Tweak Geek Goes For The Big Gig
Sydney Morning Herald
Wednesday September 10, 2008
SOME toil for hours in a garage suped up their cars. Dino Strkljevic tries to build the world's fastest computer in his home with the help of liquid nitrogen.
Most people quiver at the idea of opening their PC and tinkering with its innards but Mr Strkljevic, of Sydney, considers it a thrilling - and dangerous - sport. He is among the so-called "overclocking" computer geeks around the globe who believe the ultimate feat is recording the world's highest scores on obscure benchmarking programs. Overclocking involves modifying the settings of such computer components as the processor, graphics card, motherboard or system memory to make them run faster than designed. Some do it to save money; it is cheaper to buy a three-gigahertz processor and overclock it to four gigahertz than to buy the faster-frequency chip. "You encode videos quicker, you run games quicker, everything speeds up," Mr Strkljevic said. But for him and thousands of others, the quest has morphed into a competitive sport that requires an intimate knowledge of computer hardware and the ability to perform complex hardware modifications. Many of the fastest rigs built by the world's top overclockers cannot even be run in a home as they are far too volatile. Heat, the main enemy, is often combated by cooling components with liquid nitrogen. "This is purely a sport," Mr Strkljevic said. "It's basically like car drag-racing: you don't run a drag-racing car on a normal Sydney street." Computer tweakers trade tips and tricks on web forums such as overclockers.com.au, which has 100,000 registered members. Mr Strkljevic, who works as a sales manager for a laptop retailer by day, is one of Australia's top overclockers and ranks among the best in the world. He is the only Australian heading to Taiwan for the world overclocking championships, on September 25, run by the computer component maker Gigabyte. Rankings are based on scores achieved in test programs such as SuperPI and 3DMark. SuperPI calculates the time taken for a computer to process a complex mathematical formula, and 3DMark tests a computer's prowess in running a graphics demonstration similar to a video game. Mr Strkljevic and other qualifiers will be given computer components and the winner will be the one who tweaks them to achieve the highest test scores. First, second and third placegetters will win $US5000 ($6070), $US2000 and $US1000 respectively. But for overclockers, who spend thousands of dollars a month on computer parts, the real prize is the bragging rights.
© 2008 Sydney Morning Herald
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