TheOverclocker Issue 36 | Page 7

towards. I think the more 3d benches with points the better. Between 3D benchmarks and the more CPU/memory focused ones such as XTU and SuperPi, GeekBench etc., which ones are you partial to? I really love 3d benchmarks the most. It’s what I started on and it’s all I did on water cooling before trying ln2. When I first started ln2 I was only freezing the gpu and keeping the cpu on water. A little backwards compared to how most people start but I love 3d and gpu’s. But now that I love ln2 I do the cpu benches also just because I like any kind of benching. Also with 2d you can usually use less ln2 and stretch it out a bit more which means more fun. I guess I just enjoy any type of overclocking really. How much of overclocking do you think is finding the right hardware (binning) and how much is skill? I would say it’s mostly a balance between the 2. Even if you find a great cpu, if you don’t have any skill than you won’t be able to max out the clocks. Just because a cpu is capable of a crazy speed doesn’t mean the overclocker will be able to get that speed out of it. Also if you have crazy good skills and have a terrible cpu your skill will not be able to overcome the bad cpu. So to me it’s definitely a balance. Usually just using ln2 it will be pretty easy to get to a certain speed, but it’s those last mhz that really take the skill and separate the top benhcers. What is your single greatest or most memorable overclocking event and/ or achievement? Honestly my first time overclocking on ln2 and hitting 1850mhz core clock has really stuck with me and I still smile when I think about it. I was also really proud of myself when I broke into the top 100 of the extreme league. It took a lot of work and dedication to get there. A couple weeks ago I also hit #2 ranking on the OCN team rankings which was cool, now I’m third. It really felt great because the team is full of a lot of great overclockers. Also when I booted up my first zombie mod that felt amazing. I never thought I would be able to do it. I used to see people benching with them and I would get so discouraged thinking it was impossible for me. I finally got a hold of an epower and gave it a shot. I tested the card on ln2 and hit 1215mhz core which is the 2nd or 3rd highest core clock ever submitted for that gpu. I was really proud of myself. The problem is the card has quimonda memory and the memory does close to 300mhz less than other top cards so it really hurts my score. I’m going to try the card with Samsung memory soon with an asus power board I got a hold off. Overclocking as an eSports. Do you agree that this can be fun to watch live with an audience? This is a tough question. I think it would need some changes to become fun to watch live. Maybe adding random hardware and time limited rounds could make it fun to watch. Right now it is a little boring to watch Issue 36 | 2015 The OverClocker 7