S U P P L E M E N T // G A L A X
5 T H A N N I V E R S A R Y O C L A B C E L E B R AT I O N
Interview with EDWARD CHOW
– Product & Marketing Director for GALAX
Neo: Now that you're celebrating
five years of the OC Lab and ten
years of GOC, if you could go
back ten years is there anything
that you would change or do
differently, knowing what you
do now with all the experience
you have and everything
GALAX has been through?
EC: Well, that is a very good
question and I don't have time to
think back, but if I knew the situation
now ten years ago I'll first have to
tell you some of the history about
why we have the Hall of Fame.
I still remember during the second
GOC in 2010 we still didn't have the
HOF graphics cards card and we
were still using the standard GTX
460 with heavily modded voltage
regulation. After that we sat down
and thought about why we don't
make a special graphics card that's
tailor made for overclocking.
If I remember correctly there
were no other vendors doing special
14 The OverClocker Issue 46 | 2019
overclocking editions. After that we
got the Kingpin Editions and Asus
Matrix cards but this is the story.
Neo: So, you were actually
the first vendor to make
overclocking graphics cards?
EC: Yes, if I remember correctly.
If you wanted to do extreme
overclocking on graphics cards,
you'd have to heavily modify the
card on the PWMs, and that's why
the HOF was born. At that time I
was not yet in charge of graphics
card development, but I know the
whole story of what happened.
First, we focused on the design,
wanting to do something special to
make people realize that this is a
one of a kind product. So, we decided
to use a white PCB and until now
we are still the only vendor to do a
white PCB graphics card. I know
there are a lot of white themed
graphics cards now from Asus
and MSI, but nobody does a white
PCB. There are a lot of issues with
using a white PCB. First of all, the
cost is already 20-30% higher than
a different colour, and during the
manufacturing process the high
temperatures of soldering SMDs it
can make the PCB become yellow.
That also makes the RMA process
very difficult, because nobody will
want to buy what you think is a white
card but has a yellowish colour.
There are a lot of challenges, but
we decided to go with the white
PCB regardless. Over the last
ten years we have made a lot of
custom graphics cards which has
now become our central focus.
Back to your question, however,
I think we should have released a
Hall of Fame even earlier than 2010.
Neo: In the process of planning
and designed the Hall of Fame
graphics cards, what are some
of the biggest challenges you
face other than the white PCB?