1600x1200 with all the pretty features turned on. It's about making your games look and work better - and I resent them reducing it to a form of compensation (as the hot rod makers often are accused of)...
Sure, they do touch on gaming a little bit. "Games like "Doom" also are popular. Overclockers who play them say the faster chips help them outlast their competitors" If they were going to write only one sentence about how it improves performance, they could at least get their facts right. Computers are about 8x faster than when Doom was first released (MHz-wise at least) - 'nuff said. Regardless, the article was exactly what I expected. The part at the end about discovering his computer working faster since it was probably ~8 cooler was kind of funny, but I suppose they're just trying to explain the concept to the ignorant masses (a group of people that they should probably be included in). I think I just expected more from an article about computers that is only available on computers...
- tred
I am very careful about it, only OCing in situations that will give me significantly better performance and price without sacrificing stability. (dual celery 366@550!)
... after doing those things enough, you know about everything but installing the motherboard. And computer work dosn't have the same space and tool requirements of auto mechanics.
If you research your project well, you can build a great machine at a great price. And you can design your system to emphasize your needs.
There probably aren't a lot of female over clockers simply because there aren't a lot of female geeks (or Quake players). I think that there will be more non-geeks doing the over-clocking thing in the future, since more non-geeks have computers and end up doing the maintenance (I even coached my mom, over the phone, while upgrading her modem!)
DYI computer modifications will be much more common than car hot-rodding since building your own pc consists of so many small, common and accessble steps. Most computer owners will at some point be encouraged to install their own memory upgrade or a second disk drive or a new modem etc.
I do wonder about the correlation of gender and hobby choices. I know a lot of guys who tinker with cars or build things out of wood or brew beer and I know a lot of chicks who love to sew or throw pots or do beadwork or make candles. But why does it work out that way? Even with very non-traditional people who don't easily fit into perscribed gener roles?
- bridgette
I have an AMD K2 233 that I have to run at 200 to keep my system from crashing. Am I part of some counterculture too?
- Have a picture
Overclocking is one of the few "geek" pasttimes (actually a rather new one) that will not trickle out into the mainstream as other techs like MP3 have. The car analogy is always a good one, and just as only talented mechanics dare try improving their cars through dangerous methods like NO2, only hadrware geeks that build their own machines will change jumpers, add absurd cooling, and even cut and solder to crank out an extra 20% speed.
Of course, the mainstream will always pay others to do it for them, but the mainstream connection will be kept to a minimum because they don't actually DO it..
It's reassuring, in a way, that overclockers can be assured of strictly non-mainstream fellows among their ranks.
Actually, that's ZD-AU's copy of ZD-USA's copy of the Wall Street Journals story from the 10th.
For those who have trouble reaching the site, here's the ZDnet-USA copy of the story.
While the article on the whole was a tad banal and vacuous, one of the metaphors seemed very apt:
Instead of spending our weekends in the driveway or garage under the hood of our primary mode of transport, we spend time optimizing the drivers or cooling arrangements on our primary mode of communication.
Is it "Hot-rodding"? I sometimes feel like it could be. . . the Frankensteinian monster I spend 16 hours a day with may not have bolts on its neck, but it roars, moans, and has the odd edge in need of a dremel touch-up.
I think it's a simple matter of pride of ownership. "When I bought this, it was able to do X. Because I put my time and brain and some elbow grease into it, it can do X+n, and my X+n is different from everybody else's, because I did it with my own two hands."
I overclock, and I can't honestly say when or if I will stop. It's not the fastest rig on the world (though it might be king of the office extracurricular LAN), but it could be.
Rafe
V^^^^V
Rafe
Opinions expressed by the author may not actually exist in the wild.
Games like "Doom" also are popular. Overclockers who play them say the faster chips help them outlast their competitors. "If you don't care a lot about getting killed, you're probably not going to care a lot about overclocking," said Alex Ross, creator of SharkyExtreme, a Web site devoted to hardware.
Yeah man I was playing Doom last night on my Celeron II o'c to a gigahertz, and my half a gig of ram, oh yeah I just got a pre-release of a 64MB ge-force card, and DAMN that game rocks. Frekin' Cyber-deamon is hard though...
'After some research, Caward hit on the idea of a mineral-oil bath for motherboards. Mineral oil doesn't conduct electricity, and so he rounded up several cases. "People were asking me what I was going to do with all of it," he recalls. "It's normally used as a laxative."'
Wow.
This is the first I've heard of this- lube up your PC to go faster..
Change the oil every 30,000 Mhz.
-
air and light and time and space
Is there is some kind of mysterious "mainstream culture" that I missed the boat on? What do people in the "mainstream culture" do? Nothing? It seems to me that one would have to live a bleak existence to NOT be in a so called 'counterculture'!
Its all relatively stupid... every damn person on this earth can be shoved into a 'counter-culture' based on their passionate interests...I overclock machines... what are you trying to tell me?
I think I'm pretty damn normal!--cr@ckwhore
Skiers and Riders -- http://www.snowjournal.com
Can anyone help me get Linux installed on the On-Board Diagnostic Computer in my 1996 Chevy S-10? I'm having some problems getting LILO to recongize the GM partition on the built-in EPROMs. Thanks!
This space for rent.
Maybe I am speaking too much from my own standpoint, but it always seemed to me that overclocking is an all-male arena. It feels like only men are into turboboosting their puters. Is this something to do with male competitiveness? Wanting the best and fastest? Is this like having the most powerful and fastest car?
I personally have zero want to make a copper-top processor. I like a fast computer, but I like to have a stable machine moreso. Overclocking is always a bundle of problems in the machines I have seen.
So, am I alone out there? I ask other females out there to tell if they overclock. I imagine they are out there, but I bet there aren't many.
Comments?
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"Never give up, for that is just the time and place when the tide will change." -Harriet Beecher Stowe ^_^