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Kings of the Overclockers - a Gautam interview

Kings of the Overclockers - a Gautam interview

Another "king of the overclockers" has been forced into the comfy chair and thoroughly questioned! This time it's Gautam in the spotlight, and his answers are certainly entertaining but thoughtful. So if you've ever wondered how the folks who freeze their CPUs on dry ice to reach silly GHz numbers, then read on!

General Questions to start things off

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YouGamers: Let's start this off with some background info - a little bit about yourself. What's your name (or nick, or both), what forums do you frequent, where are you located (physically, not virtually), what do you do to pay the bills in Real Life? Do you have an affiliation with any manufacturers that you'd like to disclose here? Give as much information as you're comfortable revealing, and feel free to throw in more tidbits.

Gautam: My real name is Gautam Bhatnagar, and lucky for me, it's rare enough to also be my alias on most forums. I frequent OCForums.com and XtremeSystems.org most often. I don't have any manufacturer affiliations. All my goodies are bought and paid for, and most are retail. I'm currently a student, but I work full time during the summer which allows me to keep up with this hobby. Currently I'm doing wireless software development for SuperPages.com. Nothing special, but I can't complain about it in the slightest, the pay as well. :)

YG: The first piece of hardware I overclocked was a RivaTNT2 card, and I learned the hard way that overclocked hardware needs better cooling. How long have you been overclocking computer hardware?

G: About 2001. AMD Athlon T-Bird 950 [Thunderbird 950MHz] and NVIDIA GeForce 2 GTS.

YG: I was bit by the benchmarking bug when MadOnion (now FutureMark) released Final Reality. How long have you been benchmarking?

G: Since I was only in high school when I started overclocking, I had a lot more time than money. Before I picked a system out, I read overclocking forums very heavily. I saw the top scores on MadOnion's Hall of Fame and knew that's where I wanted to end up eventually. So, in a way, I somehow was pretty set on becoming competitive even when I began overclocking altogether. My budget controlled my hardware very much, of course, and this was a good thing. It let me progress slowly and learn as I upgraded cooling and everything else.

YG: Benchmarking was destined to be competitive. When did benchmarking first become a competitive experience for you?

G: I actually got into overclocking thanks to 3DMark2001 SE. It started out with me getting very low scores because I was using bad drivers. Then once I fixed that, I started wanting to figure out to get my scores still higher, so I tried overclocking with the stuff I had on hand.

YG: What got you started with overclocking? Was it a desire to get more value out of hardware, a challenge to push hardware to the limit, or sheer curiosity?

G: The fact that it's HARD to get a really good score. :-) That, and it's really fun. I'm a competitive guy by nature in nearly everything I do, and I bet if you ask anyone else on the Hall of Fame, they'd say the same.

YG: Everyone gets a little help along the way, and the overclocking community tends to be very open with information sharing. Who do you have to thank for showing you the ropes with regards to overclocking and benchmarking?

G: I've way too many people to thank from over the years. The biggest influences for me were d]g[ts from OCForums, who at the time was in the top 10 in 3DMark2001 SE, and later OC-Rookie from XtremeResources.com who was in second place in 3DMark2001 and 3DMark03 at the time. Both of these big guns were ready to sit down and help a teenager with stupid soldering questions and the like. I really need to tip my hat to them. mikeguava from OCForums and XS has always been very enthusiastic in assisting me. He showed me the ropes the first time I used dry ice cooling, and even gave his container to me.

El<(')>Maxi (aka G H Z) and Joe Camel from OCF also have to be mentioned. I started really getting to know them once we all became benchmark freaks but they're among my closest friends in this biz and have helped me in too many ways to count amidst our friendly rivalry. And last but certainly not least, my greatest teacher right now while I've been clawing my way up is none other than the legendary k|ngp|n. When you're benching with liquid nitrogen, there's no tech support number for you to call. K|ngp|n has been just that for me. An even better friend than he is a bencher, his endless assistance and encouragement is what has put me where am I now, and there is no way I can thank him enough, except for putting up the biggest numbers I can, of course. :)

YG: I've got a closet full of dead hardware that's been sacrificed to the overclocking gods. What's your most memorable hardware failure as a result of overclocking?

G: Oh, sheesh, where to begin? I must have killed around as many motherboards as I have fingers and toes. I don't like thinking about the deaths. My successes are what are most memorable to me.

YG: Benchmarking is a world of bragging rights and high scores. What accomplishment(s) are you most proud of?

G: I'm proud of a bench round I made last summer using two [ATI] Radeon X1900's in CrossFire that put me in the top 5 Hall of Fame for the first time, three times over. That session was the deal-breaker for me. I had lost a lot of hardware before that and was very close to quitting completely. My confidence got dramatically restored by succeeding and its what pushed me into moving up to the most aggressive forms of cooling possible. I'm also relatively happy with my current #4 3DMark05 score, but I'm not finished with it yet.

YG: This can be a time-consuming hobby. How much time do you devote to benchmarking?

G: Easily 2-3 hours a day on weekdays and a good 10 hours at the very least on weekends. Nearly every moment that some other part of reality isn't dragging me away.

YG: I once overclocked the Saturn processor in an HP48GX calculator. What's the most eclectic piece of hardware you've overclocked?

G: I don't think I've overclocked anything eclectic. I love PDAs and tiny laptops, but I don't believe much in overclocking them.

Page 1: Introduction and General QuestionsPage 2: Software QuestionsPage 3: Hardware Questions & Final Thoughts

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