electrostatic damage. We were vulnerable
to any one of these and our hardware was
always on the verge of imminent death.
This is not the case today where, we may
perform hack jobs on sealing. However
we manage to get descent runs in and
not destroy any hardware at all. It’s not
uncommon that we partake in quick subzero overclocking with absolutely no sealing
at all.
The hardware we have lends itself
to surprisingly fewer modifications
than before. Today you can easily buy a
motherboard that is ready for extreme and
competitive overclocking out the box. This
was not the case years ago, yet the general
message towards buyers and others is that
it’s extremely dangerous. Understand that
I’m not advocating for disregard for the
dangers that overclocking may present to
your hardware. What I’m saying is that, the
entire industry and community has made
some significant strides and thus some
of these concerns and misconceptions
shouldn’t exist anymore, at least not within
the enthusiast/gaming community.
In light of this, I propose overclocking
competitions where there is no use of liquid
nitrogen or even dry ice for that matter if
only to garner attention from a much wider
audience. Mind you I’m a proponent and
advocate for all things cooled with LN2,
however there’s a need for various levels
of engagement within overclocking. The
various leagues within HWBOT are a great
start to this as they do not force anyone
in any way to partake in the rankings
where they would be out of their depth.
This singular and structured approach to
overclocking engagement is a step in the
right direction. We, however as a community
and perhaps even vendors need to do more
to make it all significantly more accessible.
The limitation isn’t always a financial
one, as limiting hardware for instance
in a competition to sub $100 graphics
cards is good. However, it takes one with
significantly more resources to take the
Issue 32 | 2014 The OverClocker 19