Looking for a paid overclocking mentor

[DraxDomax]

I've always been interested in building computers (since 1994) - never had the money to really do much but now that I am an adult, I have a bit of disposable income.
Back in 2019 - right before the chip shortage, inflation and other insanities - I built me a decent gaming PC.
When planning my PC, I went for overclockable components - but I've never done any overclocking, ever!

In my 30 years of computing, including some education in electronics engineering, I always saw overclocking as a very shifty field, with new terms and tools popping up every year, making the old stuff and old knowledge kinda useless.

Now, I have so much anxiety about this topic that I am scared to approach it. It all feels like I am not starting at the right place.

During my career as a software engineer (not a very good one, LOL), I've sometimes been able to find people who would teach me against money for their time.
It worked out great!
I can refer you to my other mentors to attest that I am a great dude to be spending time with and very respectful of the business relationship between the mentor and the student.

So, if you are a very experienced overclocker who knows his stuff through and through, and you have a mentor/buddy attitude - why don't you contact me in PM and we could set up something?

I know people are weirded out by atypical requests - but keep an open mind Hopefully the mods don't get scared by this topic and if they do - sorry if I've done something I shouldn't have.

PS: Just to emphasize, I can't really study from static resources (online sites, books) because of so much anxiety built up - I just want to chat about overclocking with someone!
PS2: I realise this isn't going to be cost-efficient to me. Maybe I'll get like 5% boost on my 2019 hardware after 6 lessons, LOL - but it's not about making savings here, it's about learning, developing my hobby, getting into things and having fun

 

[Brian Boru]

Hopefully the mods don't get scared by this topic

Aaarghh! Help!!

Mods will be fine, we cuddle together regularly for comfort. It's company policy which is the thing, so we'll take a peek at that and let you know—but no worries either way, and thanks for asking

On your topic—why do you want to overclock?

I've built PCs since '99, and I always purposely avoid overclockable components when it saves money or heat. Performance boost is typically marginal, and it takes a lot of foostering around and testing to find out how far you can push the overclock before your PC becomes unstable.

I say this just in case you think OC is something wonderful you're missing out on—it's not. But if it's a learning exercise or new hobby, then of course K yourself O and best of luck with it

 

[DraxDomax]

Aaarghh! Help!!

Mods will be fine, we cuddle together regularly for comfort. It's company policy which is the thing, so we'll take a peek at that and let you know—but no worries either way, and thanks for asking

On your topic—why do you want to overclock?

I've built PCs since '99, and I always purposely avoid overclockable components when it saves money or heat. Performance boost is typically marginal, and it takes a lot of foostering around and testing to find out how far you can push the overclock before your PC becomes unstable.

I say this just in case you think OC is something wonderful you're missing out on—it's not. But if it's a learning exercise or new hobby, then of course K yourself O and best of luck with it

Yeah, as I said in PS2 (I know my initial post was a bit long but I really have so much to say!), I realise it's barely a few % boost.

It's just super interesting!

I actually started as an electronics engineer. I worked on some Motorolla 68000 systems, made my own computer based on that chip (so, I actually built my own CPU clock!) ... But then I had to pivot into software engineering, as it's so much easier to make a decent living in it without being super good (which I am not).

 

[DraxDomax]

Plus, there's my wifey's gaming PC which could really use a once-over, since it was built during the peak of GPU shortage and we used whatever we could buy that's not totally insane.

And I plan to build another system next year....

So, there will be some economies of scale and, in the many years that I plan to be doing this, getting a good and happy start is going to be worth it

 

[COLGeek]

I suggest you start a thread on our sibling site:

Overclocking

forums.tomshardware.com

Lots of free, quality help to be had there. Be sure to provide the specs (make/model of all installed components) when you post your questions.

There is also a VERY active systems section to help with upgrades and new builds.

Systems

forums.tomshardware.com

 

[JuanMcCord]

While I'm not able to offer personal mentoring services, there are plenty of online resources and communities that could be helpful to you.