Yesterday in an interesting conversation with Wordbiker about overclocking, I came to rest on one question. Before I tell you what the question was I want to make my comment first.

Men on average are more about pushing limits than women. This applies to many things, and is not a wide sweeping statement, but an general overview. For example and one that is used frequently with men and computers, let's use cars.

Men typically like fast, showy, powerful, tweaked out cars. Whereas women are usually more for the looks, cost, gas mileage and pretty much stock. Again this is in general terms.

So when it comes to PCs men will be more likely to OC much more than a woman. Take me for example. I have never OCed anything on any computer I have owned. For practical reasons, as well as for the simple fact of why would I? If my PC performs all the things I want it to well, then I can't find the reason for doing the OC. The risk is not worth the possible gain, or loss.

Is OCing just another case of men comparing things to see whose is bigger and better? Who can push their gear the farthest? Bragging rights? Can someone please explain this too me?

So here is the question (finally):
Are men more likely to OC than women, and why?

Maybe someone can make me an OC convert.

Yes. I think women will just think things are fine the way they are. The car does not need a supercharger nor does the CPU need overclock. Ofcourse, some women and different and some men aren't this way either.

Some of the appeal is in getting $800 worth of processor performance for $200. I guess it's like getting a genuine Prada bag for $50 by knowing when and where to shop (though I'm not looking for a man-bag at the moment ). It's an achievement gained through the skillful application of knowlege and patience. And that feels good.

Buying the cheaper version and making it seem like it's worth more is great fun, also just bragging to lamers who work at computer stores when they think they know it all like yesterday when a guy at Comp USA asked if my machine was fast enough to play FEAR before I bought it.l0l0l0l0l
Somtimes I may need a little help to get my OC up though .

Leave it to FF and NoSlak to add a dimension to this I never thought of...

Oh and NoSlak, finally someone else who likes to toy with the numbskulls at CompUSA! I especially like to pull the chain of the "GeekSquad".

OCing the lower end item to a high end does make for quite the challenge.

On another note, do people "cheat" on the OC benchmarks? Is there a way to do that? Would the OS make any difference in how the benchmark run?

well..this is one interesting thread.
Being a man, i dont always like to take stuff to the extreme. Some do, but some dont. But i do have a 600HP car to play around with.......and i did stay up late quite a few nights trying to overclock higher and higher...

so in conclusion....yes i think men do try to "push it harder" that women.....lol

Because more is better. It's in our jeans...genes. Freudian slip.

So you guys are saying it's a man thing then? When you OC do you see a significant difference in how your PC operates? If so then is it just in the gaming aspect, or in other areas?

Can you cheat on the benchmarks though?

Quote: Originally Posted by Foe So you guys are saying it's a man thing then? When you OC do you see a significant difference in how your PC operates? If so then is it just in the gaming aspect, or in other areas? Can you cheat on the benchmarks though?

i wouldnt call it "cheating" as much as i would call them "tips and tricks"

theres a few things you can do...

Quote: Originally Posted by Foe So you guys are saying it's a man thing then? When you OC do you see a significant difference in how your PC operates? If so then is it just in the gaming aspect, or in other areas? Can you cheat on the benchmarks though?

Yea Its possible to cheat, Its called Photoshop.

Using knowledge that another may not have to gain an edge isn't cheating. Photoshop is.

Quote: Originally Posted by Nerdz Yea Its possible to cheat, Its called Photoshop.

i have seen so many people with tempered 3DMARK print screens is not even funny ....
just last week some lame-o over a certain "european" forum was trying to pass his rig with a near 10k score when in fact the actual results were half that ..... even a validation screen can be faked ....
so yeah, the best OC tool nowadays seems to be Photoshop ....
so wait .... i guess i just figured something else ..... oc IS about showing off things that we dont have ...
(like buying a 3.0 prescott and pushing it so that it looks like a 3.6 ..... )
i know looooooots of girls who do this ALL THE TIME ..... (with clothes, make up, and such) so as you see OverClocking is not a guy-only thing ....

