Lately I have been rediscovering myself. Finding excuses to delve back into my many hobbies. Working for TSG is an around the clock job as the internet never closes. As you can imagine, we spend a lot of time in front of computers. Recently I’ve run into computer trouble with a failed PCI-e slot causing my computer to not post (no post = black screen ie nothing when the power button is pressed). As I write to you from my backup laptop I have decided to take this as a good opportunity to reclaim my love for computers and building fast machines by actually building one and overclocking it.
As some of you may know, about4-5 years ago I was a competitive overclocker. Yes there is such a thing. While most of us do it for the thrill of making a computer go fast, at the same time we don’t mind getting free gear as in computer gear to do so. Kind of like a sponsorship for pro golfers but rather parts for self proclaimed speed nerds. So I spent several years and several cold nights outside in my garage with the door open in a snow storm destroying cpu’s, motherboards, and video cards all for the sake of a fast time or good score, in other words – Benchmarking. I’d do anything to get a fast time or high score including using dry ice or liquid nitrogen to freeze my PC to the -80C range and in the process destroying a lot of hardware all for some short lived glory. Short lived because someone out there is always faster, short lived but damn satisfying! My neighbors thought I was psychotic and the local shop that sold dry ice thought I was having a lot of concerts or something.
2006 was the pinnacle of overclocking and benchmarking for me as I was featured in a top Japanese magazine called Windows 100% as an overseas Otaku (as you can see from the image on the right, I haven’t changed much) and was granted XIP status at overclocking haven Xtremesystems.org along with many of the greatest overclockers who have ever lived. Amazingly I still hold that status there even though I’ve been out of the scene for nearly 5 years now. I even held a high ranking on Holicho’s 32m SuperPi calculation ranking (that is no longer the main depository for best 32m times so miraculously one of my older times is still 26th).
So while I once was an awesome benchmarker, I have to admit I have fallen way behind when it comes to computers. Other hobbies like golf and cameras have taken the forefront while I still love Japanese pop culture as well. Back to my original point, my current desktop which I rely on very heavily for work has died on me and its time to build something affordable but kick ass. I say affordable because I’m no longer sponsored and can get the top gear out there today and it ain’t cheap. However, thanks to overclocking, with careful thinking and the right purchases, one can rival machines that cost 4 to 5 times more.
The machine I have now has not really been upgraded in nearly 3 years. It features a Intel Quad Core 6600 which at the time was when Intel was ending AMD’s reign. A very old Asus P5W DH deluxe motherboard which hasg iven me so many problems and 8gb of DDR2 memory which was a lot back then and is still a pretty good amount now. Graphics are driven by 2 x ATI HD3870 powering 3 x 24″ wide screen displays. 2 Terabytes of storage and a Pixela High Definition TV tuner are all that I’ve upgraded in the last few years.
I’ve decided in order to build an affordable machine, I’m going to reuse as many parts as I can, at least those that are still considered up to date. These include the 4 x 500gb SATA 3.0 drives, Seasonic S12 power supply, the Pixela TV Tuner, my CPU cooler and Abee Tokyo computer case.
In the past when it came to overclocking there was always a pure performance leader between Intel and AMD and at the moment, most bench marking records seem to be set with the Intel’s Core i7 980x which features 6 cores and 12 threads. If I was benchmarking still this would probably be the chip I get, however at nearly 1000.00 for this cpu, it hardly falls into the “affordable” category. In comes AMD which has taken a different approach by offering more cores for less cost. The Phenom II X6 CPUs are AMD’s flagship desktop processors, as well as the fastest cpu’s AMD has put out to date. The top of the line Phenom is the 1090T which sports 6 cores and costs less than a quarter of the Intel 980x. Cost alone made this a no brainer choice for me as with careful planning I can build the entire system costing less than the top intel chip alone. I also considered the 1055t which many computer enthusiasts seem to go for however here in Japan the cost difference between the two is minamal (both are just under 20,000 yen).
Anyway I think that’s enough blabbering on for one day about computers as honestly, I’m not even sure how many people can follow what I’m talking about. :) In my next part I’ll break down the actual parts I get and why I chose them and then document the build just like project/work logs back in the overclocking days. Computers are such a big part of everyone’s lives, and many people take them for granted. Like enthusiasts for golf clubs, there are enthusiasts for computers or anything else for that matter. I guess I’m an enthusiast for one too many things!
Cool… very cool stuff! Don’t necessarily understand all the jargon but, it’s very interesting to read about the process you’re going through to build your comp.