I’ve been building computers longer than I will ever admit to, but it wasn’t until about one year ago that I discovered the wonders and joys of OVERCLOCKING!!!! Quite by accident as it was….

While upgrading the graphics card in our “family” computer, I decided a good cleaning was in order. When I pulled the CPU HSF off, there was no CPU in the socket!!! AHHHHHH.. I screamed (not really, but the drama is good). Slowly I turned… the HSF over…. only to find the CPU stuck to the bottom of it, all it’s little pins bent from being pulled through the lock down device…. sob. FREAKED out, I was. Wife due home soon, she was. DEAD I was… soooooo, I scrambled to the nearest MicroCenter and put about $2300 on my AMEX and raced home to start assembling a new machine… maybe she wouldn’t notice?? hahahahaha

That rig turned out to be my first gaming rig. Based on a nVidia 780i, and Intel Q9450, 8Gigs of Corsair Dominator Ram, SLI XFX 9800GTX+, a huge HSF, and at least a dozen blue 120mm fans…. awesome dude! Also turned out to be my last blue themed rig?? (ps – I ended up buying a used Pentium and sticking it back into our “family” machine for her to use lol)

Got that bad boy up to around 3.6Ghz and my UT3 count was climbing. Then, Intel released the Core i7 processors and I was drawn like a moth to the flame. Consumed by the desire to build the ultimate rig I’ve gone where no (sane) man has gone before. From the infamous “Battlestar”, to the “Duelling Banchettos”. From the 775 socket to the socket 1366, from ASUS Rampage II Extreme to eVGA Classifieds, from water cooling to Phase Change I’ve evolved from a wannabe to a be ??huh?? 920D0, 965, 975, got one of each (only two rigs though???… note to self, build another rig)…I can see my NBOC brothers shaking their heads right now!

Soon the six core multithreaders will be out – 12 frickin virtual cores man!!!! I mean like WOW MAN!!! At least one of those unlocked versions WILL find its way to the socket in my Classified 759 mobo to be frozen into overclocking nirvana ….far f’n out man. Maybe one for my Classified 769 too ??? hmmmm… Anyway, that’s a brief look at the Maad me.

I’ll put up more on the rigs and my Maad theory behind their designs sometime soon (hints: the wc’d Banchetto boots at 4.6Ghz (with or w/o HT enabled) while the phased one boots at 4.8Ghz+.

Keep on clocking

I thought I would kick this off by showing in chronological order my overclocking experiences and hardware collection from the beginning. Let’s get started…

This DD WaterBox is where my OCing ventures began in earnest. What an ordeal! It was a pita to put together and to be candid, was the catalyst for my future “caseless” builds. It sure was flashy and it did produce results, but it was like performing open heart surgery just to swap out a video card. On a positive note, the results and my determination led to some recognition and an invite to join the NBOC Hwbot team where I reside to this day. At the time it held a Evga Vanilla X58 and a Intel 920 CO.

Wind tunnel cooling…

From there I progressed to my first true bench rig.

Oooh baby! Thought I was really high teching now! Check out the “custom” chiller set-up I have going on…

The above was a much needed improvement but I was on a quest now. It led to the incarnation of the “DoubleDoowieGigantunourmousTortureRack”. I designed a little chilled water set-up that I thought was the cat’s meow. I was bringing a cooler of ice home every evening.

Well, you know how it goes…always looking for that majic bullet. Finally bit it and had sdumper build me a SS phase unit. Made a huge difference in my daily bench sessions (no more ice to deal with or water to dispose of after every bench). Upgraded to a Classified mb and a PC Power & Cooling 1200w psu while I was at it. With the addition of a 965XE/950 DO/920 DO selection of chips, this is where the bench rig is at the moment.

I was in a hurry to get it up and running so I used a cardboard “Cuisinart” box to set the phase unit on. It was aptly named the “Cuisinart” by fellow NBOC members.

We all got a laugh out of this when I pointed it out…

Alas, the cardboard Cuisinart could not stand up to the pressure and I was forced to build another base. She will be sadly missed…

A recent addition to the family is this dedicated game rig just completed. It holds the original Vanilla X58 mb, a 965 cpu and two Zotac 8800 GT’s.

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You knew I could’nt resist benching it at least once…

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Currently testing a Evga X58 LE mb which will become my 24/7 pc.

Been toying with AMD here lately after many years absence…

Note to self…insulate – insulate – insulate

And I really need to get my butt in gear for this…