OCN: Please tell us more about yourself.
ira-k: Retired woodworker, I fill in my free time hunting, fishing and playing with OC'ing and cooling gear.
OCN: If you could describe yourself in one word, what would it be?
ira-k: Happy...But if I could say it in three words it would be “Fat And Happy”
OCN: How and when did you start overclocking?
ira-k: I started playing with slot A's, occasionally, most of my time was spent working back then. Started getting into it a little more seriously with s/754 and have been doing it a lot since then.
OCN: Where does your overclocking knowledge come from?
ira-k: I had friends who were into OC'ing and extreme cooling since around 2000, a lot of my knowledge comes from them; Then my own OC'ing runs and a lot of research. Research on your chip and mobo is important and should be the first thing you do, but nothing will teach you how to OC any better then 40 and 50 boot nights, after a few hundred nights like that you kind of start getting a knack for it. If your not willing to put the time into it you'll never learn how to OC, there is no short cut, every rig is unique and no two will OC the same. You have to be willing to put in enough time with each rig to learn its quirks, its likes and dislikes.
OCN: What are some of your favorite benchmarks?
ira-k: Only two, CPU-Z and SPI-1M.
OCN: What is your current bench setup?
ira-k: 437W TEC, E8600, DFI DK P35 and various sets of ram, Team Extreme, Cell Shock ..etc..I have a actively cooled, sealed 5 gallon bucket res for my TEC loop. I have a 3/4” inlet TEC blocks with two 1/2” outs, its fed directly from a Iwaki WMD 20RZ pump. I use a 480GTX with 8-115cfm Pana in a push-pull on shrouds for my TEC loop. My secondary res cooling loop consists of a 18W orange impeller DDC with a 240 BIX with 2-108cfm Sunon in pull. I have a 10,000 BTU window AC that blows over my mobo. I'm setting up a 158W NB TEC right now, that will be cooled with a 10W DDC and a 120BIP+a Chevette core or a D-5 vario with a Chevette core.
OCN: What types of cooling do you use, or have used in the past?
ira-k: Water, TEC and I have played around with dry ice on my friends rig, I have just recently received my DICE/LN2 pot in the mail.
OCN: What would you consider as your best overclocking achievement(s)?
ira-k: All the times that I have been on the edge of my chair with my fingers crossed just praying to hit desktop and get a CPU-Z so people will believe me, anytime I can make it to desk-top with a hot OC like that I consider it a achievement, to myself at least. The last 50-100Mhz that I can get from a chip with my cooling solution are the most rewarding to me.
