THE PARTY’s ENDED
BUDGET OVERCLOCKING GRINDS TO A HALT!
It was good while it lasted, but the party has ended. Reminiscent of
a parent who has returned to find an unauthorised party on their
property. INTEL has quietly trashed the booze and disconnected
the stereo while evicting all the party goers. While we will remember
the time and will talk about it emphatically for many moons to come
(through rose tinted glasses naturally), it’s over.
I
am of course talking about
the sentence which INTEL has
swiftly dealt to locked CPU
overclocking. It was not but in
December when we came upon
this jewel of information and
between then and a short three
to four weeks ago, things were
good. I personally know of several
individuals who went out of their
way to buy the locked 6320s along
with the relevant motherboards
specifically for overclocking these
CPUs. No doubt adding to the
pile of cash for both INTEL and
the board manufacturers, while
allowing a handful of gamers and
enthusiasts an affordable entry
into competitive overclocking.
It was late last year, that it was
revealed to us that INTEL has
been selling an unprecedented
number of K-SKU CPUs despite
the downturn the lowered sales
volumes of other CPUs. Of course
this is great news for INTEL, but in
a way serves to illustrate the point
that I and many others have made
over the years about the state
and future of overclocking, high
end PCs and the DIY community
in general. That point being that
access via cost is predominately
the number one limiting factor
for most people. It isn’t interest
or the lack of literature, guides or
competitions. It’s purely the entry
price to overclocking.
14 The OverClocker Issue 37 | 2016
Try as we may, the stigma
attached to the supposed dangers
of overclocking (served by INTEL
and AMD for years on end thank
you) are still with us, and even
though we desire to change this
discourse, it somehow finds its
way onto the discussion with no
indication of waning anytime soon.
A direct result of the marketing
campaigns and their success
against overclocking. GPU
overclocking does not in any way
evoke the same feelings of dread
and trepidation amongst and that
is squarely due to the absence of
any such campaign by GPU IHVs.
As we all know, many of these
graphics cards are sold with the
“overclocking” element built right
into the messaging.
Although graphics cards by
and large cost somewhat more
than CPUs, end users are more
willing to “risk” overclocking on
these parts, but not so much with
their CPUs. That, at least to me,
points to the discomfort that is still
prevalent with CPU overclocking
over and above the aforementioned
risk messaging. The ability to
overclock the locked Core CPUs
on affordable motherboards was
a wonderful opportunity to change
that narrative. I’m not for once
suggesting that it would be an