I know people can fudge the numbers with Photoshop, and using things to make your PC perform better in the benching process is just smart. What I am asking is there a way to fool (for lack of a better word), the software so the numbers increase?

Quote: Originally Posted by Foe I know people can fudge the numbers with Photoshop, and using things to make your PC perform better in the benching process is just smart. What I am asking is there a way to fool (for lack of a better word), the software so the numbers increase?

like i said before--more tricks than cheating.

first of all---make sure its a fresh format----with no updates. hopefully your windows disk already has SP2 on it....

get all drivers installed up to date

make sure you defrag.

set your windows settings to "performance" right click my computer, click the advanced tab, and change the performance level to "performance"

make sure you have no background pic. also nothing on your desktop...

you can kinda cheat by setting your video card settings to force performance i.e force no AA and no AF. its different between ATI and Nvidia. Lots of settings you can force here...

and this is just a few...

.... not to mention
- turning off services the drivers might have installed
- ending tasks that are unecessary .... (avg. of 10-12 running background tasks)
kinda like the "Safe-mode" but in regular mode
- (if XP) turn off visual styles (a complement to the "perfomance" settings metioned avobe)

all this does add up to a good "honest" high score

See that is what I am talking about.

So you're not really benching your system as it is normally used, but altering it to achieve bigger numbers. How is that anything close to real world numbers? Besides who are you fooling? Certainly not the system or yourself.

OCing for higher numbers is good honest work to get more, better and faster. But turning off services, and wallpaper? What is the point? Once you turn all that back on and go to game or really tax your PC it is not doing what you just benched it at, is it? Or am I missing some point? Help

I OC mostly for the games, exhibit A; I have an old sk00l system, Mobile 2500 and AGP BFG 6800 Ultra both on water.
Now I love gaming but gaming with all the bells and whistles on and a nice framerate, I went and bought FEAR yesterday and once I got home before installation I got on MSN with Necro and jacked up my video card and more FSB on my mobile so that I am now running FEAR on maximum settings( RAID 0 Raptors and a gig and a half of BH-5 help too !!!) BF2 runs smooth as silk with no video lag, I am going to wrench everything I can out of this system until I can't run games at full tilt no more.

benchmarks are all about go as fast as you can go. in drag racing this means remove the back seat if nessesary. even the spare tire!!! anything to go faster..

so why not "lighten the load" on your computer when you run a benchmark. its not cheating. no where in the rules does it say you have to run it as you would on a daily basis.....

Quote: Originally Posted by NoSlak I OC mostly for the games, exhibit A; I have an old sk00l system, Mobile 2500 and AGP BFG 6800 Ultra both on water. Now I love gaming but gaming with all the bells and whistles on and a nice framerate, I went and bought FEAR yesterday and once I got home before installation I got on MSN with Necro and jacked up my video card and more FSB on my mobile so that I am now running FEAR on maximum settings( RAID 0 Raptors and a gig and a half of BH-5 help too !!!) BF2 runs smooth as silk with no video lag, I am going to wrench everything I can out of this system until I can't run games at full tilt no more.

I want to grow up and be like NoSlak! I love me some dang gaming with everything turned on that is possible. If my games came with a water purifier I would have that on too!

One question though Slakmeister, do you bench your PC?


LwrS10
That is a good point also, but I really think benchmarking is one of those things created for men, by men.

Good thread. I had an AMD system that I OC'd the FSB, Memory, and AGP voltages and frequencies. Then I flashed my 9800Pro 256/256 to XT, then OC'd that. I did notice that I got better game play then stock voltages and speeds. The only problems are that with the increased heat of the components of the system, the lifetime of that gear is then truncated.

My "new" box is not OC'd except for a flashed video card. I benchmarked the machine and was a tad disappointed in the scores. They were easily double what my AMD box was, but I expected more. But... I'm not going to OC this box, no need to considering that the games I play look freaking tremendous without it.

As far as Guys -vs- Gals and OC'ing.... I think it depends on the folks and what they are in to. Typically, I'd say though, that Guys are more apt to do it because as stated earlier, bigger/faster/stronger/tweakier.....