TheOverclocker Issue 27 | Page 35

3. OVERCLOCKING COMPETITIONS COST TOO DAMN MUCH! The cash outlay required for buying the qualifying hardware is very disproportional to the cash prize on offer. Sure, with some recent competitions it’s gotten better. But think about what was the first prize at MOA 2013 and what kind of hardware you needed to make it that far. At most you break even, most of the time it’s a loss even if you do make it to the finals. It makes overclocking competitions look pathetic compared to any other hobby. There are stamp collection competitions that regularly have bigger purses. 4. OVERHYPING THEIR CPUS! I hate to harp on these guys but cherry picking completely useless server benchmarks to overhype severely underperforming CPUs is ludicrous. All of a sudden software is written for CPUs and that’s why their CPUs are sucking. I wonder where this argument was when they were ruling the roost prior to mid-2006, all the way from the late 90s. Then to top it all off, the code names for these CPU architectures? Let’s hope is actually more than hot air as the name suggests. 5. AND MOTHERBOARDS! SHOULD STOP MAKING Yep these two vendors should close ship or focus on something else. It’s ridiculous just how far down they have fallen. It was way back in the P45 days where they seemed to have something going, and then they ruined it by going back to their old ways and making laughable motherboards. More bizarre are their adverts and marketing strategies. Appealing to gamers has nothing to do with insulting them. L33T? Seriously? 6. AMATEUR OVERCLOCKERS QUIT YOUR WHINING! Enough already. Sure I did say that entry into overclocking competitions is far too high. That’s true, but don’t complain about every single thing there is. It is a competition not a fun run. You are going to have to invest time, money and effort into this if you want to get anywhere. Be it you do it for points or not, it’s not supposed to be easy or simple. It’s far easier now to overclock and get somewhere than it was even 6 years ago. Grow a pair and stop whining. Overclock what you have; you are not forced to compete with anyone for anything. 7. MEMORY AGAIN! A set that is rated at 2400MHz but fails to do 2600MHz is frankly not overclocking memory. Just because the packaging says so or the vendor believes it so, does not make it true. If we were talking PSC here, sure by all means call it overclocking memory but we are talking about high latency 2400MHz memory here. More than that, all publications and websites should be ashamed of awarding kits liked these. Let’s see, 94% for a 2400 set that did just over 2500 at most with rubbish 11-1313-30 timings! That’s crazy. 8. LAB BINNING! Yeah say what you will but the real test of how good a graphics card overclocks is in what it does in the hands of the people outside of the company’s payroll. To date MSI has been the most consistent graphics card manufacturer despite the stupid Afterburner software policy; I see more LN2 results with those graphics cards than with all others. Those that come from within a company are of little to no use at all. That’s all there is for this issue. I had a lot more when I started this then I forgot, but trust me I’m generally a sour person so there are more things to whine about in my everyday existence than to be happy about. I did say though that I am feeling festive and Christmas pudding along with other goodies do not go down well when you’re upset. So I have chosen to look at the brighter side for a bit and end 2013 off on a more positive note. Oh and I do think the cover feature in this issue does too much riding but hey, the man was great and the motherboard is just that much better than everything else.  Issue 27 | 2012 The OverClocker 35