Overclocking = Science, Art or Craft?

[xsnv]

Your first and last points: I said people would be "naturally" better than others. The only reason some people are better is because they have access to better hardware, have more experience or know more (technically) about the hardware. Overclocking is something you definitely can't be talented at. You just have to pay your dues. You don't see any boy wonder overclockers now do you.

As for the degrees in thermo etc....i didn't mean that specifally. What i meant was you would need to understand the theory behind the interaction between cooling and the funtionality of of the harware. For example: Why EXACTLY do cooler processors run at higher speeds, ? What is the quantitative relationship between temperature and performance, what is the rate of heat dissapation at various fan speeds / distances etc How many overclockers actually do that? My point is a plumber dosen't need to understand newtons second law to create pipe bends...thats why it's a craft and not a science..

Overclocking is mostly hit and miss and with experience you know which situations are more likely to hit....


EDIT: As a side note ....the dudes over at amd, ati, ibm etc that actually design these chips need to know these things and thats why they wear the white coats...

 

[Jokester]

To me overclocking is no different to tuning a car engine, is car mechanics an art, science or craft?

I class it as a craft. A knowledge of the science behind both is helpful, but you don't need to know the scientific in and outs.

Art only comes into it if you're case modding or doing something that adds a personal touch.

Jokester

 

[Jimbo Mahoney]

Craft.

Some people choose to make it more of a science (rather than the 'lower numbers must mean it's faster!' crowd )

Some people choose to make it more of an art (crazy case mods).

 

[BubbySoup]

I'd say craft.

It can't be an art as there are no naturally "talented" overclockers per se, just people with a lot of time & money who have this as an interest. A lot of the members of this forum, given the time, resources and money could be as "talented" as the infamous overclockers over at Xtreme etc.

And it's definitely not a science. You would need to know "how & why" for it to be a science. Someone with the right software installed on their PC can get a slight overclock going without any real clue as to what is going on behind the scenes.

 

[sja360]

have to say calling it a art/science or craft is pretty weird, however i do think its a better idea than putting on your cv - able to overclock components.
i cant actually see the benefit to putting that on your cv tbh. i mean your highly unlikely to go into a job where they overclock the components.